Today I had the pleasure of stocking my freezer full of freshly butchered pork. Not only that, but it was smoked, prepared, packaged and labelled so beautifully. At a really lovely price, as well. I was VERY happy to be on the receiving end of such an incredible gift and haul!!!

Meanwhile, to make room for my aforementioned porky present, I pulled out a few things for supper. Some old bags of hash brown patties that I bought for grilling at camp that never happened, and some breakfast sausage. I made these things, along with eggs, for supper, and the whole thing was dairy free!!! Without even trying!!! 😎

Ok I tried a little. Couldn’t fry the eggs in butter like I’d like, and the sausage was still in the pan when I was ready for eggs, so I couldn’t use that either. Settled for margarine. I know, no ones favorite. And no cheese in the eggs, but maybe the nutritional yeast cancels out the crap in the margarine 😅 Who knows. I’m still learning. But I feel extra capable knowing that breakfast for supper is going to be a pretty straight forward dairy-free meal.

I’ll stop talking about all of this stuff someday soon, but it still makes me feel accomplished to find wins along the way. Now to chase down all the baking ingredients I’m going to need to use for dairy-free Christmas baking without making things taste worse…

Remember that time when I was SO scared of cooking? While I’m still not exactly the most confident chef, I do ok, and am better in the kitchen than I was. I think thats a pretty accurate way to say it.

Which is REALLY handy because food is tricky over here these days!

Firstly, I have Brady, whose mouth gives him a lot of trouble, thanks to cancer treatments targeting his C-spine, and catching his mouth and throat in the crosshairs. Most meat hurts, and most seasonings hurt. This isn’t new, though, so I understand him pretty well and know what he can have.

Secondly, we have a toddler who is rocking a total dairy elimination diet right now. Which is HARD. Down to the “may contain” part of the label, we are avoiding ALL dairy at ALL costs. So, to name the obvious ones for cooking suppers, thats milk, cheese, butter, and lots of our favorite seasonings.

So. Brady can manage the caramelized onion butter seasoning. But the kid can’t, because butter. Kid could have dill pickle seasoning, but Brady can’t manage the zingy flavor.

Hence why I think I need to start cooking sheet pan meals in loaf pans 🤣

Sausage is a no-go for Brady right now, which I knew going into it, but everyone else eats it so we still have it.

I usually cook broccoli with garlic powder and parmesam cheese. Today, to save Brady, I decided to just put on parm. Of course, I realized too late that thats CHEESE! 🙄 Thankfully it was frozen broccoli that was still nice and frozen, so I rinsed it off and put garlic on the little batch, and parm on the rest for the rest of us.

And then potatoes are SO much better seasoned. So I put on simply “the blend” of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, but I made an “in case” batch with just a light salt in case Bradys mouth reacted.

This was an annoying way to cook, but I can confirm that it was actually super helpful and I will ABSOLUTELY use this method again!

Added bonus – Brady could totally handle the potatoes with the seasoning! Fun surprise! You never know when things will and won’t work, and today was a good day for food for him 💜 Yay!

Ok! Munchie Mix actually gave in to sleep earlier this evening, so I’m going to be done blogging and tuck in early!

Thanks for following along with our fam, guys. It means a lot to me.

We watched a movie this afternoon. This is not at all a common occurrence for family, but rather than a movie night where the toddlers are all over the place, breaking down before bed, we decided to watch one during nap time. The others definitely earned it yesterday, but we all agreed that maybe Saturday afternoon would be even nicer. So we did it.

We watch The Rescuers. This was an easy favorite for me growing up. I’m sure my children can now confirm as much, considering how much I quoted of it. Yes. I did an annoying thing on purpose. The kids do annoying things on purpose all the time 😏 So I felt justified.

If you’ve seen it, you know its charm. Its a GREAT movie. Plus it has a sequel that is also really, really good.

These movies would not be great for kids with abandonment trauma, because WOW is that ever a theme! “What kind of person would ever want a homely little girl like you?” 😳😬 Stuff like that.

Also, the hillbilly uncle in the white nightie is a raging alcoholic 🤣 He brought some great laughs, but man its funny what we don’t see growing up, watching these movies!

Anyway. It was a really peaceful time, watching an old favorite cartoon with the kids 💜 A nice way to spend time on a Saturday.

Our five day weekend was kicked off with a fresh layer of snow on the ground. Some were more excited about it than others, Wavy most of all.

It took a while but she did eventually convince Solly to join her outside.

Besides some outside play, we did some work in the house, and the kids played SO attentively to the babies for a while, leaving me real room to get some work day. These days, our babes are VERY attached to me, which is incredible, mind you, but restricting sometimes 😅 Every job I do, LD and Spoons are underfoot, or asking to be held, or crying while following after me. Its adorable, and I absolutely do my fair share of sitting down and loving on them really good 💜 But sometimes, when work has to get done, they cry, and its slow going. And today, it didn’t have to be. I was SO grateful for that 💜

Supper wasn’t special. Though, our one trialling that dairy free life got fried eggs and hashbrowns. I am not a mom that cooks different suppers for different kids, but we are in that boat right now, for at least a while, and I am not a fan 🤣

Ok. Munchie Mix needs me. Don’t mind me while I pop in an ear bud and watch a little true crime while the baby dozes in my arms.

Happy weekend everybody. ✌️🥱

Today was really nice, and really heavy.

Lots of waiting. Limbo. Unresolved waiting.

But there was also close bestie time with Cher. Crocheting. Eating Stranger Things eggos for lunch while also watching Stranger Things. Christmas shopping online. A phone call with my mom. Toddlers who are attached to me. Piano being practiced after school by all three players.

There is SO much to be thankful for. ALWAYS. Even in the midst of uncertainty! I’m very grateful for the life we lead.

Ok. Time to shut this place down 💜 Goodnight, all.

It feels like we’ve truly made it 😅 Our kid is old enough for Take Your Kid to Work Day!!!

This morning, my oldest men got up early and left for work together.

They’re a cute pair, it cannot be denied!

Now, I wasn’t there, but what I can tell you is that Dekker didn’t last long in the office before he got into the physical grunt work. The store manager got him set up with some goals, and if you know Dekker, you know he didn’t question much and just dove in. He is a GREAT worker. A very hard worker. Just like his dad 💜

They hit Firehouse for lunch – a first for both of them.

‘Twas enormous.

And then back to work. Dekker cleaned up in the greenhouse and got a ton of summer things moved and stored for the winter. He worked his butt off all afternoon!

The before and after!

He brought in the entire right side of the above picture in the afternoon. Amazing, hey??

Dekker was super stoked, and also SO TIRED when they got home! 😅 He had a really, really good time!

So if you see this dude floating around and you need some muscles, he’s your man. Put him to work.

But not tonight. Tonight, he is too tired 🥱

We have lots of goings on over here. Thats no secret. Brady being paralyzed is a big thing. Fostering is another. Cancer treatments and social worker meetings. There are lots of things the kids are exposed to that are different than “normal.” People will often encourage me and say the kids are doing SO well considering all they’re going through. And its true, and its nice, but also, those things are added to what everyone else goes through on the daily. The normal stuff.

So these days, things are extra challenging over here. Not in terms of Brady, or the babies. But the kids are in hard stages. They have their own things going, but with some rollover where they are all on the same crappy page. I LOVE my children. But I also can get why some moms want to run away and hide sometimes 😅

I don’t desire to gripe about my children or air out dirty laundry but it is indeed hard times over here. Normal times. But hard ones. So please give us grace, and pray for us if we come to mind. Just, for peace, and learning. Leading and guidance. Let our family stay well united with Christ and with one another.

I know its too soon. Don’t come for me. But also, we listened to Christmas music on the way to and from Kinasao on the weekend.

I know its still a good handful of weeks away but I am grossly unprepared considering where I’d like to be. Its not my favorite feeling, though I do believe I will catch up.

Usually at this point I have a great gift list going already for all the kids, and I have hardly put thought into it. Conveniently, gifts aren’t the point. But they’re still fun and obviously a total highlight. Hopefully I can get there soon.

Also at this point, I like to have the whole message written for our Christmas card, and indeed, I do not have that locked and/or loaded whatsoever.

I have one or two things organized ahead of time, which feels good, but its a drop in the bucket. Even with a very simple Christmas, if there are lots of people, it becomes large. Not complaining at all! Just, perspective. It can get intense. Though, apparently, not as intense as other things…

There is time. ALL the deep breaths.

It has been a pretty enormous weekend, so today, we rested 💜 We got up slow. Told the kids the plan. I took a rest in our room and crocheted by myself for a little. Everyone put away everything that got messy coming home from camp yesterday and Halloween the day before. Kids bathed. Piano players practiced. And not much else was on the books. We did some laundry, but that was it.

My mom came and visited in the afternoon. She brought supper, which was so lovely. We caught up well, considering she had been away from most of October. It was lovely to be together, even though our household was tired and cranky.

Tomorrow begins a new school/work week. It doesn’t appear to be too crazy of one, but things always come up 🤣 So we’ll take some rests as we can and keep on trucking!

Spoons says “truck” really well. But also, “couch.” Maybe I’m feeling more couch than truck this week…

We spent the day up at camp, putting up lights in preparation for our Christmas Twinkle Tour! I won’t lie, though. The best part was spending time with our dear Dahlsjos. The Bornsjos officially reunite!

I miss these guys 💜 We are SO fortunate to know them and love them.

Today was a very long day, and this will be a short post. But take my word for it that 1. The Dahlsjos are amazing, and 2. The Christmas light tour will be worth the drive 💜

Sleep well, all!