Every evening, our family gathers in the living room to say bedtime prayers together. They kids all pray, give hugs, and then Brady and I pray for them individually when we tuck them in. Its just out system. As it goes, almost every night, we each had a kid in our lap. Mine is almost always Rowan. Laela and Wavy usually alternate with Brady. Dekker likes to sit on his own. And Solly usually prefers to curl up in a blanket on a couch. When he does choose to snuggle, he just wants to lay on you, but not for anyone to actually have a hand on him.
Yesterday, right before it was time to start getting ready for bedtime stuff, both Solly and Rowan climbed onto me in the recliner. This never happens.
It doesn’t look like a lot, but it was a pretty precious moment for me. These two boys don’t do a whole lot together. They don’t pair off naturally. But this was SUCH a soft snuggle. You can even see Rowan’s arm over Sollys back. And no one was fighting the affection or closeness. It was very very nice.
Once everything was tidied and it was time to pray together, the boys both came to me again and we had a group snug on the chair while we prayed.
My middle boys, I call them. My middlest, and my little middle. They were very cute together yesterday, and I don’t want to forget that 💜
This is obviously not a serious post. We’ve had some good laughs renaming our children, so hopefully you find some of this funny, too 🙂
Dekker is now Derek. Because it’s almost the same. Cher calls Dekker’s name “inside-out Derek” and she’s not wrong.
Laela is Karla. She is Karla because autocorrect positively refuses to learn how to spell her name properly. Further alternatives include Kayla and Lyla.
Rowan has rebranded as Ryan. Or, Ro has rebranded to Ry. However you want to look at it. It works! Also acceptable would be Roman, Ronan, and Ren.
The name of kid #4 is tricky. It depends on what you call him originally. Solomon is renamed Sullivan, which was actually a contender when I was pregnant with him. Solly is renamed as Sally. Lol! And Sol would be Paul.
Waverly is changed to Beverly, because in my mind, Beverly = Everly = Waverly. It seemed like the logical choice.
We hope you still like our family, even in the midst of the changes of identity. 🤣 Don’t worry, contact info hasn’t changed!
Sincerely,
Bradley & Kailey, Derek, Karla, Ryan, Paul, and Bev.
PS: If you happen to rebrand your family, please leave than info in the comments 😆
Yesterday was a great success! Solomon came home from school with some candies and a lot of energy from his fun day celebrating at school. He was jazzy and excited! After a supper of waffles with all the sweet things, aaaaand chocolate cake, he was positively buzzing!
Among his parents, siblings, grandparents, and auntie, he opened all his presents and cards in the living room. There was a LOT going on, and he was completely all over the place, jumping from one thing to the next, wanting to open up the next gift but wanting to also investigate each gift as it came out of the bag or box. It was a VERY energetic evening! Everyone went to bed late, exhausted.
This morning, when I went to get the kids up for school, most of them were still asleep or mostly asleep. I did manage to drag everyone out of bed, and there was even enough time for everyone to walk to school together 💜
I have these two home today. And its a pretty relaxed time so far. They are in deep with Solly’s new toys, so Cher and I had coffee while they played happily together. I imagine afternoon quiet time will also be a success considering how tired they were earlier this morning. When that happens, I’ll be working on my tartan order. I finished SO MUCH on it yesterday, its coming together quicker finally!
Today we celebrate SIX years with our littlest guy, Solomon. Solly. Sol. Wolly. Smalls. Smally. Tally. You name it, he comes.
This kid was absolutely gorgeous from the get-go!
And he has remained that way 💜 His last year has been particularly lovely, as he has grown and changed so much. Yet his undeniable happiness has not changed in the slightest.
Solly has been in kindergarten this year, and he has really enjoyed it! He loves his friends and his teacher, and he is VERY proud of writing his own name. My favorite thing he’s brought home to date is this journal entry!
I’ll save you a minute. The thing he loves most about Spring is “eating vegetables at camp.” I thought this was terribly cute!
Some days are trickier than others, but Sol is more and more inclined to run ahead with his siblings, get involved in the game, or participate in pictures. I think kindergarten has been GREAT for that!
These types of things were like pulling teeth not all that long ago, so this feels victorious for us, and for Solomon.
Speaking of teeth, he has lost his two bottom ones 🙂 The second one having just happened last weekend at camp, while eating a s’more!
When they came up with Captain Obvious, they had Solly in mind. He makes all his observations loudly, and had no concept of wit or sarcasm. Its actually quite a riot talking to him. You should all try it sometime.
Solly loves biking, George Ezras song “Shotgun,” and fleece onesies.
Wavy and I walked the kids to school this morning.
As we walked past the houses, the kids friends shouted greetings at them, and Solly replied to everyone “HEYITSMYBIRTHDAYTODAY!” So its safe to say he is into it!
Solly’s supper of choice is waffles. So waffles we will have!
Solomon Brady, you are a true delight to be around. I am SO grateful God gave you to us those six years ago. What an incredible birth you had 💜 I’m looking forward to SO MANY MORE years with you, Sol!
A few changes have been made recently that feel like failures, and they feel important to share with you guys.
One of the changes has been my commitment to the farmers market. I was so thrilled to be invited and included, and also to have some income this summer. However, when Brady took his new job, it became clear that the market was going to be harder to organize and actually get to. So I decided to back out. Which was sad but also the right choice, I believe. One less thing on our plate. That being said, I have a good stock of cloths, towel hangers, plant hangers, etc for anyone who is interested. Custom crocheting is still at my fingertips as I’m working on completing a custom tartan. Almost done!
Another loss over here has been the car show this coming weekend. Another thing I’m very disappointed about letting go of. It had been a couple of years since we had played for the show, and we were excited about it! Unfortunately, a few key details weren’t organized in time, which left a LOT more work and pressure on our band in the last week than we were prepared to take on. So sadly, we bowed out. They do have another band, so no one has been left hanging. It felt bad. But it also felt like things were just left way too late. It’s a whole thing. We did the right thing, but it was hard, and I’ll admit I’m afraid we burned a bridge.
It’s hard to let people down. It feels awful. Especially when we are functioning better over here and we want to be able to take absolutely everything in stride. We want to be able to do everything. And we can’t.
Anyways. That’s all I have for today. To those who were planning to come visit us the Hepburn farmers market, or come listen to us at the car show, now you know.
On our way home, I feel more tired than I have in a while. This weekend was very reminiscent of our first weekend at the lake with the kids last season and the season before. That first weekend historically is just HARD. This summer, our first weekend with the kids was glorious, but this weekend was not quite so glorious. Absolutely every single child struggled HARD with numerous things, and took it out on everyone else. It was incredibly challenging, and we spent the first evening hidden in the camper, everyone in bed early, no campfire or festivities or friends. Just 🙌 bedtime.
Thankfully there were lots of good moments, and lots of breaks as the kids ran between our site and that of our good friends just up the hill. They had a lot of fun, and Saturday turned out much smoother than Friday. I’ll admit, though, it was hard to not be on guard. I don’t want to be like that.
Today we went down to the beach to throw rocks and take in a change of scenery. It was pretty cute 💜A nice breather.
We’re on the drive home now, and it’s a pretty quiet drive. Everyone is tired. The younger two have already napped. Here’s hoping they still sleep tonight! 🤞 Big kids will stay up for baths but then hit the sack in preparation for school tomorrow!
I hope these weekends are experiences that the kids remember and hold dear as they grow up 💜
We came out to the lake despite the promise of almost constant rain. The forecast called for 60-70% chance of rain every hour of every day. It’s now supper time on Saturday and we’ve had one SLIGHT moment of a few odd raindrops, and that was IT. There had better be some rain overnight because I LOVE the rain sounds in the camper!!
Without the rain, Brady has put up the eavestroughs and sealed it off. We’ve hauled and chopped more wood and kept a fire going most of the day. Kids have played games and did crafts with their friends, some of us have crocheted, and we’ve drank a good amount of coffee. A couple of kids got some bumps and bruises, but they also got ice cream sandwiches so 🤷♀️ you might say it was worth it.
Breakfast for supper going on the camp chef tonight!
As you may have read in the past, we’ve had an interesting year or two. And we’ve been very fortunate in the way that we haven’t had to worry about money whilst paraplegercizing (that’s a word now, just fyi). But our current setup is not a long term solution.
So I went and got myself a job.
I started on Wednesday as a contractor salesman at Zak’s Home Hardware in Warman! So come one, come all if you have and lumber or hardware store needs.
But don’t actually because I’m very new and I don’t know where anything is. Also, I’m not on the sales floor so I won’t be the one to help you. Unless you need a deck or garage package… I could sell you one of those.
As Solomon would say…
Anyway!
I’ve spent two days working this week and so far I have loved it! My brain hurts at the end of each day and keeping up with stretching my legs and back every hour is a task in itself, but the job is awesome!
I have been added to a team of people estimating and selling material packages for decks, garages, sheds, homes, and probably a lot more that I haven’t been clued into yet. I am given the architect’s drawings for a project and I make a list of all the materials needed for said project, price them out, and hopefully sell and fulfill the order.
So far I’ve been given a few practice estimates to learn the given software, but I was also fortunate enough to be able to estimate a small deck and a fence for a real customer yesterday! It was very exciting to potentially sell some lumber! 🙂
I’m working out of a temporary workspace right now but plans are in the works to renovate a sales desk to accommodate my needs and abilities from my wheelchair. The company and my managers seem incredibly generous and eager to help make things work for me.
Hailey and I have also been nervous about my energy levels being back to work for full 9 hour days. I mean, I have been pretty much just sittin’ on my butt for over a year now. 😬 So, my manager said for the time being I can start with three days per week. Tuesday through Thursday. And when I’m feeling comfortable with it, I can move up to full time.
We could not have asked for a better situation. A career with lots of potential and room to move up, positive work environment, accommodations for my disability, a place to apply my knowledge of the construction industry, and a wage that will cover our life.
God has truly been working and preparing this entire situation. And we are so thankful!
Thank you to all of you who have been thinking and praying for us and our future.
I SO appreciated everyone’s warmth and support on yesterday’s post when we shared that Brady had taken a job 💜 It is SO cool to know how many of you are in our corner! Brady has promised me that he will write a post in the next day or two updating you on how his first two days of work, so I’m not going to get too deep into that, but I will say it is a great success. I am SO proud of my husband!
The days haven’t been too terribly crazy. Yesterday was low key, with puzzles and trampolines, and lunch with Cher while we watched the trial on YouTube. Today was much of the same, except Solly was at school. Wavy puzzles SO GOOD on her own, its crazy to watch!
This afternoon, we were graced by our loving neighbour/grandma Rae, filling our front planters with flowers. She is a sight to behold! Just ask Wavy!
Just as Brady got in the door from work, we all hauled out to the school for the family appreciation barbecue! This is the first one since covid showed up, so it was REALLY nice to be back and see all the teachers and kids in one big space 💜 It warmed my heart.
They also did a book swap, so we found some duplicates of books in our bookshelf and brought them to the school to swap out for new books. With SO many left at the end, we were told to feel free to find more, so we did, and came home with about 15 new books. Leave it to Dekker to snag a dictionary, lol!
I will admit, I felt quite haggard on the walk home. It has been a big week in a lot of ways, and in other ways, not at ALL. Only two days of work, and only three days of school so far. But goodness. I swear my brain has aged 200 years this week.
Is it bedtime yet? Probably have to wait at least until Dekker is down…
This is not clickbait! We are making some big changes around here and they began this morning.
Last week, Brady accepted a job offer. He is now a contractor salesman at Zak’s Home Hardware in Warman.
I believe it is safe to say we are both more excited than we are nervous. This feels more like a step back into normalcy than a step away from where we’ve been. We have LOVED our time together, but the financial setup we have been experiencing is not sustainable.
We are continuing to research and reach out to where we can still receive some financial backing, as it is our understanding that all disability payments will drop off in the next few months. We will not be at a full, life sustaining wage for a while, though the company understands where we stand and does believe that Brady will eventually reach the financial goal we’re aiming for. Knowing it can and will come helped us a lot in making our decision.
Those are just little details. For now, he just settles in. And he was SO happy to go in this morning 💜
This job is a clear gift from God. It will provide our family with structure, routine, and a guaranteed income. It will continue to raise our credit, and even make it more possible to buy/build another home someday. We will finally appear lower-risk to lenders. Brady will feel productive and accomplished, and I will feel more secure in my role here at home.
There are tricky parts. We’ll need to sell Brady’s work van and find a different second vehicle for Brady to commute in. Ideally something that doesn’t require him to dismantle his chair down every single day, but something that is still good on gas. And affordable, as its a 2K bill to have hand controls installed. Thankfully this is less of a must until winter starts rolling in.
None of this is perfect, but it is clearly God’s plan, and if we know anything at all, we know we don’t always get to know the plan. And thats ok. We have faith that God is at work!
Please, if you’re the praying kind, carry us with you 💜 We have a lot to navigate in these coming weeks and months. We’re anticipating great things!
