The Daily Hailey

It’s our last full day here this summer. It was a really nice one, too. We didn’t work. We played. Rested. Crocheted. Visited. Ate good food. It got dark early in the evening. It felt very, very much like fall. 

Tomorrow we will pack up. If time allows, we will help a bit more with Christmas decorating the camp. We got a little preview of the lights that have been up so far and it’s already so beautiful 😍 but no preview available, sorry! People should just come see it for themselves when the time comes! 

Sleep well, all. Tomorrow we work. But hopefully there is much sleep to be had before that point. 🥱 

It is SO nice to be back at camp. It is our last weekend here for the summer. We will pack up this weekend and say see you later to our precious home away from home. We will be back a few times still this calendar year, but this will be our last weekend in our camper until next May. Bittersweet, for sure. We love it here. We are so fortunate to have a second home at all, much less one quite so beautiful. 

Thank you, Lord. Amen. 

It has been a long time since I spent so much time in the kitchen in one day. It felt both amazing and chaotic. My plan for the day was to cook pumpkins all day long. I have a plan to hoard as much pureed pumpkin as I possibly can in this short season so I am set for baking. I have a growing pile of pumpkins in my kitchen. I was lovingly gifted some home grown sugar pumpkins, which are obviously WAY better than the jack o lantern pumpkins, but alas, those are cheap, readily available, and still good.

All things considered, I cooked up two sugar pumpkins and three carving pumpkins. I scraped them out into a strainer, and from there into a giant bowl. I pureed them in my blender, and scooped them into four cup ish bags that are currently freezing flat in my freezer.

This was honestly not a quick process but it got done and I feel pretty good about it.

For the first time in my life, I decided to actually toast up the seeds. It seemed easy enough, and after a plea for help on Facebook, I learned it is indeed as easy as it seems! I did learn from my first batch, though, and I imagine I’ll go again on my next pumpkin day. Which will likely be early next week.

Did I do it? Toastier, or nah?

In the midst of the GIANT mess I made in the kitchen, I made pizzadillas for supper 🤣 which is a total nothing meal, but I had meat and wraps to use up. They were very well received and everyone ate lots. This made me feel less guilty about staying in the kitchen throughout meal time.

One pumpkin day down, and at least a couple more to go. Hopefully a lot more. I’m excited to get a ton of pumpkin in my freezer and get back into the swing of baking beautiful things for my kids.

It has saved my life to be able to shop at Walmart and Costco from a distance. I used to be a Superstore snob, but delivery has changed 👏 the 👏 GAME! 👏

I made two grocery orders today. One was supposed to come between 12-1, and the other one I gave a wider window, 1-4, in exchange for $2 off. Boom.

And both orders came within 15 minutes of one another 🤣 This has NEVER happened to me. When the Costco delivery guy drove up, I was just getting out to my entrance to gather my Walmart groceries.

And wouldn’t you know it, my Costco guy ran up my ramp and started helping me get everything through the door, into the house, including my Walmart bags. He did not quit until every last thing was inside my front door. Even the pumpkins.

This man did not know my life, and he had no idea what that helping hand meant for me and my energy level.

Guys. Go the extra mile. Just do it. It is SO valuable, and it leaves an impression.

Its trendy to like pumpkin spice. This I know. I’m not mad at it. I wouldn’t turn down a pumpkin spice treat or scent or anything of the like. If I had options, I’d choose a dirty chai latte over a PSL, but both are good.

Yesterday, Cher informed me that she was in possession of pumpkin spice bread. Now, festive or not, I like bread. I’m not a monster. She said it was light and delightful and so pleasantly fallish. And today, she came in the door with some of it, ready to share with me!! Heyooo!!!

When she headed to the kitchen to toast it, I remembered I impulse purchased pumpkin spice cream cheese spread on my last Costco order. I took it out of the fridge, and both of us just stared wide-eyed and the beautiful breakfast we had just discovered we could make.

Yes, I know its just toast, but it was faaaaancy faaaaall toast!

Fall toast that looks like….

Cheez whiz 🤣😅

The aesthetic was not there, but it was still so unbelievably delicious, and we had no regrets. SO light and SO creamy. Not at all overpoweringly sweet, nor did it leave a weird film in my mouth.

Delicious. Yummy. Special. It was fun.

Thanks for Chering 😘

It has officially begun! Ballet is back, baby!!!

Fun fact! In our house, we call is bally. Like, Sally, but bally.

This pair of stone cold weirdos is kicking off yet another season of dance. Laela is the oldest person in the class, but if its anything like last year, her teacher will intentionally teach her more mature things and let her be a leader in some capacity. Because, clearly, she is ultra mature 😎

Wavy came home happy and sun kissed. And Laela didn’t come home because she motored to volleyball practice immediately after ballet was done 😅

I’m really grateful my kids have things they can be in that they’re excited about 💜

We haven’t spent as much time at the beach at all this summer. It hasn’t been beautiful weather, until September, so we did more in the campground than at the water. No loss, though. Fun is always to be had with our group 💜

Today, however, Laela invited me down to the water for a walk. The walk turned into a hunt for cool rocks, with some stone skipping along the way. It was incredibly beautiful. With the docks all brought in, and boats out of the water for the year, the beach itself was full of metal framing, but the water was clear and still. It did not disappoint.

We brought home a cup full of rocks and this particular artifact that we couldn’t quite identify 🤔 Brady is thinking a tire rim or something along those lines. I thought a horse shoe, but maybe its too big? I dont know. Any guesses?

Honourable mention to this rock that was buried just perfectly to look like a goldfish cracker.

I really enjoyed my walk with my girly 💜 She is incredibly precious to me, and these one on one dates are incredibly special and hard to come by. Thanks for inviting me, Lala.

We packed up later this evening than we usually do. After supper. And we got home later than usual also, the van bursting with bawling, overtired babies, and slow moving children. But! They rallied and got everything unloaded and unpacked. I diapered and jammied everyone who needed it, and we prayed, gave hugs, and tucked in the whole gang.

And as per usual, that does not necessarily mean the day is done 😅 But it might juuuuust about be done now! Lol!

I’m so tired. Wish me luck, friends. Our baby has slept all day. Like. ALL day. Hopefully nighttime sleeping is still on the table 😬

Today was loaded down, but I have no regrets! Laela played her first ever volleyball tournament!!! 🤯 they haven’t even played a single game, but it was tournament time!! We got up balls a.m. so we would all be ready to go at a good time. Auntie even came over, also at balls a.m. to do her hair! 

Goodness she is SO beautiful. 

Brady took her early for warmups and the rest of us came a half hour behind. We spent the day, cheering and killing time in between, running around the building that used to be part of the bible school at which brady and I met. It was fun to tell the kids some of our stories and memories. 

By more importantly, volleyball! 🏐 Laelas serves brought in a handful of points, and they had GREAT support for each other!! I recognize that their team is made up of newbies, but they held their own, and got better and better with each game they played! Their final game, they played against our school A team – their peers in the two grades over them – and they lost by one point. Isn’t that amazing?? 

The moment her team was done playing, we loaded into the van and headed to the lake. I thought we’d have a really quiet drive, considering how tired the kids were by that point, but alas, sooooo many tears 😂😭 we made it, though! It is always SO nice to be back!! This camping trip is made possible by the lovely camp staff who are letting us use the otherwise closed main bathrooms, without which we couldn’t come. 

Thank yooooou!! 

I am BEAT. But it’s been a good day 💜

It was a full day, but a gooder. Our elementary school has an annual soccer tournament for the grades five and six students. Many other schools from other towns come our way, and they play all day. Rowan was in it this year! I decided to go for the morning, which was two games. The afternoon is nap time over here. But two games is better than none! So I packed a diaper bags FILLED with snacks, and off we went!

Did you spot the tiny pill? I even remembered lacteeze for my super lactose intolerant one! Lol!

Rowan played awesome. Out of the games I saw, his team lost one and won one. They went on to win the rest of their games that day!

Once I got home and put the babes down for naps, I cooked up a couple of pumpkins, c/o of my delightful egg lady who shared her fresh things with me.

The kids got home and got into the swing of our plan for the rest of the day – piano practicing for all three, plus packing for camp. ALL the packing. Its a different kind of weekend, so we decided to blitz packing after school nice and quickly. Solly was stumped one an instruction in his book, and I couldn’t quite figure it out either, but a quick text to our loving piano teacher cleared it up! Wavy came and taught Solly how she had just learned the same skill. It was super cute.

Once all the packing was done, Brady got home from chemo, and we set up for a movie night. Its been a long time!!! We cranked out Monsters Inc, which is truly one of my favorite pixar films. The kids also loved it. Every last one. It was a total success.

Now, the day is done. Kids have wound down. One baby is still whining, but I can hack it.

Tomorrow morning early, we’ll throw things into the van, and go about our busy day before heading to the lake. It is coming to the end of our season there 💜 That is always a strange in-betweener (wiener) time where we MISS camping, but also, things are simpler in a lot of ways once that season is done. Bittersweet for sure.

But! Its not over yet! We’ll go tomorrow. Later tomorrow. Still, a night and a day is still better than none at all!

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a beautiful day here at home, fun plans tomorrow, and a beautiful place to go every weekend for so many months. We are truly so grateful.

We all know foster care is not gentle. Its hard and sad and filled with desperation. I feel like the majority of the time, when people hear that we are a foster family, they say something about the system being broken. They’re not wrong, it absolutely is, but the kids are frightfully innocent in it. THEY are not broken.

As “broken” as everything is (and believe me, the break doesn’t start in the foster care system) I can honestly say I LOVE fostering. Sure, the red tape is annoying. There is a lot of waiting. A lot of unknowns. A lot of injustice. But I would not trade my job for just about anything. I LOVE it. Today, it was SO FUN.

I’m sorry to say I have to be a little cagey about the details in this next story, but bear with me.

I had an idea a while back. One of those “Oh man I could never get away with that” ideas. Something fun I only dreamed of doing with one of the kids in my care. It was a total extra. Unimportant. Maybe even a tad controversial. But FUN, and something I would totally consider if this kid was indeed mine by birth. But, since they are not, I wrote it off.

But it stayed in the back of my mind. So one day, while I took this kid for a visit, I said to their mom (who I have a really warm relationship with, actually) how much I wish I could do something like that. I said it totally playfully, and said “DON’T worry, I would NEVER do such a thing with your kid!” And she lit up, appeared to consider my suggestion, and told me to go for it!!! She and I both went to the worker separately, and I got official permission to go forward with my plan!!

I held off for a little bit, though, because I actually had two kids I wanted to do this with. The other one, however, sees less of their parents, and I don’t have the same rapport built with them. I couldn’t shake it, though, that this could be a really fun milestone that these two kids could experience together. It felt siblingy, and I wanted that! So, at my next meeting with the second kids worker, I mentioned it to her. I said I knew it was silly and unimportant, but since I got consent for one kid, I wondered if it was feasible. She thought about it for a second and then grabbed her phone to text one of the parents. And within half an hour, she texted me back and said it was all a go!!! I confirmed with friends of mine who are well connected to the other parent, and they wholeheartedly supported this, knowing their friend would be happily on board.

So today, we hit that milestone. Me and the two of them. And auntie, who came and helped 💜 I WANT to share about it, so PLEASE if you have interest, message me so I can tell you and show you! It was SO fun and exciting. The kids clapped for each other and celebrated.

There is a griefy side to this. Their parents weren’t there. Its a special thing. At their age, they would only do this with their parent. And in this case, it was me instead 💜 Their caregiver. Which is an honour, by the way. But a sacrifice, in a way. Its not lost on me.

What a precious day today was. I’m so grateful to have these beautiful children in my care, supportive helping hands, a familiar face doing the dirty work, and parents who are willing to let me have a hand in their childrens special firsts.