The Daily Hailey

We’ve been outside so much these days, and I have a lot to show you! However, a lot of pictures include our current project, and I’m saving those for their own post. Which hopefully won’t be too far away! We’re making great time on it, which is both thanks to Brady’s work ethic and also the fact that we have no deadline 😆 Because, quarantine. Because, unemployed. So todays post will just be sweet outside pictures from the last couple of days. 

Solly is ALWAYS under the deck, close to the action.

This man is also always close to the action, for obvious reasons 💪

These two are virtually inseparable these days 💙💖

Thank goodness for these empty lots beside us as we work in the yard! I secretly hope the one next to us stays open forever 🤞

Solomon is SO handsome!

This swing set was gifted to us in the fall, and it is lifesaving these days! It was great last year, but adding Wavy’s swing to it has made it even better!

Waverly occasionally breaks up the work by taking Brady for walks. “Hand? Hand?!” She’ll call to him, and off they wander. Its cute.

We’re embracing the muck these days, which is not something I’m great at, but I’m trying, and I’m learning! So if you see us around and everyone is filthy, just roll with it.

Aaaaand these kids are almost impossible to photograph, because they’re WAY too busy, but we love them, too!!!

Everyone is tan and energized and sleeping better and suuuper grumpy when its time to come inside 😆 Its all as it should be. Its strange how it can almost feel like all is right in the world when it is so clearly not the case. But I’m thankful for my family, the fun we’re having, and the things we’re getting done together! 

I anticipate the upcoming days, weeks, and months together. I hope we build, blow bubbles, run, play, garden, and run through water. I hope we eat a ridiculous amount of freezies, as well as cheese and crackers and meats. Fruit and veggies. Picnics. Water water water. Hats and sandals. Shorts and tank tops. Swimsuits. 

These are GOOD days. I’m so grateful. 

This morning, as Brady and I lay in bed and woke up slowly to an episode of “Life in Pieces,” a notification popped up on the laptop screen. 

“Preschool helper.” 

A small, but glaring reminder of how recently everything was normal, and how fast everything changed. There is definitely some grief that goes along with the shutdown, and all of the little things we’ve lost. Our normalcy was taken. I KNOW many people have things a lot harder than we do here, and I am so grateful to have a truly happy family that is doing well living together, day after day. Its not perfect, but its not unpleasant. But, our routine and our normal was ripped out from under us, and thats the undeniable truth for just about everyone. 

I don’t have much to say on the subject, but it was a bit of a bizarre, surreal “Oh ya…” moment this morning. I can’t believe we’re doing this. A pandemic. I never even considered this happening in my lifetime or that of my children, but here we are, making history in a crazy way!

We enjoyed our first truly beautiful spring day yesterday ☀️ Brady worked on the project we currently have on the go – closing in under the deck, effectively making a shorty storage shed. While he worked on that, I got my tan on! 

I am the whitest thing to ever walk this earth, so pretty much every spring, I get a nasty sunburn to kick off the season. It isn’t pleasant, but it happens literally every single year, and its become a bit of a rite of passage. 

Yesterday was that day.

Also yes, Brady gashed his forehead pretty good and proper. He walked square into a board that was screwed to the deck. He’s ok now 🤕

I spent almost all day yesterday outside in the sun. In the morning, I lay on a blanket next to the house, where the sun was shining and the wind was blocked. Also, through nap time, I took some time on the deck. After nap time, we were going to take the kids for a walk to go wish a friend a happy birthday. I invited my mom to join us, and she decided to walk our way rather than drive. So I walked to meet her, and as soon as she got to our house, we all left for our walk! SO much outside time!

I ended up walking my mom home and enjoying the walk home, as well. By that point in the day, most people I came across were in pants or sweaters or both. Friends even poked fun at me, in my shorty shorts and tank top, but I was DETERMINED to enjoy the heat while I could! 

When I finally made it home, my poor calves were screaming. Not from all the walking, but the burn! My knees are cherry red! I declined a soak in the tub knowing it would hurt way too much. 

Most of the tingling skin had resolved by this morning, and my face looks like we’re heavily into summer already! We are not, but I’m pretty ok with it 🙂 Trying to embrace my freckles that have only come into play in my adulthood, too!!

Hopefully there are MANY more hot sunny days to come! 

About a week and a half ago, I started starters for the first time ever! I was intimidated by it, but I had help and encouragement and support! I planted a ton of beefsteak tomatoes, a good handful of cherry tomatoes, and a bunch of yellow peppers. Here’s how we’re doing! 

Big tomatoes are THRIVING!! 

One solo cup worth just has teeny little sprouts. I’m not sure yet whether its just a little behind or its not going to work, but as you can see, I have TONS of big tomatoes to come! Who wants to help me learn to make salsa?! 🙋‍♀️ 

My other tray of seeds didn’t do so well. After about a week, I noticed many of the seeds had risen to the top of the dirt. I sprinkled some more on top of them and packed them ever so slightly, to try and keep the seeds under the top layer of dirt.

Since then, just in the last few days, I’ve had some cherry tomatoes coming up!!

Yesterday there was only one baaarely visible sprout, but this morning I have three! Woot!

And my peppers. 🤷‍♀️ Go figure. 

I’m giving them time, since I just redid them on Saturday, but I’m not holding my breath for them to thrive, or even live at all. Ah well. The price of the seeds makes it easier to roll it off my shoulders. I’m not worried. 

I’m calling my starters a great success at this point! I’m SO happy to have even tried my hand at this, and it all feels less intimidating now. 

I still need to acquire strawberry plants, potatoes, and peonies, but I have time 🙂 I’m just SO thrilled that spring is in the air! My sunburn from yesterday feels victorious 💪 

I can’t wait to actually plant my garden!! 

We got some good outside time in the other day ❤️ The Spring melt is upon us, and the weather makes it possible to get out and enjoy it! Today’s post will just be pictures of some of that 🙂 A quick disclaimer: There are less pictures of Laela in this post. She was very occupied and therefore, not as easily photographed. We love her, too! 

Behold! Cute, wet kids! 

Both Solly and Waverly took turns repping their daddy’s new job! (PLEASE still be there post-pandemic!)

Aaaaand some bonus Wavy pictures, because she was the easiest target 😆

We had a wiener roast, which was a great success! Waverly opted to forego her hotdog bun and dip the wiener into her water cup 😂 It was both disgusting and adorable. She loved the attention she got from it, too! 

We thoroughly enjoyed the weather, and we’ve gotten even more sun since then. 

Keep it coming, Spring!!

Yesterday, as per our new quarantine school setup, Dekker helped Brady make baked oatmeal for breakfast. Laela was pretty furious that she couldn’t help, but she helps SO much that we wanted to give Dekker a turn to have the one-on-one time. He did SO well…

And we as VERY proud of the outcome!

It was delicious 🙂 He was SO happy. 

In addition to that, our “schooling” is more about a routine for us than a high expectation of learning. Realistically, I’m nervous to teach new concepts. Not because I’m incapable, but I don’t want to teach them in a way that their future teachers will have to undo and re-teach. So Dekker had yet to touch on division, and I’m not sure I’m going to delve too deep into that unless it comes suuuper naturally! 

Our current routine is that the big kids do some schooling for a bit during nap time. We were gifted an older iPad for the kids to work on, and Brady resurrected an old iPad as well, so each kid has a device. We try to jump around with them, not relying on the iPads every single day. We don’t want them to forget paper and doing things by hand. Laela received a TON of worksheets from her teacher, and Dekker’s teacher has him doing assignments and sending ideas from Google Classroom. Both kids have Raz Kids as well as Mathletics. Raz Kids is AMAZING because we don’t have ALL kinds of books in each of their reading levels, and this app provides that for us! Mathletics is a HUGE hit. Laela will opt to do module after module all through nap time, beyond the one or two we ask her to do. Its awesome. She loves it. 

Beyond the apps and a few little assignments here and there (journal entries, games, and the occasional run through of flash cards) the kids read every single day. I like that I don’t have to force that at all. 

I know what they’re doing is minimal, but its maintaining both their current knowledge as well as a routine. I feel good about it. I am proud of the system we’ve worked out, and that its stress free, for the most part. Who EVER saw this whole crazy thing coming?? Not me! 

Yesterday, Laela made a beautiful little card for her teacher. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was covered in stickers, hung by a little string, and was very bright and colourful. The message told her teacher that she loved her, and missed her, but it ended with an apology. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to school on Monday.” 

💔

The Monday that everything shut down, I kept both Laela and Dekker home from school. They had both picked up a cold and had deeper chesty coughs. I figured, with all the hubbub around the virus, I figured I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I kept them home. We were notified that afternoon that school was closing. Keep your kids home. 

Laela has beat herself up about that ever since. She is SO sad she didn’t get to say goodbye to her teacher. 

I went back and forth a bit about whether or not to actually deliver the card, because not everyone is accepting drop-offs. But I figured it was such a sweet gift, and Laela’s teacher had made her location known to her students for Halloween, so it shouldn’t feel too “invasion of privacy-ish.” If she was put off by the risk of covid, she could set it aside for a few days. All in all, I decided it was worth the risk. 

We went for a walk in the beautiful evening sun yesterday, and Laela brought her card along. We went by her teachers house, and placed the card in the mailbox. While we were up on the step, a dog slammed into the door and started barking. We were hardly off the porch before someone came to the door. Her husband. He greeted us, and I told him we had just slipped something into his mailbox. He plucked it out, glanced at it, and pointedly looked at Laela. 

“Wow! Mrs. Fisher will LOVE this!” 

He did SO good. Laela just beamed 🙂 Too bad she couldn’t come to the door at that moment, but Laela understood, and was still really happy. 

We walked a few more blocks, greeted Cher’s house, and started to head back. 

As we were rounding our way back to our street, we heard a bellow “Laaaelaaaaa!” 

I looked around, and saw our neighbour drive up to us. She had lovingly run an errand for me that afternoon, so we touched base and had a quick chat before she went on her way. It was weird that she had called to Laela, but 🤷‍♀️ 

Once she drove away, we kept walking, but seconds later, heard yet another “Laaaaelaaaaa!” 

And I spotted her! Laela’s teacher, on her back deck, jumping up and down and waving her arms. Laela couldn’t figure out where her name was being called from, so I shouted “Wave bigger” and she did! Finally Laela saw, brightened RIGHT up, and waved back like crazy! 

If you know Laela, she’s a pretty shy girl. Its mostly a facade, but she has always had a bit of a reserve. She didn’t say much, but her teacher shouted a thank you, and told Laela she missed her and hoped she was having fun being at home. I responded to her that we were trying to make the best of it. Her teacher just shrugged back at us. She, more than anyone else I’ve spoken to, has been hoping school will reopen. She misses her students, and it shows.

It felt like such a special exchange, and one I don’t want to ever forget. Our walk from the initial drop off to the conversation was likely a good 15 minutes. She was on her back deck with wet hair in the winter air, waiting to talk to Laela. And she had called to us, but we had stopped to talk to our neighbour for a few minutes in between. And she waited, and called out again! 

Laela felt SO special ❤️ I doubt her teacher will ever read this blog, but if you do, you’ve made a real difference in Laela’s life!! I hope you know how much I appreciate that, as her mom. 

We love our teachers!! 

Yesterday, we went for a walk with the kids. It was beautiful out. The Weather Network promised wind, but it was so comfortable out. The sun was shining. The roads were pretty clear. No snow pants necessary. Etc etc etc. We loved it. 

As we walked, we caught a whiff of a fire. Like a fire pit fire. Laela piped up first and heaved a deep sigh. 

“That smell reminds me of Waskesiu.” 

Everyone agreed. 

💔

I am SO thrilled my family loves Waskesiu the way I always have, but that makes it so much harder that we may have to cancel all of our summer plans there. I reminded them that its a possibility, and we talked about how nice it is outside and the kids of fun we might have staying closer to home this season. Rowan commented that there was still lots to look forward to, like the parade and all of the music over our towns weekend celebration in June. 

Except, very likely, that will be cancelled, too. 

😩 

It is SUCH a weird, sad time. I am very grateful that my family and friends are healthy and well and safe. I’m thankful for resources that make it possible for all of us to stay home together. I’m relieved that we actually have a really lovely time together and no one feels at risk. There is SO much good! But, man. I am sad for my children and all they will miss this coming summer. 

We may not get the lake, or camp, or birthday parties, or backyard barbecues with friends, but we will get our yard developed, tag, sprinklers, bike rides, chalk, bubbles, thunderstorms, lap pools, sun tans, gardening, and all kinds of creative things we’ve yet to come up with. 

There is lots and lots of good. But today, I sorrow a little for the summer we dreamed of. Our jam packed July and our lazy at-home August. 

God knows. So I don’t have to. Thank goodness. 

April 1st was a milestone around here. The day before, I had lowered my Tylenol dose and felt no pain whatsoever. So I did a ballsy thing and, starting on April 1st, I just quit taking Tylenol. I didn’t follow my directions to ween off of everything really slowly, but rather I just ditched all Tylenol. I took my antidepressant in the morning, and that was it. 

And by the end of the day, my hands. Felt. Perfect. 

Thank you, Lord!! 🙌

I will say, I did feel the change in meds in other ways. I felt a bit sick to my stomach, and I had a pretty mean headache by the end of the day. But it was SO worth it. To even just know that my hands were all caught up. As I’ve said a handful of times since this whole thing began, its very validating to know my pain needed this different kind of medication. I couldn’t wrap my head around using an antidepressant for something other than depression. I remember crying in that appointment, being SO discouraged, because I felt my mental health was stronger than it had been in years, and WHY NOW would I start taking a pill for it?! I felt my progress was discounted and like I had somehow failed. Like I thought I was doing well, but maybe I was wrong. Having it explained to me, about my pain centres, brought so much peace. And it feels amazing to have that validated. That I made the right choice! 

Its been two weeks now that I’ve not taken any other pain medications, and I feel confident, and capable, and pain free! I have some work to do to regain some strength in my hands, wrists, and shoulders after not using them very much in the past few months. But that makes total sense, and I’m not afraid. I’m not exactly “muscly” to begin with, so getting back to where I was will just take getting back into real life! And being cooped up at home makes me really itch to make bread and buns! So maybe the kneading will get me even stronger than before!

Guys. My shoulder started hurting in August. My wrists started in October. It got out of control in November, and bordered on debilitating in December. Sought help in January, started Sertraline in February, and got my life back shortly thereafter! 

Thank you, Lord, for informed doctors and medicine that works. For options, when we’ve exhausted everything else. For movement and energy and ability. For hard times and lessons learned. For all these things, I praise the Lord. 

I told you there would be more of these! Here’s another haul of cute pictures or happenings that I hadn’t mention but didn’t want missed from the last two weeks since the previous “mixed bag” post.

He loves her SO MUCH 💙

We got Dekker a daily paper airplane calendar for Christmas and he insists on saving every one 😆 ✈️

Brady lays on the ground to do his neck/back stretches, and Wavy joined with some yoga just the other day.

Our little party of 🖐

Miss Wavy LOVES to have her stuffies swaddled.

Baked oatmeal with star sprinkles and some reject butterscotch chips found in the bottom of the freezer. It went over better than our usual chocolate chips!

If her hair could just STAY curly, that would be ideal. Work on that, Waverly.

Brady’s head may or may not be (but definitely is) slightly larger than mine…

We finally took down Christmas, haha, and put up a more springy wreath. Too bad I put it up during a blizzard 🙄

Lots and lots of snugs these days. And if you’ll notice, Solly plays “guitar” on his penguin a lot these days.

She’s got mad FOMO.

But also, she’s big into reading 🙂 Just like her siblings.

Dekker is SO creative with LEGO! That car came out of his mind.

No explanation needed 🤷‍♀️

Again with the snugs and hugs. She’ll stand at your feet, reach up, and call “Huck? Huck?!”

That time they were all walking downstairs together, and I called ”Kids?” And they all looked SO GUILTY 😂

🌞

The emptiest I’ve ever let our gas tank get, and the cheapest it’s EVER been to fill 😳

Safety first!

Aaaaand more reading, feelings, and dainty little feet.

Sooooo that was a longer post than anticipated! Never a shortage of cute pictures to share, I suppose!