The Daily Hailey

Yesterday was the warmest day of the week, and that is not saying much 😳 It was still freezing out, but we were a little desperate. Some of us were, anyway.

Also, the kids hadn’t eaten as much supper as they usually do, and we had six egg in a holes that were going to go to waste. So we threw them in a bag and bundled up to go walk them over to Cher’s house for her dogs. 

It. Was. Freezing. But it was still a pretty cute gig. 

The walk there wasn’t too bad. It was just that the wind was pretty biting. The walk back was another story 😆 Yet another walk where we just put our heads down and powered through! As we walked, I tried to remind them how nice it was being outside. Hahaha! It was an effort, anyway. They all agreed, as the wind left them breathless. 💨 (Did you know the wind emoji is also the fart emoji? Lol!)

Everyone was tired and freezing when we got home, which was actually perfect for bedtime. We let the kids take a breather before we started bedtime stuff, and I’ve gotta say it was our smoothest bedtime in a while. Not in the way that no one struggled. They did. But they didn’t get up a bunch or make up any excuses. They were ready to sleep. I love when that happens. 

It was a really nice way to wrap up the day. A little miserable outside but totally worth going out in it! That being said, I REALLY anticipate warmer weather!

Last night was taco night. I really love taco night. We used to make a big bowl of taco salad for the kids while Brady and I made wraps, but the kids didn’t love it. Now that the kids are a little older, four out of five eat wraps, and they eat really really well! 

Our tacos are far from authentic Mexican food, but just taco meat, a ton of veggies, and a few little toppings and sauce options. That being said, the kids get SO many veggies on taco nights, and I feel great about that. Tacos are something I can eat a lot of without guilt, which I also really like 😆 Its a win all around. 

The only downfall of taco night is that wraps take time to make, and the kids aren’t super capable of making their own. They could, but it would need to be closely supervised all along the way. 

So yesterday, when everything was ready but before the kids set the table, I got to work assembling tacos. I made four, asking each kid what they wanted on them. They came to the island and selected their taco stuff, kind of like Subway. #tacoartist They didn’t differ too far from one another. They are all required to have for sure three out of four veggie options (lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes), so the whole beginning part is about the same. We had four sauce options (sour cream, salsa, ranch, and honey mustard), and they could choose two. There are also crunchy onions and bacon bits, if they want. Usually sunflower seeds, too, but we’re out. Cheese tops it all off, and everyone is happy! 

I made four tacos for the kids, and a bowl of taco salad for Waverly. Once everyone was settled and eating, Brady and I went to the island to make our tacos, helping Wavy get a bite here and there. Before I had even finished one taco, every kid wanted another. Mom life, right?? So I got up and made another round of tacos. Some kids were done two tacos before I was done one. 

Waverly finished her taco salad and wanted to get down, but immediately asked to sit on my lap. I hauled her up while I tried to eat my supper, but the moment she was on my lap, she said “Oh yum” and started smacking her lips and leaning. Sooooo she ate my taco 😆 

It was pretty cute, honestly. And she didn’t eat it all, by any means. But the whole supper situation felt very #momlife to me. 

And I wouldn’t trade it 🥰 

I wouldn’t trade the taco leftovers, either….. 🌮 

Once again, we were loved on by our neighbours. Not only was our grocery list fulfilled, but a gift for each of our children was dropped off as well. And flowers 💐 Because SPRING!

Games, kits, and books have been in active use this morning. Dekker is dusty from mining crystals, and Laela is reading everything to everyone. Solly isn’t having a particularly smooth go of it so he’s not in todays photos. Don’t worry, we love him too 😘

The only thing that would make this morning better would be nicer weather. I’ve been feeling a bit gross the last couple of days, and I think my body is just a bit eager to get out of the house again. I don’t have a heavy sense of cabin fever, because my usual is being home in the day, but I don’t have to tell you guys that these days are just different. Uncertainty is hard, even when you’re coping well, which I truly think I am. But no one is firing on all cylinders, thats for sure. 

I’m so thankful for our friends and loved ones who keep us in mind and help with both needs and non essentials, to lighten our load. I’m struggling knowing how to help my friends myself, but its not lost on me how loved it leaves me feeling. I want that for others, too.

Its been a different kind of day today. I’m not feeling 100%, so because Brady is home, I’ve spent the day upstairs in bed. Even more isolated than usual 😳 Its a bit bizarre, though restful. If I turn my head too fast, I get dizzy, and my stomach is off. Truly, I think I’m just grossly overtired. My kids are unsettled since school closed, and we get a lot more midnight “I can’t sleep” wake ups, where the kids have clearly been sleeping, but they’re disoriented and upset. So, we’re trying to be sensitive to how they feel, but also trying to restore order. And my body is feeling it!! 

Thankfully, I have a competent, loving, willing husband to hang with our kids for the day while I laze it up on my own. Meanwhile, our family is being SO well cared for! 

Just the other day, we were gifted a big pan of fresh cinnamon buns and fresh bunsy buns from our neighbour. On the SAME DAY, a big box of fresh meat was dropped on our doorstep! I’m talking ground beef, sausage, breakfast sausage, and hot dogs. SO MUCH! Beyond that, people have gifted us flowers, and activities for the kids to do while they’re stuck at home. I feel SO fortunate because not only do those gifts save us money and sanity, but they save us from having to go out in the world. 

Once again, today, someone offered to grab us a few things on their grocery shop, saving us a trip. Our staples are being replenished, and we’ve yet to go without what we truly need. God is watching over us! Thank you, friends, for being good neighbours, and filling needs you see in this time of uncertainty! 

This is one of the things I hope we never forget about this year, and this time of our lives. The part where we all really kept an eye out for each other. I’m excited for the new appreciation we could gain from this experience, and how much more grateful we’ll be when it all blows over. 

Its going to be ok. This I know. 

Last night confused me so much. Anyone else? I woke up in the middle of the night to a weird rattling sound. I was still mostly asleep and couldn’t piece anything together. I gradually decided it was the wind, and in my mind, it was whipping dirt on my windows. I lay in bed, fully accepting this as truth, until I was awake long enough to actually be coherent, and I realized it was rain!

And I was SO HAPPY because I love waking up to the sound of rain! Its one of my favorite reasons to have a choppy sleep. 

Again, as I woke up further, I realized how much of a bummer freezing rain is. Booooo :/ I listened to it for a while, but finally, sleep won, and I was back to sleep. 

Everything is frozen over. 

This looks a lot like those windows that people have in bathrooms, where the sun gets in but no one can actually see inside. Except these are the windows in our bedroom! Our front window was just as bad but it’s about halfway melted off now. 

While I don’t care for freezing rain at all, I very much anticipate the Spring rains that will come soon that we can all enjoy in rubber boots and hoodies. Its good to remember that they’re coming. 

This whole last stretch of life has been just bananas. In that, we’ve all had LOTS going on. I know its not just us. As I look back in my photos, I see a handful of things I want on the blog, and none of them really go together 😂 Sooooo mixed bag! And I’m numbering it because I’m positive it won’t be the only one! 

Before I forget to add it, because I don’t have photo proof, Laela pulled out a tooth!! Maybe a week ago ish. Yay Laela! That thing had been loose for a while. 

Look at how LONG Rowan’s hair has gotten!!

Laela’s note to me ❤️

We’re potty training Solomon! 

And Waverly 😳 She has a hungry bum, lol! 

Brady and I have started playing cards every night before bed 🙂 Its SO nice. I actually super love it. 

We will never have enough schoolwork for Laela to do. 

My magnet broke off of my phone case 😒 and Amazon sent my replacement to Jerilee’s house. Merp.

I briefly online shopped, and am officially in for the long haul! 🧶 

Aaaand I have a weird finger thing growing that I can’t really get treated, because, non-emergent. Sooooo hopefully I can figure this thing out on my own! 

I think thats it?? 🤔 Its a pretty wide variety, wouldn’t you say?? I’ll do bigger updates on the bigger topics eventually, like potty training. I wasn’t going to share about it, because potty training is in my top three least favorite parts of having kids 😂 and I wanted to leave myself room to give up. But, it seems we’ve got nothing but time and nowhere to go! 🤷‍♀️ So it was a good time to train Solly. And Waverly is an overachiever, so she wanted to join in the fun!

Its bananas. Wish us luck!! 

I think we could all use a good laugh these days. I’ve been saving jokes, pictures, and funny articles here and there, and I figured it would be worth something to lump them all together into one post. If your sense of humour is different than mine, you may not appreciate this post to its full capacity 😉 But IIIIIII think they’re funny!

This is a text convo from Brady the ONE time he went for groceries before everything shut down, the Monday school got cancelled.

This is pretty bang on 😆

Brady’s sweat pants wore out, and I see a super happy face on his knee! Anyone else? 😀

THIS!!!!! 🙌 I DIE!!! Don’t pretend you don’t get it. I know you do. 🚁

Sing along! 🎶

This little pair of butt cheeks loves a good fort, but she settles for lame forts sometimes, too. ⛺️

Maybe you saw this one already. But its true 🤷‍♀️

This, also, is true.

Ok so wait. Haven’t chicken-catching women always been attractive?? 🤔 🐓

Aaaaand possibly my favorite one 🙌

Hopefully this doesn’t shine me in too weird of a light, but we could all use some good light ☀️ these days! There are SO MANY funny things out there, but you have to dig through a lot of crap to find them. Feel free to add something you think is super funny in the comments! Let’s laugh together! From afar. Like at least two metres. Because, social distancing…

We did another project! And by “we,” I mean Brady did. Hahaha! 

Our furnace room is a mess, and it has been for a long time. I’ll defend it a little and say it was an organized mess. We had a shelf of kitchen stuff. A corner of dress up clothes and costumes. A TON of storage tubs stacked under the stairs. Building materials and extras also under the stairs. And right in the middle of the room was the big stuff that kind of didn’t have a home. Laundry racks. Bulk paper towels. Some empty tubs. The list goes on. 

I’ve been begging for storage shelves, and they finally happened! Rather than Brady going and picking up materials, we had them delivered. We don’t usually have something delivered that he could otherwise pick up, but it seemed smart this time around, for obvious reasons. It cost less than we anticipated, and Brady jumped right in to the job! 

So here’s the unflattering “before” picture. As you can see, stuff is pretty heaped up. 

It wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t find anything, or that there was a bunch of garbage in there. Just no method of organization. And here is the “after!” SO much better! 

It still a furnace room, but it’s SO much tidier. Now, when I enter the room, I realize how much I veer to one side to avoid the heap of stuff that used to be to my left. What a relief to actually have space in there!! 

Not to mention under the stairs!

Now, when we want a tub out from under there, we don’t have to try and unstack them first and haul a bunch of them out. This works WAY smoother. 

We still have the basic wood shelf we had used previous for storage, and I think we’ll hang onto it, maybe to stack up the drums when they’re not in use, or something else. We’ll see what needs storing from the garage yet. And we have the material to build another nice big shelf on another wall if needed, but we’re waiting to see. 

We’re beyond “moving messes” now and things are finding their actual homes! I’m SO happy! 

We spent the morning outside. Its beautiful out. The kids grabbed shovels and played in the snow a little while I walked with Waverly on the road. She isn’t a big hand holder, but she humoured me today and led me up and down our street, over and over again. After a while, she wanted to walk on her own, occasionally joining hands with me and then rejecting me seconds later. Cruel move, Wavy. As tends to happen, our family floated together, and the snow play was put on hold while we all did laps. 

At first, Wavy was super uncertain of the uneven ground, and wouldn’t set foot on any snow, any patch of gravel, or even a wet spot that darkened the street. Eventually, she would, but she’d ask to hold my hand. And by the end, I’d offer her my hand and she’s decline, in her polite, high pitched, “no.” 

When walking slow laps finally got boring, we moved across the street and decorated our neighbours driveway 😆 Sorry, not sorry, Tom and Rae! 

All in all, it was a terribly cute morning. Everyone is nice and tired from the fresh air. I’m a little cold still, but I wore a spring jacket and capris, and it was worth it! The kids are a bit scrappy, but food is helping. I’m also a bit scrappy, but again, food will help. Maybe some Netflix. Maybe some crocheting. We have nothing else on the books today! Maybe an actual intentional walk later on. Maybe not. We’ve got nothing but time 🤷‍♀️

While we’re all preoccupied with the quarantine, there are still other things going on. Before this all went down, I was working on getting a handle on some crazy pain I’d been working with. I had immense pain in my hands, wrists, shoulders, and on any given day, basically everywhere else. It was completely out of control for a very long time. The last I updated you was mid-February, where I had decided to start taking an antidepressant in an effort to calm down the pain centres of my brain. For a minute there, I was taking two antidepressants in the morning (figuring out doses,) six extra strength Tylenol, four Naproxen, and one stomach protector. Every. Day. 

A beautiful thing has been happening. My pain is going away. Quicker and more seamlessly than I had anticipated. Today marks six weeks since I began my medication. My new medication is supposed to take 6-8 weeks to work fully. I’m currently on a child’s dose. Yet, earlier this week, I stopped taking Naproxen completely, and suffered ZERO CONSEQUENCES. Its WORKING!!! 

It feels so validating to know the choice I made was the right one. That all of my waiting and stretching and resting was fine, but that it was legitimately something else that needed fixing and support. My brain! It just wasn’t going to catch up, or at least not for a LONG time. Taking this new medication has improved my quality of life immensely, and I have zero regrets taking it! 

So I’m currently on my antidepressant, which is only one pill that is my correct dose. And I’m taking Tylenol arthritis besides that. With those two things, I am caught up and comfortable. Praise the Lord for answers and wisdom. Sometimes, His answer doesn’t seem like a popular choice, but His way is always the best way!