The Daily Hailey

I felt a bit taken aback when I received the list of school supplies for the upcoming school year. In the last few years, the school purchased school supplies in bulk and raised our fees a small amount, making it easier for families, as well as ensuring that the kids all have the same stuff, and the right stuff. I felt, with all the Covid junk floating around, it didn’t make sense that this year, we had to bring in our own. But yesterday, I figured it out.

Labelling. Thats why the school didn’t buy this year. Because items are not to be shared, and that is more important than ever this year, so absolutely every item had to be labelled individually. It makes sense that the teachers should NOT be on the hook for such a job.

Such. A. Job. 

Today, I sat down with my box of school supplies, my big envelop of mailing labels, and my new electric pencil sharpener, and the work began. Over the course of the day, I labelled around 300 items. 

60 pencils
36 markers
72 crayons
48 pencil crayons
13 glue sticks/bottles
17 duotangs

Plus countless erasers, highlighters, rulers, scissors, pencil sharpeners, Kleenex boxes, whiteboard markers, spoons, post-its, and notebooks. 

It was as I was coming to the end of my lists that I realized what was on the end of the list. 

Indoor shoes. 🤬 

I was not set up for indoor shoes. And school starts in a week. And we’re gone this weekend.

So that’s how we ended up running to Saskatoon in the late afternoon.

I am really relieved to tell you all that I was able to purchase all three school-aged kids a pair of indoor shoes that they love, plus two new pairs of jeans, as they have ALL blown out the knees in ALL of their jeans this Spring and Summer! Win! Dekker also got a pair of splash pants, and Rowan picked a backpack and lunch kit from Costco. So many wins!

I promptly brought that stuff home and labelled it all.

My back is achy from leaning over, writing my kids names all day long, haha! You know when you say the same word over and over and over again, it starts to lose its meaning? 

Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Dekker. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Laela. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. Rowan.

Yup. Me too. 

T – 6 days.

We left off yesterday at lunchtime on Saturday. We had just gone for a long, leisurely walk, and it was time to wind down for a little break. We ate inside, on the floor, like classy people.

The afternoon was spent playing freely. The world is their oyster there. They can play at the camper, inside or outside, at the playground, or a little further at the big playing field or the beach!

I LOVE that Solly calls water guns nailers or drills now. Isn’t that awesome?? Its almost as though we’ve been doing a LOT of work this summer!

Supper was looking pretty cute…

And within three minutes of sitting down with some hotdogs, our picnic table showed up!! Better late than never!

Waverly opted to stay at the little table, but she was alone there. Dekker right away offered “I’ll go sit with Wavy!” Aaaaand then she promptly abandoned him. She’s already considering it here, lol!

It was actually really funny, haha! He was such a good sport. But that kid is WAY too big for that table! Lol!

We hit up a different playground later that evening.

Wavy loved a good tire swing!

I wish I had more pictures, but they’re all videos. It was an oddly victorious hour at the playground. Solly is very cautious of new things, and we kind of missed the fact that he needed a push because he is SO chill and happy to just watch 🙂 But he has grown a ton this summer, and on the playground, he was climbing on the more intimidating parts of the playground, swinging on the tire swing, and taking on the BIG slide, all on his own! He could not be stopped! We were SO proud of him!!

Then we went for a walk to the lake, as you saw a few days ago. Remember these cute kids?

And this beautiful water?

Bedtime was a lot easier the second day! We didn’t have a good system for Laela to get into the top bunk, but we makeshifted a step, and she loves the set up!! We turned one drawer upside down. Brady moved the slides and flipped the front. I take total and compete credit for this idea, and Brady takes full credit for the execution of it.

The next day! Breakfast was cute. I liked that Rowan and Wavy’s branding was just spot on, lol!

Solly getting smoke in his eyes, lol! Unimpressed.

We spent the morning raking up our lot, clearing out old leaves and weeds and making sense of it. The leaves, along with the wet firewood, was the smokiest fire I’ve had in a while. My eyes burned! But it was so worth it when the result looked so much more kept up and how we would prefer to keep it!

Wavys pose, tho, lol!

We had another little quiet time break in the afternoon, and it was SO our speed.

We decided to go for another walk after quiet time, but the weather wasn’t as pleasant as it had been the day before. It was raining and windy. Some were more on board with that than others…

But they settled in fine 😉 Those slides are fun, rain or shine! Those wet butts don’t lie!

While Brady barbecued burgers for supper, I made myself busy in the camper, packing up what needed to come home and taking note of what we were leaving behind. I made a list of things we didn’t bring but had needed. I swept the floor and wiped stuff off. Laela helped a lot. And then once we ate, Brady loaded it all up in the van, everyone took their last pee, and we loaded them into the van! Once the van was full of children and our stuff, Brady flipped some breakers and emptied the tanks. And off we went!!!

Our home away from home looks even more like us now 😉

Lived in. Cozy. Colourful. A little dirty, but not too bad. Just how we like it 😉 We’re all very much looking forward to going back next weekend!!

Yes, friends, today and tomorrow’s posts are going to be pure pictures, because there are just too many and I can’t bring myself to purge them! Yikes! The kids were SO cute! We got super dirty, ate yummy food, and really settled into our camper. It was easier than I thought it would be 🙂

Sooooo, from the beginning. And by “beginning” I mean once we actually got into our camper, lol!

Dekker wanted a job immediately, so while everyone went to go play, he unpacked all the mattresses and sleeping bags, and put pillows and stuffies where they belonged.

All of the kids settled in really easily.

Our bed is out in the main living area, so I put pillows against the long wall, and there was always a kid or two snuggled up on the bed, reading or chatting. It was so comfy.

Our first night! Kid shelves for the win!

The late night fire was fun, but short lived. The little ones would’ve never fallen asleep had we not gone in, lol!

The first morning there was really cute.

Breakfast was cinnamon buns from Costco.

We didn’t have a picnic table right away, so we made do with what we were able to bring ourselves, which was a tiny little picnic table, a wagon, a couple of lawn chairs, and a chopping block. It worked!

Doesn’t it look like Solly and Wavy are on a little date?? I love how she’s sitting, facing him like that. Just drinking some milk together.

We finished breakfast up and went on a long moseying kind of walk. We took our time, took lots of pictures, and got to know the property and some of the people.

My little Gap kids!

These are the solo pictures the kids posed for, haha!

Its possible Rowan fell down the hill after his photo…

No word of a lie, that was the rest of our morning! We just puttered. It was SO wonderful! And adorable, as you can plainly see!

I’ll show you the rest of our first weekend there tomorrow 😉

We are home again, and as you’ve likely noticed, we took Summer with us and returned with Autumn. My goodness! Just overnight, hey? It was crispy upon arrival, but still sun and beautiful enough for shorts and tshirts!

And this afternoon, it looked 110% different!

I have to say, though, I don’t really have a preference. I LOVE being warm, out in the sun, watching the kids play without care. But I also LOVE the rain, and the waves, and the clouds! The snuggles to keep warm don’t hurt either.

There is a LOT to share about our weekend, and by that, I mean I have a LOT of cute pictures of the kids to spam you with, haha! But I’ll leave you with some beautiful ones from last night that Cher edited for me, to make them really pop!

It is clear that this place has very easily become our home away from home. We are so settled there already, like we’ve always been there, somehow. We are SO thankful!

I’ll tell you aaaaall about it tomorrow. Sleep tight, friends. 🥱😴

WE MADE IT! 

Yesterday late morning, we packed everyone into the first two rows of the van, and took off to our camping spot! We arrived at the lake, with plans to unload the kids into their new home away from home right away! 

But within one minute of parking our bus, we discovered a BIG blunder. We forgot the key. 

That. Sucked. 

Until it was funny. 

I know its not advisable to show you how we broke into our camper, but it did happen, and we had a good laugh. The broken window wasn’t as funny, but hey. We made it in! 

It was a LOT of fun to set up and settle in. It didn’t take long to feel and look like home. Maybe that means “messy” but it felt SO comfy. 

I want to share mountains of pictures but there is zero wifi up here and I want to be smart about using my data. Trust me when I tell you we are SO comfortable and relaxed and peaceful here. The pace is slow. The expectation is low. Time doesn’t really matter. 

Thank you, Lord, for our camper and our new lake spot. What a huge gift. 

This has been one of the busiest times of our life, as I’m sure you know. We worked HARD to get our camper up and running in our six week timeline, and we did it! We actually secretly moved our camper to our spot (Eeeeek!!!) earlier this week, but I didn’t tell you guys 😉 

We spent the last week in full chaos mode, hahaha! Brady had two days of work scheduled, which we desperately needed, but it grew into 3.5 days. Plus there was pickling. Plus the reality of having an entire life separate from the extra things that were added! Hahaha! Oy! It was SO busy! What. A. Week. 

But, we survived and made it to the weekend! I’ll tell you aaaaall about where we landed tomorrow 😉 

Today, we have bigger priorities on the books.

If you’re not feeling Christmas yet, feel free to scroll on by! No Scrooges welcome!

I know its early. I know. But hear me out. 

Last year, I organized a homemade gift exchange event! By September 1st, I had my names and numbers all lined up already! I was going to wait until September this year to talk about it at all, but that left me feeling aaaaall kinds of justified, hahaha! So here we are, talking about Christmas! 

This blog is to inform you that I’d like to organize another homemade gift exchange!! Its basically a secret Santa, homemade style! The only one who knows who has who is me, and the only reason for that is because people from all different places signed up last year, and I wanted to be able to be the middle man where people needed help with little details. So it was me who pulled names and told everyone who they had. Then, closer to Christmas, I gave everyone the option to mail or drop off their gift, or they could deliver it to me and I could bring it where it went. I’m VERY willing to do a day of running around closer to the day, picking up and delivering gifts. 

Last year, we had 22 people, I think. Some are excited for another year, and others are passing this time around. There is NO burn on me! But I really hope we get some new meat this season!! 

To be clear, not everyone is local. I want people to be able to participate if they want to! So my stipulations for people outside of the Saskatoon area are that the gift needs to be mailed in the first week of December, ideally with tracking. I’m also willing to help with the cost of postage, because I want EVERYONE who wants to participate to be able to! If you do request assistance with shipping, I’d prefer your gift to fit in an expresspost package so I know the cost ahead of time, as well as having the knowledge it’ll arrive on time. 

Last year, there was decor, canning, baking, crafts, crochet, art, jewelry, and many other things exchanged! It was SO FUN!!! Please join in! If its even just a little bit intriguing, message me! I’d love to talk you into it 😉 

Yesterday at supper, the most hilarious little conversation took place!

The topic of the kids having kids came up, and I always get a real kick out of it. Its a funny way to see how they’re feeling about their family at that very moment 😆 If they want LOTS of kids that day, they’re pretty content. And if they want NO kids that day, they’re super over their siblings, hahaha!

Yesterday, specifically, everyone wanted kids! Dekker said he figured he’d want three or four. Probably four, though. Solomon wanted five. Rowan wanted three. Waverly piped up with “five!” And then Laela, with confidence, said she wanted eight!

Thats twenty-five grandkids for meeeee!! I asked for it in writing, but I haven’t acquired it yet 😉

I carried the conversation on with Laela, and asked her what would happen if her husband didn’t want eight kids. That idea seemed crazy to her, which I loved. Who wouldn’t want eight kids, right??

She answered, “Well, I’d change. Or, I’d agree.”

Me: You’d agree?
Laela: If his number was higher than eight, ya, I’d agree!
Me: Oh, hahaha! Fair enough. What if he wanted less kids?
Laela: I’d change.
Me: You’d change your mind? Or would you change his mind?
Laela: I’d change husbands…

😂

To be clear, I wasn’t leading her in any way to answer a specific way. I was curious how her problem solving would look, and I had a BIG laugh at her answers!

If Laela gets what she wants someday, she is going to be the BEST mommy!

My mom and I committed to making pickles this year, and this is the week! Today, we picked up over 20 lbs of pickling cucumbers and spent a few hours getting jars and lids prepped, jars filled, pickles washed, garlic peeled, and everything else. It was a strong smelling, successful afternoon!!

Because we can only get smaller bundles at this time, we’ll be doing pickles a handful of times this week. Today’s progress was great motivation, because they look SO GOOD, and they taste SO GOOD!

Hopefully I survive the six week wait… #justbepicklesalready

Thank you all SO MUCH for following along with our RV project! It felt both like something we worked forever for, and also like a complete whirlwind! It was really encouraging to have people following along, rooting for us. The final post of the RV There Yet series is my third most viewed blog post to date. Out of 8+ years of NEVER missing a day, that says a lot. Thank you for your support!

As promised, I wanted to address what we didn’t do in terms of our camper. There are some obvious parts that will still need some love and work down the road, but in order to save money, and considering its coming up to the end of the camping season at it is, we’re going to hold off until next Spring.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is the ceiling. You’ll notice the ceiling is pretty rough. We really wanted to finish it, or at least paint it, but we simply ran out of time. Next year, we will panel it with solid oak plywood. We will also replace the broken, yellowed roof vents in favor of something brighter white and hole-free. That’ll be priority one next year!

On the subject of the roof vents, we need new screens. Some of our RV windows don’t have screens, and others are split pretty badly. New screens. Maybe some new, tinted windows, even. But thats not a priority. It can wait for next year.

You probably noticed there were no blinds. Yikes. We know, we know, thats a huge necessity! We just didn’t have time to sort out something we really liked that was affordable on a small budget, so we’ll very likely, unceremoniously, finish out this season with cardboard or foil in the windows, and get some actual blackout blinds. Next year.

We need some new hardware. We took the towel bars down and never put them back up. We need one by the bathroom sink. With that, we’ll probably get a new toilet paper holder, and maybe some hooks. Not a rush. Just, next year.

We plan to build a different bed frame with storage under it. We tried SO hard to get to it during our six weeks, but it just wasn’t possible. We know exactly what we want, and we have the hardware for it already. Its where our lake instruments will live! Next year.

A new bathroom cabinet and sink would be really nice. We’ve made all of our fixtures more homey and less RV-y, so I’d love for that sink to make sense with everything else. But I’m not worried. Thats towards the bottom of the list. Maaaybe next year.

The kitchen faucet is actually a whole thing. As we did the water test a couple of days ago, the faucet leaked like crazy! I was angry, as I bought it second hand and felt foolish for trusting someone who clearly I shouldn’t have. I actually messaged him and politely but firmly told him I was very upset. I told him I know “buyer beware” but that honesty is a common courtesy. He was surprised and told me he had just upgraded his own faucet, but had never had any leaks. I’m not sure yet what to believe. We’re going to have to try and fix it, but if it keeps leaking, we’ll have to replace it. Next year.

I don’t know whether or not to even add it to this list, but we need basic furniture in there. A futon/couch of some kind. A table. Maybe a throw rug. We’ll sort that all out next year.

Truthfully, as the camper gets completely completed, we’ll start developing the spot itself. That means grass, a patio, an awning, lights, etc. Lucky for us, we have years to make it our own!

It all starts next year!!