After two days of searching Saskatoon, a friend of ours was able to find a solution to our breaking recliner 💜He happily came over, dismantled the chair, and put it back together in full working order. He cut no corners, and it works perfectly! We are SO grateful for his help and all of the work he put into it, and ALL of the effort he made going into store after store after store, comparing silly little parts. It should NOT be so hard to find replacement parts for furniture!
Dekker weaselled his way into helping, which I LOVED, but the kids spent most of the day outside. It was necessary, finally. We had kept them inside a bit more over the last week with the weather being a bit crappy and a couple of the kids having a few little sick moments. But yesterday it was nice enough that I could confidently send them all out without worry.
And in return, they granted me the grim reminder of the biggest downfall of sending them outside. Dirt. Mud. Mess. Sometimes I take pictures. This time I didn’t. I was SO overwhelmed.
My beautiful children have no choice but to play in the dirt. Thats what we’ve got right now. And thats fine. But a couple of them took it upon themselves to take off their shirts, douse their bodies in sunscreen, and literally rolling in the dirt. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? A couple of them also opted to dump the watering can to make mud. That was truly their end goal. Mud making. Lastly, Laela confirmed to Solly that dirt is healthy, and he should eat it. *sigh*
They were SO DIRTY. And almost all of my children hate baths and showers.
Thus began a very stressful evening of marathon baths. Never before have I scrubbed children the way I have these last couple of weeks. I soap them up good and proper, scrub them, and there were still streaks of mud down their legs! What gives?! I had to soak Rowan, in hopes of loosening some of the gunk, and when it still didn’t come off, I took a soap saturated cloth and basically scratched at him until some of it came off. Its true that some of my kids are pretty self sufficient in the bath, but not on that level of filth.
By the end of it, I was absolutely sweating, and I felt like crying. Whew!
Believe it or not, today I feel kind of uncertain about sending them outside. And thats not ok either. I want them to play outside. But I cannot do that kind of marathon every night, either. I know lots of people bathe their kids every night. This wasn’t that. This was a whole other thing, and I don’t have the energy for it. Absolutely no way.
Time for a new plan.