Tag: lifestyle

The ‘Firsts’ Of Many!

Well, I never thought it would take me over 9 weeks to write a blog post about daily life 😅🙈

That being said, let’s just dive right in to this overview of Lakes first week home!

No pun intended 😜

16th – (The evening)

I finally opened up the gifts that had been left on the kitchen island! My sisters ‘new mom’ care package consisted of celebratory sparkling grape juice, a confetti birthday cake for Lake 😉 a starbucks gift card, travel coffee mug, hair masks and facial oil ❤ There was also a bag containing some sherbet colored tie-dye pj’s from the hubby 😉

The first NIGHT home with Lake, was horrendous 😣

It felt so wrong to have him in his own crib in his room, so we made up a makeshift bed beside ours and thus began the night of zero sleep for mommy 😬😜

‘Is that a normal noise or a not normal noise? Why is there no noise?’ and so the questions went, running through a very alert, yet at the same time very over-tired brain 😬
Fairly normal I’m sure but also SO exhausting and morning was pleasantly welcomed… just, very groggily 😬

17th –

Mike had went to work, so I had my first morning at home with the babe. I ate one of the blueberry bran muffins the sister-in-law had dropped off the day before and was super thankful for that easy and tasty way to begin the day… accompanied by a confetti cupcake from the sister for balancing out the health levels😉
Slowly trying to tidy the house between feedings, changings, swaddling and just trying to figure him out, as well as managing my own aches and pains, is what filled my morning.

My mom stopped by on her way to town later in the morning and after I tried to talk with her and had a tired (little😉) hormonal cry, she dropped me off at to my sisters and I ended up being there for the remainder of the day.

The process of getting ready to go to her house took much, MUCH longer than it ever had before and I still felt very unprepared 😅
I had to get dressed, feed and dress the babe, pack some stuff so I could have a bath there as we don’t have a tub and then try to pack up the diaper bag too. Although none of those tasks should be tricky, my brain function wasn’t at an all time high after having had roughly 8 hours of sleep over the previous three nights 🤪

I had a quick bath (as I still abhor baths) and changed into actual semi publicly acceptable clothes and was then treated to a yummy fried eggs and toast brunch before going to take a nap in the sisters room, whilst she babysat.

I slept for 2, VERY wonderful hours and probably could have continued but figured I shouldn’t 🤪

Next, I was served a tasty fruit smoothie and then she and I traded shoulder rubs.
I was served a healthy and delicious supper of spaghetti squash with blackened chicken and tomato sauce, as Mike was working a long day and wouldn’t be home for supper anyways.

My day there ended with a coffee and newly brightened outlook on life, after having been served all day 💗

We put Lake in his room that night and it was a much better sleep for us all.
His room is literally just a few steps across from ours and with the doors open, there is more than enough nearness to be aware of his needs 😉
It still felt a little wrong… knowing that he’d only known a warm, dark, comfy and noisy place up till this point in his life, where he now lay all alone in a ‘big’ empty bed 🤪🙈

18th –

It was a very pretty morning that awaited me prior to Lakes breakfast feeding ☺️

Mike went into town to take care of a few things and I tried to finish cleaning up the house, give Lake a little wash cloth bath and get myself ready for the health nurses visit.

Mike was back at the house before they arrived that afternoon.
One asked me questions about my recovery etc. while the other looked over Lake.

It took three try’s to weigh him, during which on the third try he went #1 and #2 on their scale🤪

Besides a bit of a rash under his one arm, he was looking good and we just had to try to not keep him too warm and air out his little pit/put some rash cream on it for a few days.

A call with Oma Inge gave us some more tips on how to care for it as well 👍🏻

A family photo was snapped since we looked semi put together… note the vacuum behind us though 🤪

Thanks to a reminder from a friend, I actually snapped a picture of just myself and Lake later that day, not really having thought to do that up to that point.

19th –

I took a picture of his fuzzy little ears, wanting to document them before the hair went away, as there are few opportunities in life where hairy ears, are considered cute 🤪🙈

(Even here, they are almost verging on creepy more than cute 🤪 )

Mike hung out around home for a little bit before he went to Saskatoon to buy a vehicle 🤪

I then went to the parents house for dinner/the evening.
Where Lake enjoyed a leg massage via grams 🤪

Mike came there with the new vehicle and informed us that it was MY and Lakes car… cause I drive so much 😂
But whatever 😉💁🏻‍♀️

New baby, new car… typical Mike 😏

Once home, there was some laundry to be tended to before bed 🤪

20th –

We stayed home and listened to a sermon that Sunday and then actually had some family friends over for lunch ☺️
Sundays can feel long when spent at home after a Saturday at home too, I was feeling fine, Mike was going to grill and they wanted to meet Lake asap, so it all worked out perfectly 😉

Beside the fact that our guest insisted on bringing the salad and dessert, so I didn’t have a whole lot to take care of preparation wise 🤪

We spent the afternoon visiting with them, the sister and her littles came over too around the dessert portion of the day and the husbands went to look at an acreage that Mike had seen was for sale and we’d taken a look at before Lake was born.

Atlas was caught by Mike, sneaking a peek at the babe in his room 😏

21st-

Monday brought with it some beautiful weather that needed to be taken advantage of 😄
So, after Mom came over and helped me give Lake another bath, we bundled him up for his first ‘walk’.

It was most definitely a slower walk then we’d went on pre Lake, every bump and jostle seeming like it must feel as though there was an earthquake in the stroller seat for the babe🙈

After we completed our walk, we enjoyed some of the creamy potato soup my dear friend had left with me the day before ☺️🙌🏻

Atlas was found asleep in Lakes crib, multiple times.

The funny thing is that prior to Lake being in the house with us, she had zero interest in his room.
It had been finished and ready, door open, for weeks. During which she never went in it but after laying Lake in his bed for half an hour or so the first day we were home, she was later found asleep in his crib.
Attempting to reclaim her territory I would presume 😬😅

22nd –

My friend who moved to Ontario was back visiting and had a chance to come make Lakes acquaintance ☺️ She MADE him this thick, cozy blanket and putting aside the face he is making, he loved it I’m certain 😉

I somehow did more socializing and being ready to see people and having a clean house in Lakes first week of life, then any of the months before he was born 🤪
It was so nice to be able to see her though, since if she hadn’t happened to be visiting, it would most likely have been some time before she’d get to see him.

The health nurses called to check up on me and the babe again, just making sure all was still going well, which thankfully, it was ☺️

This doesn’t really detail the many night wakings and general emotions that also occurred during this first week but perhaps a post on those ‘pleasantries’, shall follow 🤓

Beachy Wall Decor – My Creativity During Covid

 

Many moons ago, I’d made this decorative wall hanging/decor for our bathroom wall, using a piece of beach wood, air plants and string.

After successfully killing all of the air plants over the span of a year or so, the wood has hung empty for much, much too long 😅

Though I loved how it looked, I wasn’t about to purchase more plants. just to kill them :p

I’d notice the empty piece of wood while in the bathroom and then just as quickly forget about it…
Finally after a little thought and inspiration blossoming after Instagram/Pinterest scrolling, an idea formed.

I bought this ‘air drying clay’ from Walmart for around $5.00 and during one Sunday morning after we’d had breakfast and were listening to some preaching online, I got Mike to accompany me in making some clay shapes to begin the project.

I laid out parchment paper to roll the clay out on and used a variety of home items to cut out my desired shapes.
A small knife, some lids from these bead containers and a sewing needle to create the holes that would be used for assembly.

The clay began to dry out fairly quickly so I wouldn’t take off more than you need at one time… just so you know if you decide to attempt anything 🤓

You can see when the created pieces are dry, as they go from a grey color to more of a white… I didn’t time it and we rolled out pieces pretty thin but I didn’t find that it took crazy long.

What DID take long was installing a loop on each one, then arranging and rearranging the shapes until I found them to be mostly visually pleasing and used jewelry chain to attach them all in the correct order.

They then sat on my coffee table, in order, for probably over a week before I got up the ambition to actually paint them and complete the project 😬🙈 I have to be in just the right mood to actually ‘paint’ anything… anyone else?

I would have left them neutral but since the wall behind the piece is white, I decided to add some color.
I painted them and then used a damp paper towel and my nail to distress them a bit which gave it more of a beach feel to me, since I wasn’t going for perfection in my paint strokes anyways 😉

I used hot glue to attach the top of the chains onto the driftwood and some ‘quake putty’ on the back of some of the pieces to gently adhere the odd one to the wall, so they would lay flat.

 

I don’t know that it’s my favourite creation but honestly, it’s rare that I absolutely love a thing that I come up with 🤪
So, it’s better than nothing and I can see myself turning to clay more often in the future… maybe 😉

Now, after an embarrassingly long time, the stick on the bathroom wall no longer hangs empty 🙂

Tell One, Tell All!

Feb 21st –

Well, we told the remaining family members here in Sask. about the happenings 🤪
We had everyone over for oliebollen since it was Saturday and a nice warm day out for deep frying.

I set the kiddos up to ‘picnic’ downstairs since we didn’t want them to find out the news just yet, incase their secret keepings skills weren’t developed strongly enough to stay silent for a little while 🙈

Once everyone’s plates were filled and they settled into eating in the living room, it was time to open the curtains to a new subject in our lives.
Truly… we had the blinds drawn and the ultrasound photo taped on the window with a note that said, ‘eat up, Jess can’t be the only fat one this summer!’.

So finally (like 2 minutes into us all being in the right spots) I asked Mike to lift the blind 😜
Pro (the sister) was the first to see and then maybe (my bro) Nathin. Becca (my sister in law) was immediately excited/jealous and the bro in law (Josh) took more than a few moments to read and understand the meaning 😂
Mom and Dad sat, as cool as cucumbers during this all, since they already knew 😎

As it wasn’t really a SUPER expected nor SUPER unexpected announcement and we aren’t the type to be overly exuberant about such announcements, it was all accepted pretty relaxed and with calm pleasure 🤪

March 2nd –

The day the Hubster sent the photo that he would at a later date post on Instagram, to the Hagenouw family chat 🤓

It had to be sent during the correct time here, so that the family there would all be awake in order to get the news at the right time.
Because awaiting a response after a message like that, would be pretty painful 🙈

Hearts and smilies and congratulatory messages were sent to us quickly and that was that. Most of the family now knew!

The different sets of grandparents where called to let them know over the phone ☺️

Oma immediately told Mike congratulations,  that she has a gift for the baby and that she wanted to talk to me but he called her while she was at work.

She then asked if he knew what the gift was and he responded no, so she said she wouldn’t tell him 😛

She did though and his favourite childhood book will make for the perfect Dutch baby book for him to entertain our offspring with 😉

March 17 –

We decided it was time to tell Alaina and Brynlee about the baby, since they wouldn’t be seeing anyone for sometime, due to the beginning of social distancing/quarantines etc.
So after dinner, when they were hanging out with Uncle Mike (as is their usual activity it he’s around) we turned the video on and brought up the topic.
We expected their reactions to be entreating and slightly opposite, as Brynlee hadn’t been overly fond of the ‘baby’ subject when we’d work it into conversations and Alaina would pretty much start drooling 🤪

Alaina didn’t believe that we were being serious AT ALL, until given many reassurances.
She really just thought we were talking about how wonderful it WOULD be, since she’s been talking about someone in the family having a kid for at least 6 months to a year, as she absolutely loves them.

Part 1-

Part 2 –

Part 3 –

Brynlee just said we couldn’t have a baby, cause we didn’t have toys, ‘her not fat’ and ‘them gross cause them have poop on them’ (‘Her’ and ‘them’, being ‘me’ and ‘the baby’) 🤪

When they finally believed, Brynlee become very clingy to Mike and after telling her the baby wouldn’t come until summer was over, she stated that, ‘she hoped summer was not for a long time’.🤪

Alaina just kept creepily staring at me as though she was in love and after a few minutes, asked us seriously, ‘well are you going to homeschool or send your kid to school?’.
I laughed and said that was the most serious question we’d gotten yet but before she could say more on the subject, she suddenly started to get teary eyed.
Pro was like, ‘are you going to cry??’ to which she responded ‘No!’ While grinning and shaking her head and then immediately changing her answer to ‘YES!’ While her face crumpled and she dissolved into tears and then ran upstairs, embarrassed because Pro and I started laughing at her 😂😬

It couldn’t be helped ok?? 🙈

When she came back downstairs, she and Brynlee positioned themselves beside and on me on the couch in order to discuss the newcomer 😉

Between March 17th/March 20th –

Mike called to FaceTime the nieces and nephews in Europe to tell them the news during his morning drive to work.
He told them he had a surprise and the oldest guessed that it would be about us having a baby but also it wouldn’t be, because Jessica doesn’t like or want kids so like, what? supposedly said as only a smart, mature, 11 year old could 😉
The others I believe, accepted the news as children generally take this type of announcement 🤓

Not that I really know how ‘that’ is, as it’s the first time we’ve ever had such a thing to tell 🤪

March 20th –

We didn’t get a chance before this, to tell the remaining nieces and nephew here, so when we finally did, we let Alaina break the news.
We know their parents (my bro and sister in law) are not overly expressive folks, so in all honesty we didn’t video because we expected pretty average responses 😂🙈

Which are exactly what we got 🤪

Emily, the oldest, just sort of smiled and was like, ‘she is?’.
Spencer just looked at me with kind of creeped out eyes and a smile and stuffed his face with chips and the littlest was sleepy soo the reaction was non existent 🤓

Aliana was disappointed, as she had been bursting at the seams, waiting for them to know 😜

She instead got her thrills when she called to tell her other cousin in the States the news. A fellow lover of babies, she was very excited and wishes to visit me once the baby arrives… just what I’ve always dreamed of, a baby AND two little kids hanging out with me 🤪

March 20th –

Instagram knows.

Thus, worldwide, people now know 🤪

Originally I’d just wanted to go to Hawaii (I’d have been arriving back home today) on my girls trip/babymoon with the mom and sister and then when I would get back, we’d make the announcement to everyone.

As it turned out, God/the world, had other plans 😬

Our trip was canceled, sadness ensued and by then we were pretty much already social distancing/self isolating (yes, MORE than normal 🤪).
Church had been canceled due to the limit on group gatherings and the overall lifestyle was beginning to change a bit, so it’s not as though anyone was feeling overly cheerful.
So, we figured WHY NOT tell and perhaps bring an unexpected smile to some folks 😉

I realize that to some, it may seem strange that we waited as long as we did to let people in on this, but that was because of me. As this is a pretty life changing occurrence, I needed as much time as possible to get used to the idea myself, pre ‘peopling’ 😉

A Proclamation To The Parents

Jan 22, 2020 –

Mike and I arranged a dinner to be eaten with Mother and Father…at their home.
Because they have a bbq and also because we had news to share with them 🤪

Mike purchased steaks and mushrooms and I went over to the parents a little early to prepare asparagus and a wine sauce for the steaks.
Mom made Cajun fried potatoes and supplied bread for garlic toast ☺️

We sat down for dinner and dug in.
Enjoying the tasty meal, as we tried our best to act casual, eat the food and not stress out too much for the conversation that awaited 🤭

Mike and I had discussed how to segue into the topic we wanted to broach and we used our newly purchased house investment to do so.
Just as we began talking about the correct subject, Dad got a phone call and left the room for a moment, right when we needed him to stay seated 😅
Mike kept the conversation going and once Dad returned, he causally mentioned how ‘whatever we decide to do with the house project, it has to be done by September’.

Mom responded with the expected, ‘ Why by September?’ to which I said, ‘Well, that’s when the baby comes.’

.
.
.

Dads response was exactly as I expected and had told Mike it would be.
A very abrupt, ‘huh?!’ With a quizzical face and slight leaning back in his chair, though he recovered quicker than Mom.
She sat with a very wide, yet unsure grin and even larger eyes, while sort of just saying, ‘whaaaat..?’ 😂
Suffice to say they were surprised 😉

The ensuing conversation was of course as one would expect.
‘How far along, who else knows, do we have to keep it a secret? This is fairly unexpected’ etc etc.

Yes, they were the first to know, yes they had to keep it a secret from the rest of the family and yes it’s not what one would generally expect from me, the one who dislikes small humans and the idea of them 😬🤪🙈

We told them fairly early, as their semi permanent house guests (my sister and her family who were living there during house renovations) were away on a trip during that time and we wanted Mom and Dad to be the first to know.
Making our secret slightly less difficult to bear alone, dragging them along in the required silence with us 🤪👍🏻

Feb 3rd – Holland

I can’t supply a whole lot of detail on this ‘revealing’, as I wasn’t present 🤓

Mike had booked his ticket to go home for a visit before we knew our lives would be in an upheaval come fall but the timing worked out well for him to be able to tell the news to his parents, in person ☺️

He waited longer into the trip than I would have but come one evening chat with his parents, he let it out.
Supposedly in a way that they did not understand for a moment or two but once it was explained, the emotions were that of happiness… not surprisingly 😉

So, at this point both sets of parents were made aware of the news and the fact that it was to be kept between the 6.5 of us 🤞🏻😜

As I wasn’t ready for the onslaught of words from humans, we were waiting to tell anyone else at that time, because we didn’t want anymore to have to deal with ‘knowing but not being able to say’, so the telling to the rest of the family and then ‘the world’, came at a later date 😉

Oh, Baby 😳

Well, if you haven’t heard it yet via the Instagrams and the folks who assemble there… then I’m a little surprised but it’s totally fine 🤪

First question – Due date?

Come September (9th if we are trying to be specific) of this year, our family is going to grow by a mini person 😬

That’s right, we’re expecting.

That still sounds so weird ^ 🤪😬

As of this moment, I’m 16 weeks along with our visit ever offspring and things have been going good 💁🏻‍♀️

Which leads us to the second question- How I’ve been feeling?

I experienced ONE instance on a Sunday morning while preparing for church, where I suddenly got nauseous and hot and shaky but as soon as it came, it then left, never to happen again.

Thus far 😜

There was also a week or so nearer the beginning where I slept most of the day and felt hungry but absolutely nothing held appeal and opening the fridge invited disgust, so suppers for hubby were, lacking 🙈
I consider those symptoms prettttty minimal compared to things I’ve heard others go through during this stage of life though 😬

Now it’s mainly been hunger and having to eat ASAP 😜
Which doesn’t stray THAT far from my usual I guess 🤓

Next question – Are we finding out the gender?

YES! I’m not a patient person when it comes waiting for a thing that could otherwise be known and neither is Mike, so the decision wasn’t even really a decision, so much as an appointment booking 🤪

Now it’s your turn to answer questions that I have!

I can give as little, or as much detailing about this all, as you want.
I don’t want to overdose you on stories and happenings to do with this ‘situation’ 😜 unless the information is desired.

Do you want to know who we told, when and how?
Do you want to know room plans, LIFE plans?! 🙈

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ?! 🤪

Keep in mind that the above question is asked in an ‘only slightly raised volume but mostly nice and happy’ way… I know caps can be confusing 😉

A Refreshed, Rental Investment

So we bought a second, or I guess I should I say, third house, a couple months back 💁🏻‍♀️

Hubster found a bank repo for sale in a town 15 or so minutes away from us, so we went and were the first people to take a look.
The rest is history 🤪

This one was purchased with pretty much only the intent to clean it up, fix a few things and then rent it out.
I wouldn’t have minded cleaning it up, making it look a bit better and trying to sell it again right away buuuuut Hubster wanted to get his fingers in the rental market, so that’s what we did 🤪

 

 

What’s really unfortunate about it all, is that we (the sister and I) cleaned for about 8-10 hours, I cleaned for a few hours alone before that and Mike repainted all the walls, took out trash annnd you can’t really see ‘missing dirt’ in ‘after’ photos 😬

 

So the look isn’t much different from photo to photo, but imagine if you will, how gross it was if it took two steady cleaners, 8 or so hours to scrape off unknown substances from the walls, baseboards, kitchen cupboards and then vacuuming, mopping and carpet cleaning and then a few hours of bathroom scrubbing.

And, that isn’t touching the state of the basement, aside from what Mike and a friend did, removing a bunch of the old owners items.

We now have a renter in it and are just trusting all goes well in this new venture* 🤓
Fingers crossed we don’t find too many terrible ‘surprises’ in the yard once the snow melts 🤪
By surprise, I mostly mean dog poo, as that was found multiple different places, IN the house 😬

*Since I wrote on here last, Michiel began his own construction and renovation business! The name is ‘Hagenouw Ventures’ and so far, he’s been kept pretty busy and is still enjoying being able to use his hands and set his own hours 😉

@HagenouwVentures

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