SAL-VA-TION: by grace

E-LEV-EN: children from 1984 to 2006

HOME-SCHOOL-ING: since 1990

DOWN-SYN-DROME: susie and gabe

GRAND-CHILD-REN: since 2010

FAITH-FUL-NESS: my steadfast rock, my biggest supporter, my leader, my friend, my love, my husband

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Final Straw

When your 2 year old has been sick with diarrhea for 9 days while your aunt is visiting, and then you get sick with a fever and diarrhea for the next 3 days, and you have emptied 2 bedrooms housing 4 boys and have to paint one and clean both before putting the beds and boys back IN the rooms, and everyone is sleeping on floors and couches, and you have two exchange students coming in the next two days to share the room you are painting, which of the following unexpected difficulties, all occurring on one day, will make you cry?

1) Finding out that the last of your three paint color stripes needs a dark primer or the color won't look right and definitely does not go with the half finished room so you have to buy the primer and apply and dry it.

2) Learning that you actually need 2 coats of primer AND 2 coats of the paint--applied and dried--to make the color work.

3) Having your son walk in to help with the painting, step in the roller tray, spill paint on the carpet, not realize he has paint on his heel, and then walk across the room.

4) Having your 6-year-old daughter walk in the room and say, "I have to go the bathroom but I don't want to because it hurts" and you take her anyway and she screams in pain and there is blood in her urine and you take an hour and a half off from painting to take her to the doctor and she has a fever and says she's been hurting for a few days but didn't want to tell you and you have to treat her for a UTI and continue taking her to the bathroom and hugging her tightly every 20-30 minutes throughout the day.

5) Having your husband pitch in to help with the painting, starting with removing the unremovable door stop on the wall, peeling away the top layer of dry wall so you have to get the spackling out and repair the wall before proceeding with the painting.

6) Pouring the potato-vegetable-broth mixture into the blender for an easy cream of potato soup supper and finding out that someone left the juicer spigot open and the boiling broth is spilling all over the floor and splashing on your feet and legs.

7) After cleaning up the broth, putting the blender on the base for blending, covering the top with a small plate to avoid splatters, but forgetting to put the top piece on the blender, hitting the "on" button and having boiling soup spray all over the counter, the stove, and yourself.

8) Sitting in the living room having devotions with your family when you hear a car's tires screech and a minute later you smell the overpowering, rank, unmistakable smell of skunk and find that it is splattered all over the road right in front of your open living room and bedroom windows and you have a fan in the newly painted room pulling the outside air into and through the house for increased ventilation.

Or finally,
9) Pulling off the tape that marks the paint line separating your last two colors and making it about 55 feet around the entire room and when you get to the very last inch and a half of tape the primer layer sticks and a very large thumbprint sized spot peels off and instead of a border of medium blue and dark blue you have an ocean sized spot of white.

For me, #7 was my meltdown point, the straw that broke the camel's back, when the tears finally came. I felt like Anne Shirley, "Oh Marilla, such a Jonah day."

9 comments:

Keelie said...

Oh Aunt Cindy, you could write a book, and not exactly the kind you'd probably like to! I think number 1 would have been it for me. I HATE painting with a passion and I'm always overwhelmed by the job in front of me - I probably would have thrown the towel in right there and then! I surely hope on the tail end of such a day, in which God obviously thought you could handle it all(he sure does test our limits sometimes!), that he will bless you with an incredible day of complete relaxation...hmm is that possible with the life you lead???

Keelie said...

Just one more thing...you did say ONE day right?! As in 24 hours??? Well, actually probably more like 16, unless you were up all night too, which seems quite probable!

Anonymous said...

Who is Anne Shirley?? Regardless, you are amazing sister!

Keithslady said...

Yes Keelie, unbelievably, ALL IN ONE DAY!

Kari, one of my (and Mom's) absolute favorite literary characters of the Anne of Green Gables series--excellent movies, just as good as the books.

Keelie said...

Umm, it's a crime for someone to have never heard of Anne Shirley!!!:)

kristi noser said...

Oh. My. Stars.
I think I would have been done at number three. Or two.
Praying for you my friend.

Anonymous said...

A-ma-zing is all I have to say!
And, it would definitely depend on what time of the month it was as to how far I could have gone through that day without losing it.
Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Girlfriend, you get a hug from me first thing when I get to camp.

Bless your heart!

Marcia W.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Cindy!
I would have been done by #4 (Is Lisa better by now?) , but then after our visit you may have guessed homemade potato soup is not happening at my house anyway. I suppose I didn't realize it was probably how I've stayed "safe" all these years. Were you badly burned?

What a "Jonah day" indeed sounded more like a day in the live of Job. I think a little Pollyanna might be called for as well. She could find good in any situation.

As for me, I was with my family and friends from England touring our Nation's Capitol building while your trials were occuring. We all made it home to MI tonight. Laptop down again.

I trust you will not be burdend with a day such as that for many years to come.
Love ya, Lynn