The Haps.

I know I’ve said before that I sometimes feel like our lives are spinning out of control. It’s been a year of trials and challenges, yes, of immense blessing as well, but there have been some bumps in the road. I almost have to laugh when I think through all of the things we’ve come through in the last year… a flood, multiple house repairs including 3 separate plumbing problems, the scary process of the MRI of our 6 month old’s spine, work challenges for both Seth and I, family issues I don’t ever even touch on this blog, the general insanity of a maintaining a home with two full time working parents and a very active youngster.

Well, the last month or so has really stepped up its game. All I can really do is laugh sometimes, take deep breathes and remember there's a reason for everything.

About 2, maybe 3, months ago we came to the inevitable conclusion that the slow drain in our master bathroom was not going to fix itself. A variety of home methods that would have worked for at least 90% of similar symptoms didn’t make a difference. Turns out we need to replace the pipe. Which is underground. Meaning, a plumber needs to pull out the toilet and jackhammer through the floor to get under the shower and replace the pipe and there’s a good chance that will fix it. The only other option around this massive, and as you can imagine expensive, process would be to convert our shower to a nice closet. Given the weight of the financial implications, we were waiting on that decision.

Then, two weeks ago, we found out that my mother in law, who has cared for Carter since I went back to work, would no longer be able to take care of him. This was through no fault of her own but other reasons I won’t get into. Unfortunately, we didn’t find out until very late in the process and had two weeks to figure out a plan. It’s been an absolutely insane two weeks on that front, but I think we figured out a daycare we’re going to try and hopefully we'll still be able to afford food. Now we just have to figure out a few weeks of gap between when he starts and when my mother in law will no longer be available, so I’m rearranging my vacation time for the summer and asking for help where I can.

Oh, and I’ve been very fortunate to work about 36 hours for the last 6 months, and for the last 2 have taken off Fridays altogether while I had some remaining maternity leave. That’s up next week so I’ll be back to 40 hours starting the week after next. Not really great timing for that. I literally cannot fathom how the heck I’m going to get everything done.

We spent our Memorial Day weekend transforming this:

To this:

In hindsight, had we known about the daycare stuff and in light of the other things going on, we would have waited on getting a giant load of bark dropped on our driveway. Someday we'll replant that dead palm tree and I'd really like jasmine bushes along the house, but that's not happening anytime soon.

Yesterday a co-worker unexpectedly went out on bed rest and I'm taking over 3 of her business groups. That made for the craziest day I've had in a long while.

We're also excited to celebrate Carter’s first birthday this weekend with about 50 of his closest friends and family. Unfortunately, Carter came down with a cold and is now sick. We’re just praying it passes before Saturday and that Seth and I are spared.

Suffice it to say, the shower remains in the same sorry state. Our solution? Shut the door. If only other areas of our life had doors we could easily close and allow for long-term ignoring.