I’m about to tell you about the past couple of days. Technically it’s the past 3 days since I’m typing this at a God-forsaken hour of the morning.

So Thursday was THE day to get our new floors in. I am sooooo excited to get these floors. For one thing it means we finally own our own home again & have the authority to put in new floors. For another, who doesn’t want pretty, new, durable, washable flooring? This was supposed to take about a day to do. Of course it didn’t go as planned…

First sign of trouble, mold in the most random spot, the corner of the hall & entry.

Ok, so one spot isn’t so bad, right? But when we got into the kitchen, we found more and worse!

We’ve had a persistent sink leak that just doesn’t want to be fixed  We lived in this house for 18 months before buying it, so we knew a couple of things needed to be addressed, but had no idea about the extent of damage.

I wasn’t surprised to find the mold in front of the sink. Even under the sink cabinet wasn’t much of a surprise. But the surprise came when we pulled our dishwasher out to see it was leaking too! YAY for being a homeowner! (I really am grateful, it’s just A LOT of expense to fix)

Ok, so here’s the good news: C’s room did get the new floors and it looks great!

And the rest of the floors are getting fixed ASAP. All the moldy boards are officially out of the house & the moldy toxic smell is gone. Praise the Lord for that! It was, as we say in Oklahoma, “rank.”

And since all the floors are up, it’s the perfect time to paint the kitchen, even though that wasn’t supposed to happen until we lived with the new floor for a while & I could think through my color choice. And if we’re painting the kitchen, we might as well paint the living & dining area, which means the hall needs a new shade too.

But what color?

Neutral?

No, a little color.

No, neutral. But then it looks so blah.

I texted Red, that’s my friend that puts up with my nuttiness, to get her opinion on blue. She thinks it’s good. Now which shade of blue? We had to talk about that. After bringing home 8 different color samples & taping them to the wall, I go with my bedroom color of Blue Skies, my first choice to begin with. I picked out my two neutrals which are in the same color palette as my bathroom brown from last week’s Tipsy Tuesday and I’m ready to paint.

Until Miss B starts screaming around 415 pm. I think she picked up a splinter. I pulled one out, then X that’s my oldest got another out. But she kept yelling. By the time her daddy got home at 6, she was whimpering in between yells. Really pitiful. He got her to sleep so I could conjure up a magical dinner that wasn’t fast food and could be prepared in the microwave.

B wouldn’t eat & she came to me for a while & snoozed the rest of the night. I delivered her to bed around 930, and because I’m just not exhausted enough, decided to paint the kitchen. Honestly, it really needed to get done so that I can spend Saturday afternoon/evening painting the rest of the house. At least that was my plan.

At midnight, the hubs calls me in to check B for fever, which of course she has. I get her fixed up with some medicine & 7-Up, and head on back to finish cutting-in above the cabinets.

At 1:15 am, X comes into the kitchen and asks me to get him some water. Now I’m standing on top of the counter with my head scrunched sideways because the ceiling is in my way, not looking at him, opposite of where the cups are. I tell him to get it himself. He gets his glass, gets water from the fridge, then I hear it. That “Mo-o-o-o-m”. Uh-oh. That’s not good. I go into Special Ops mode & jump of the counter without breaking anything on it or myself and get him ushered ok, I pushed a little…he’s a big boy! into the bathroom. I’m starting to get accustomed to the smell of vomit. My stomach no longer lurches when the scent hits so my recent exposure seems to be beneficial to me. Once he’s cleaned up, I get him a cold rag, a trash can, & take his temperature. No fever, only 95.5. That can’t be right…second time says 96.1. He argued with me to tell me he has to have a fever. I assure him he doesn’t & lecture on the importance of only taking small sips of water & knowing where the trash can is next to his bed.

I take the next hour or so of cutting in paint to pray, pray some more & hope that everyone is better. And that there’s nothing else found in the house that needs to be fixed immediately. And that tomorrow a.k.a. “today” will be smoother. By the time I finish up, I’ve caught my second wind and can’t sleep. Not a wink. That’s why I’m here typing this, sharing with you all my little dramas and bumps in the road.

When it rains, it pours. This is when I’m so grateful to have an umbrealla of faith. It’s the only thing that’s kept me from having a meltdown, and I promise that after almost 2 hours of B’s crying today and our house in utter chaos, I was close to breaking down myself. Honestly, I’m pretty tired of all the sickness, but I’m grateful it’s not worse. I’m really not in the mood to paint the rest of the house, but I’d be stupid to not get it done. I keep telling myself that I’m blessed to be able to paint it & we’re blessed to own our home again. And all the other obstacles and snares that keep getting thrown at us is just part of life I guess, but I’m pretty sick of them too.

I’m ready for a weekend with my family that doesn’t involve travel; illness; construction, repairs or paint; the dog destroying something; or stressful situations brought on by factors outside of our family unit of 6.

I’m ready for some rest.

My Friday morning verse in my daily devotion was: Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised-Hebrews 10:36 NLT

I love that this verse was given to me at 6:15 am Friday morning, while I was fighting a Benadryl induced stupor & it still resonated with me waaaay later in the day. I don’t really think that painting is necessarily God’s will for me, but taking care of my home & my kids is. It’s my assignment from Him. It’s the path He has given me to walk & I intend to stay on it as long as He lets me & make good use of what he’s given me.

Besides, He’s given me my handy-dandy umbrella of faith to shield me from whatever the world wants to pours down.