How it came about...
I am still trying to get our house ready to sell. It has been a long process. Things are slow going with 4 little kids, my church calling, Jordan's preschool, Caden's preschool, Kailyn's school projects, etc. Unfortunately, Ken has not been able to help very much this last month. He is on a busy schedule where he has been working 30 hour shifts at the hospital. He seems to be a "black cloud" (every night, he gets at least 2-3 times more people than anyone else gets when they are on call). This means he returns from 30 hours of working without even making it to his room, let alone getting any sleep. When he wasn't at work, he was sleeping, studying for a test, getting paperwork ready so he can work at his new job, and making enemies trying to put together an impossible schedule for work (trying to grant 13 people their vacations in a month that only had room for 7 peoples' vacations).
Anyway, one day I had a particularly hard day (see below if you want to read the details). The next day at preschool Beth asked how I was doing. Who knows--maybe she saw me choking back tears (literally), but at any rate, it was very obvious that things were not going well. So, she quickly did something amazing. She talked to some other friends and organized a day when everyone could come over and help. On the arranged day (just a couple days ago), six women came over to my house to help me tackle my mile long list. We worked from 9am to 1pm. While we worked, five others were the real troopers who watched all of the kids so we could work uninterrupted. This was no small feat with the mass of kids they had to watch! We: painted the entryway, vacuumed and shampooed the living room, painted the entryway closet, primed the upstairs bedroom and closet, painted the ceiling of the upstairs bedroom and closet, primed the doors to the bedrooms, put finishing touches on the painting job in the master bedroom, cleared off the back porch, took down the shelving on the back porch, and loaded boxes into the car. It was amazing!
A simple (though heartfelt) "Thank you" just doesn't adequately express my gratitude to all of you. You have no idea how much you have helped. I feel like my burden has been eased and that means so much.
So a HUGE thank you to:
Beth
Lindsay
Jenny
Alison
Brittani
Jill
Leisy
Sherri
Cyndi
Jeanette
Liora
Alisha (thanks for the pizza. yum. yum.)
Ranae (watched my kids the day before, so I could get things ready)
You guys are amazing!!! I feel so incredibly blessed right now to have such amazing friends.
***So here is a summary of that particularly bad day, the day before my conversation with Beth. I wrote this summary the night that it happened because Ken was not around and I needed to let it out somehow. I was not going to share it, but I decided it does a better job of summing up what has been going on and might just help everyone understand how much help you truly were.*****
This week just started out bad, with something happening earlier in the week that just totally threw me a curve ball. On top of that I have been working on the house nonstop for the last 3 weeks (maybe you noticed--I haven't posted for awhile). 3 WEEKS NONSTOP!! I'm not exaggerating! The kids have been pretty good up to this point. I think their lack of supervision has made them much more mischievous and things seem to be going downhill. Yesterday, as the kids were supposed to be getting ready for bed, Jordan and Caden came down to show me the stamps (permant ink pad) that Kailyn had put all over their faces. Today I found my nice new towel covered in red ink. Kailyn had used it to wipe off the ink from her stamp. Then, as I was packing stuff up, I found my favorite necklace...broken. The kids thought it would be fun to play with. Later in the day Jordan comes down to tell me she and Caden had broken a drawer in my bedroom (it is beyond repair). I must admit I am impressed that she actually came and told me that it happened.
Then this afternoon I was working on painting the backsplash in the kitchen. It turned into a total disaster. I hated the original color I chose. Then the new color made fumes that got everywhere. I noticed when I felt stickiness on the floor. I also discovered it had gotten under the covering I had put over the countertop, which I had just painted a few days earlier. I frantically worked to clean it up before it ruined everything. (I was not able to get it all off the counter). On top of that it had gotten up my nose (Yes I should have used a mask) and had completely coated the inside. As I was frantically srubbing the countertop I hear a crash and rush into the livingroom to see Jordan standing over my nice decorative bowl. I loved loved loved this bowl. There are only a few items of decor in my house that I absolutely love, and this was one of them. Tears involuntarily started flowing from my eyes, and I sent all the kids to another room so I could clean up the glass. Between the tears, I notice new red marks all over the carpet. I could only wonder, "WHAT NOW!?!?" I had no idea what it was and was worried that the carpet might be stained. Then I realized I had cut my finger on the glass and didn't even realize it. It had just been such a draining day.
PS Did I mention our car got broken into. They got cash and Ken's wedding band.
THAT is only one day's worth of stress and frustration, and that is why it meant soooooo much to me that so many people were willing and able to help me out. Thank you again, everyone!!
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