Before and After the Insanity!

Insanity has been threatening to claim me this week. I happy to report that it didn't, but it was not from the lack of trying.

Remember last week when the Dishwasher and Dryer Broke on top of needing a major roof repair after I gracefully stepped through it. Well, I’m honestly laughing (yes, I am) because Mr. Murphy is piling up the home repair goodies on us. And it seems to me that he has very expensive taste because he is attacking the most costly sections of our home.

Could we possibly be living in…

The Monster House?

So this week, we investigated the Dishwasher problem and discovered some major wood-rot in both the floor, subfloor and on some support beams under the kitchen. In the spirit of my Thankful Heart Month - Let me stop right here and say that I’m Thankful that I will be the recipient of a new kitchen whether we were ready for one or not.

Then Prince Erik discovered that the freezer door was left open and this was the result...

Again I’m Thankful for a great husband who volunteered to defrost the old beast for me. It needed to be done and now it is. Check-off that To-Do!

So this morning my hubby went out to the garage to see how his frozen job had done over night, when he noticed that it was raining over the food storage. Raining indoors – that is. Seems we have sprung a new leak somewhere under the Master Bath Tub. Alas - No more baths. O.K. so who opened the flood gates because this is beyond ridiculous.

With that in mind – and it STILL being my grateful heart month – I’m thankful that our water bill will be smaller for the foreseeable future and that sometime after we fix the kitchen I will be the recipient of a new section of my Master Bathroom. Wish our favorite plumber didn't live two states away.

Wow, I feel like I just won the lottery in Lemon Houses.

Needless to say, we sat down and had a hard look at finances and I honestly shed a few tears and maybe walked around like a zombie for a few hours to boot. It isn’t anything we can’t handle but it will require that we live the whole Month of Needs Lifestyle for the next umpteen months to be able to cover these new expenses. I’m also looking at ways that maybe I can pitch in a couple of pennies here and there. You know I have the hardest time with budgets. They rank right up there with the taboo words like diet and goals. I have dreams instead. And I’m dreaming and praying that everything will work out. I know it will because God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle – Right?

That being said, I heard somewhere that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. So I'm trying several new things with money in an effort to gain control over it. I'm shoving the credit and debit cards into cold storage and experiementing with the cash system. And no you won't get a bucket-load of cash off me should you decide to rob me, so don't get any ideas. I just think that I'll be able to have a better grasp of the whole in-and-out cashflow stuff if I see it before my eyes.

Christmas will be very green this year as I’m making most of it. I’m set on what I need to finish for my little girls (Would love some suggestions on what I could make for electronic craving teenage boys). I'm still excited as all get-up about the excuses to be creative.

I had a great day yesterday and was able to finish getting my front yard ready for winter.

Princess, and Lea and our neighbor Ethel’s Daughter helped for a solid couple of hours, raking and pushing leaves, and washing sidewalks, while I mowed the lawn. So I'm thankful for their help because they volunteered to do it without a word from me.

I loved every moment spent outside. It’s my environment. Even saw some of my friends Bambi and Faline pass by within a dozen feet or so while we were out.

Another great thing about the week was that I put the Halloween decorations away and cleaned up my costume sewing mess in the dining room. So here’s the customary before and after pics.

So the before was really the aftermath of our Wizard of Oz costume tornado hit!

And After…

I know a bit simple but I’m digging simple right now.

The best and most wonderful thing about the past week was Princess.

Hope and I spent the day at Children’s Hospital with Princess undergoing tests as a follow-up for a condition discovered last year. A condition, which could have meant surgery, if not resolved. She had to be partially sedated for one of the tests which was hard to watch because it turned her into a glassy-eyed slobber girl. The equivalent of someone so drunk they can’t walk. It seemed to effect her more than the normal kid and took an hour longer than normal to wear off.

Hope, meanwhile, had the nurses eating out of her hand (thank goodness), but if I ever have to go again, I’m getting a sitter. Don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to take her with us?

Well, the tests were all very positive and her chances of a full recovery are splendid. No surgery needed! So we are super-duper Thankful that Heavenly Father has helped heal her little body.

Can I just say that I’m extra Thankful for all of the many blessings and miracles of Health that our family has had bestowed upon us in the past two years. It really gives me hope that we will handle the all our difficulties be they finincial, or mental.

So my heart is still happy because it's still Thankful!