An Eventful Week

This week has been one of those weeks. You know the ones, where it's a roller-coaster of highs and lows, and every time you think you have your footing back on level ground, there you go again. It was a good week work-wise, and in many ways. But of course, there was the downside.

Our daycare situation, family-based, unravelled rather swiftly and abruptly. We had been trying to keep my daughter in my sister's care part-time so that she continued to have her routine, got to see her cousins, and so that when Sander returns to work it would not be a huge shock to return to a daycare schedule. For a variety of reasons, it stopped working. We'd had some inklings that the situation was headed towards it's end, but the suddenness threw us both for a loop.

As a result, the 'big dig' in the backyard didn't get done, and we were unable to make that area safe in time for a planned cookout this weekend, so we ended up postponing. It wasn't ideal to do so, but it was the best decision - with multiple kids invited to the party, and an unsafe backyard, it was easier to call it off than to expect parents to spend all their time corralling their kids.

The backyard project has been a source of stress to both of us - it will be great when it is done, but it's over budget and over schedule, and that's never pleasant, especially with my husband being unemployed. He's doing a great job though, and I'm looking forward to the result. Still, being unable to finish it was a hard blow for him.

Top all of this with the transitions that we've been through - him to primary caregiver of an ever-moving toddler, us to dealing with what feels like a never-ending list of things that decided to cost more than expected or have to be put off altogether, his unemployment claim denial until the end of October, which means we're burning through savings (because his previous employer refused to follow the policy they themselves laid out) and then the daycare situation, and the fact that neither Sander nor myself has taken to hiding in bed with the covers over our heads is, I think, kind of impressive.

Then yesterday, just as we were starting to relax, a smell started emanating from the kitchen. At first, it smelled a bit like burnt popcorn...except no one was making any. Then it turned acrid and stronger.

The refrigerator had decided to die an ignoble death. Now let me just say that were it not for the poor timing of the expense, my husband and I would have been thrilled - I didn't think it was possible to hate a refrigerator before I moved into our house. But we did. Cheap piece of crap does not even begin to describe it.

So yesterday afternoon, off we went to find a new one. We needed the expense like we needed a hole in the head. Really. But it's not the sort of thing you can just let go. If the dishwasher dies - and I fully expect it to soon - we'll just wash by hand until the time is right, which is not a big deal to me. The trash compacter? Who cares - I've never quite understood why a trash can should have a motor to begin with (something tells that trash compactors were a male invention, along the lines of "hmm I have this small motor, what to do, what to do...I know!! Let's add a motor to the trash can - it doesn't have one yet!!") . But refrigeration isn't something we plan to do without, and since it's August, it was an imminent need.

Fortunately, Lowes had a floor model on sale that met the need at a very affordable price, with free delivery within 24 hours. And, another upside, the old one was overdue for a good cleaning, and now we can just skip that. :-)

The only catch was the width. Our current fridge is 32" wide. The new one - which would save us quite a bit over other available-in-24-hours models - is 32.5" wide. The way our kitchen is constructed, a very constricted space was framed out to contain the fridge. We came home and well...uh-oh. 1/2 inch short.

Then my-ever creative husband peeked around the frame, and realized that he could plane down about 3/4 of an inch of the wooden frame that the refrigerator sits in without putting the frame at any risk.

So he is now planing and sanding down the frame in order to be ready when the fridge is delivered between 3 and 5 pm. The kitchen floor is half-covered in wood shavings,

Oh, and did I mention we're having dinner guests for my birthday at 4 today?

At this point, I just have to laugh. It's not worth being stressed over any of this. Right now, our normally ideal life is a little out of control. But we're still so very blessed and lucky. I can tell you that the events of this week rocked us, but I don't feel like I can complain today, on my 37th birthday. It is, in fact, a wonderful life I have.

Especially since I got on the scale this morning and I weigh less today than I have since before I got pregnant, which makes it hard not to be cheerful.

So, happy birthday to me.