A Horrible, Terrible Week

 I LOVE Halloween.  The year did me wrong.  

The weather was very windy, which botched our trunk or treat decoration plans. 

I woke up on Saturday with an ugly, itchy, swollen face, and a gross, red rash on most of my body.  It didn't help that my system was VERY PLUGGED UP.  

I had no energy and could barely get out of bed.  

I am also trying to run my house with a husband not here.  I feel for all the single parents out there because it is NOT easy.  In addition to that, I'm trying to pack up and clean up my house, getting it ready to sell.  Moving is a pain, anyway, and then trying to deal with it with being sick and fighting cancer? 

Then, there's all the things that need to be done with 3 busy boys in school and their own sports practices, plus church activities.  

Then, things started breaking or going wrong around the house or on technology....2 of my least strong areas.  

I took my youngest to the doctor to work on his toe, but it was infected, so we had to push it back until antibiotic had run its course.  

I was trying to plan that son's birthday party, and the company made a huge mistake by sending an email with MAJORLY incorrect information, and they couldn't fix that until the next day.  

My oldest son had a major problem with something that needed to the addressed that day, but I couldn't fix it.  Neither could the help center for the associated app, even after three different helpers and over 2 hours of call time.  It's still not fixed!

The front door lock went haywire and took three of us and hours to fix.  A front door lock is kind of important to secure a house, especially one that is hoping to have potential buyers come walk-through.  

A part of our sprinkler system was going off, in the rain, without it being turned on.  A valve we already paid someone to fix was broken again.  It was cold and raining and muddy to turn off the water to the system, and I was glad that my youngest son was there to help.  

I had to then attend a parent/teacher conference, not the thing I felt like doing that morning before lunch.  If you're wandering what that thing would have been, it was SLEEP.  Nothing but sleep.  

Rash continued to spread, causing more itching and swelling.  Not pain, thankfully.  That was owned by the poop chute.  Still no movement.

Fixed the party problem, but had fallen behind on getting invites out.  Printer problems with that, of course.  

Feeling the loss of 4 days of the packing and staging schedule.  

Found a weird rotted-out hole on the doorway to our upstairs balcony.  Had to find someone who could come look at it on a Friday.  

Wifi went out.  

Son with Dyslexia had fallen behind from the day he was out of class for the foot appointment and helping with the muddy sprinkler turnoff.  Hours later, we still weren't caught up, and he was tired and hangry.  

Not sleeping well at all.  

Lost the youngest son for over 2 hours, no one in the neighborhood having seen him and having no idea where he went.  A search party of both his friends and moms of friends couldn't even locate him.  

Then, I felt guilty for feeling sorry for myself on all of those previous annoying things, when I could lose one of my children!]

I Finally prayed and asked for help.  Obviously, I needed it.  For a few minutes, I was broken.  I thought about how fighting this hard for this long with so much pain, stress, and frustration just might not be what I want to do anymore.  

Then, I took a break, ate some food, and took a moment to listen to my heart.  

Son was found.

Wifi and tv problems fixed.

Found someone to work on the sprinkler.  

Found someone else to look at the house.  

The front door lock mystery was solved.  

I was finally cleared up--on the outside and inside!

So grateful for new days and things that seem like the end of the world in the moment, but are not so back with a simple change in perspective.