Water Color Fire

Well, this week has been one of extreme excitement at the Rahija house. We had a pretty uneventful Monday and Tuesday, as the kids were mainly just trying to kill each other with words, toys, and screams/growls (Avery's new secret weapon). Wednesday rolled around to a mostly good day, just ending badly as Erin threw perhaps the worst tantrum of her life, with a screaming fit lasting for 24 minutes. The main phrase she kept shouting/sobbing/screaming was "But I HATE sandwiches for supper, I want FROZEN PIZZA!" Yes, it was a fun time, especially as I was in the throes of a migraine. However, as suddenly as it began, it ended, and she ate her chicken sandwich quite nicely, and bedtime was relatively smooth. I went to bed around 10, with my headache, and was getting Ember ready to sleep for the night, so changed her diaper. It was full of poop, so I was changing her, and while I was trying not to gag (smells really get me during a migraine), she peed, soaking her jammies, her blanket, my sheets, and my pajama pants. We quickly stripped her and the bed, and redressed both as fast as we could, putting us back to being ready for bed at about 10:30. I fell asleep, and we all (except David who left for his remodeling job) slept until about 9:15. I woke feeling very refreshed (a first in a long time for me!), and with a clear goal of what I wanted to get done that day, including dishes, sweeping, laundry, and unloading two boxes of "stuff" that has been collected from the floors of our cars and just sitting in the dining room for way too long. I also had a salad to make for Phat Thursday, which was time sensitive, as "let it sit for 2 hours" and "chill until set" were involved. The morning went by fairly quickly with baths for all of us and laundry, but we got Erin to school on time and when we returned, Avery went down for her nap (very easily, I might add!), and I returned to the basement to continue the laundry parade and work on a flier for a Mary Kay sale I'm having. I noticed it was nearing time to load everyone up to pick Erin up from school and headed upstairs. As I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a tapping sound, and headed into the living room to investigate. I thought it was someone tapping or throwing rocks at our window at first, but then recognized the sound to be that of dripping. To my horror, a huge puddle of water was on the floor and more was pouring from the ceiling. I ran upstairs to my room to locate the source of the mess, and saw a fleeing Avery bolt from my room and dive onto her bed. I turned the corner and first saw a splash of color on my bed (on the fresh clean flannel sheets). A quick investigation revealed the color to be the contents of my makeup bag, eye shadows, blushes, bronzing powder, and a powder foundation scraped out by tiny fingernails and ground into the sheets. A wider scope of the room divulged the source of the water, which turned out to be the humidifier, disassembled by the same tiny hands. The water had run to the edge of the carpet and down into the wall/ceiling, where it found the path of least resistance and dripped through a horribly patched hole in the ceiling of the living room. I also dripped between the storm window and regular window, creating a lovely splash pattern. Needless to say, someone was in trouble, and her name was Avery Layne. However, I tried to find the "silver lining", and as she is learning to potty in the toilet and very fascinated with all things "potty", it could have been worse, ... she could have peed on my bed, she could have put my makeup brushes in the toilet, she could have shoved the makeup into Ember's mouth (like I found her doing with the sugar a few weeks ago). There are some things to be thankful for in these moments! Also needless to say, my big plan of things to do for the day was altered greatly. I did two more loads of laundry than I intended, and had fresh sheets two nights in a row, though, and my salad did get done for Phat Thursday. David had clean socks and underwear for work this morning, as well, so it wasn't a loss, just different than I had hoped.

This morning, I woke early with Avery, and we had breakfast before anyone else was out of bed. Then, she was tired, so we went back upstairs to rest a bit more. I had a headache again, and was glad for a chance to lay down as well, and Ember was ready to eat as well. David left for work, Erin got up, and I still had the headache, so I asked her if she would like to get some breakfast by herself (she loves doing this, and feels very grown up when she's allowed to do it). She was thrilled, and Avery was hungry again, so I told them to go ahead and have cereal together. Well, on the way down to the kitchen, that idea flew out the window, and they decided toast sounded good. Now, on a good day, this would probably be fine, under adult supervision, but as I was trying to get rid of a headache, there were no adults in the kitchen. Also, because I didn't clean the kitchen yesterday, the dishes were piled pretty high from the last few days, and the toaster region of the counter was really "overgrown" with dishes. Erin tried her best to scoot things over, and started toasting. The only warning I have of this is Erin knocking on my door, and calmly saying, "Mom, I need to get the toast out of the toaster, but I can't see from the smoke in there." I bolted up from the bed and pushed her out of the way, the smoke started stinging my eyes on the way down the stairs. I hollered up for the girls to get into the playroom and shut the door, and proceeded to the kitchen, where the smoke was indeed so thick I could not see the counter. I threw open the window, turned on the exhaust fan on the oven hood, and unplugged the toaster. I gingerly removed the black squares from the slots and thanked God for protecting us, as they were literally crackling and I imagine may have burst into flame with much more time. Our house smells like "burnt". The haze has cleared, and we aren't breathing through our shirts, but I'm sure our furniture and some clothing will smell like "burnt" for a long time. I hope to borrow mom and dad's clean air machine to remove some of the smell this weekend. The silver lining here: Erin could learn a valuable, memorable lesson without our house burning to the ground! Oh, the joys of my family! How is it that after the day is done, I smell "burnt", and have a pile of clean laundry that needs to be rewashed, and I feel like screaming and pulling out my hair, that I can smile and recount these stories with a smile playing around my lips?? Grace. Plain and simple.

Well, the dryer just beeped, Ember just woke up, and I think I want to peek at Avery to make sure she is really sleeping today. It's been fun sharing with you today! Thanks for listening!