What a MESS!

(one of my favorite Lucian pics from last summer)

Lately, I have felt that about 90% of the time I am just cleaning up after the other 10%. Things have been a bit insane here this past week. Last Thursday and Friday we were supposed to get our basement waterproofed from the inside with new drain tile and a new sub pump. But, after packing up our belongings and moving furniture away from the edges, and after they had hammered enough to put concrete dust over everything, the contractor discovered that we have the wrong kind of foundation for this procedure. So.... new drain tile has to be laid from the outside, which means digging a trench around the house 5 ft deep. It is about 3X the cost, so Scott is already lining up a do-it-ourselves way. He is awesome at this and I trust him, nevertheless I am not looking forward to it. 

So the basement was... still is, a mess and it's a little discouraging to put things back when walls and floor aren't waterproofed.

The blessing of it though, was that we got to buy a new washer and dryer (the kind that doesn't destroy clothes - imagine that!), but we wanted to put it on a different wall than our last pair and this required some amateur plumbing work done by guess who? It would've been okay if a main pipe hadn't broke - not Scott's fault. (Thanks Kristen, for the use of your shower on Monday!) That is pretty well fixed now and clothes are being washed as I write, but we have no water pressure in the kitchen and I've been feeling a tad frustrated with a hundred messes an hour 3 children under 5 can manage having only a drip, drip, drip to work with. 

HOWEVER, I write not just to vent frustration but to say that I'm realizing how extremely petty I can be. And this is good. Not the pettiness but the realization. Beth Moore said after visiting India that all her problems were pretty. Yes, these problems are pretty. A pretty little face is behind the splattered strained squash, pretty clothes come out of my waterlogged laundry room, pretty flowers are going to need to be replanted after excavating, and pretty soon my life will be better than it was for all the mess. I'm so blessed. God forgive my pettiness.