Tuesday Morning

I am trying to enjoy the last few lazy mornings I have before the kids go back to school. Next week will start the hectic mornings, getting all three kids ready for school and out the door by 7:15. I am toying with the idea of having the two older kids make their lunches if they don't want to eat the school lunch.

The kids and I have been fighting colds for the past several days. Saturday, I was so miserable, I sat in bed all day and watched the four made-for-T.V. Jesse Stone movies (starring Tom Selleck) that are available on Netflix.

I am hoping that with the kids back in school, I can really focus on The House. When I am asked how the house is coming along, and I say, "Well, we've got the plumbing roughed in, and the electrical is almost done. Then after that, we just need insulation and drywall," it sounds like a walk in the park and we should be moved in by winter. But then these gritty little details pop up that suck up half your day or week, like finding all the silly little leaks in the plumbing, tacking up scraps of lumber in corners so that the drywall has something to attach to, and building front steps and the side entrance landing. And when the inspector comes and tells you need to do such and such, so while your husband is at work, you do such and such, but the inspector calls your husband and tells him he didn't tell you exactly right, so that what you did needs to be redone... Well. It feels like it will be another three years.

I am trying not to get too impatient. I am trying not to complain when I am dragging around the trailer with a runny nose and the air kicks on and it smells like mildew. I am trying, instead, to channel that discontent that rises up when I see that slimy, black mold growing again in the drain of the cheap, plastic, bathroom sink into motivation. Maybe it is possible. Maybe we could move in this winter... After all, the plumbing passed the pressure test.

95 lbs. of pressure and holding