The Boiling Pot

Okay, peeps.

It’s finally time for a Bigger Picture post about how this summer has felt.

Isn’t it ironic (yaaaas, Alanis), or, maybe, timely, considering we’re two weeks from the start of school, that I finally have a moment to gather my thoughts?

I suppose the net/net is this:

Summer with school-age kiddos is both amazing and amazingly challenging.

But that’s absolutely nothing new, and nothing unique to our household.

Working parents, stay-at-home parents, single parents, a single kiddo, or a dozen to take care of…it’s all complicated.

That said, things have felt a little extra-complicated at times over the past two months.

Luckily, I’m able to keep it all in perspective, the hubby and I are an excellent in-the-trenches team, and we’ve had a lot of good days mixed in with the frustrating ones. But we definitely have a little analogy that he and I use all the time, and it goes something like this:

At any given moment, on a normal day, our parental pot is at a steady simmer. That’s just life raising a family. Things are never calm, but often, the mischief is managed and you can keep it under control…

Until you have stretches of time where just one thing can cause that simmering pot to boil over. It doesn’t take much, and you never know what that proverbial boil-over might stem from, but boy oh boy do you know when it happens.

We often just look at one another on those days and say: “the pot is boiling.”

Sh** happens.

But you know you’re boiling when you unpackaged your boxes of Kleenex from the grocery pick-up, and the messages on the boxes are enough to make you cry, ha.

Apparently, emotions boil over, too. ;)

Here are a few of the things that have been “extra” in recent weeks, that I wish I could prune from our household plant…

Leaks (and more leaks):

We came home from one of our Colorado trips at nearly 10 p.m., and the kiddos had barely made it up the stairs before one of them was yelling: “the ceiling is leaking!!!”

If you know us and our house history, at all, you’ll understand our panic. Especially when we ran upstairs to see the ceiling actively dripping, a growing water stain, and a balloon of latex paint, where the water was about to burst.

This isn’t the best pic, but you’ll get the drift:

Turns out, the new A/C unit was not installed properly a few months ago. 

The crew didn’t align the unit on the attic support beams above this area. Over time, the lack of support bowed the plywood of the attic, the unit starting leaning, the overflow drip pan was no longer properly aligned, and…FAIL.

I wish I could say this was the first (or second, third…heck, I think we’re on the eighth or ninth???) leak in this house. But this one was particularly frustrating because we’d just paid to have the entire upstairs landing and playroom ceiling painted a few months ago, to finally clear the slate from past leaks. 

If that’s not kick-in-the-pants timing, I don’t know what is.

Worse, still, this was not the end of our A/C adventures.

In addition to the unit having to be moved (it took several men), the plenum (don’t even ask; it’s an A/C thing) was installed terribly and had separated, which meant it had to be re-done. Worse (worse) yet—the duct work and plenum on the other unit (that we put in two years ago) also failed a couple weeks later, and…yup.

FAIL.

Lots. Of. FAILS.

And, yes, we’ve converted to a new A/C service company.

Meanwhile, the ceiling is finally being re-repainted tomorrow, which is just lovely. NOT.

Next up on the leak front…

Not long after the dripping ceiling and A/C fails, I noticed a small water stain mark above our primary bathroom shower.

Panicked that we had yet another leak on our hands, I sent the hubby to investigate in the attic (above this area), but he couldn’t find the source.

Fast forward to the next round of torrential rain, when I knew the leak must be caused by some attic fail, and the hubby raced up there again, climbed over some treacherous beams, finally located the source of an apparent roof leak, and we’ve been catching the water with a bucket while waiting for the roofer to come out (Wednesday) ever since.

AND BECAUSE YOU CAN’T EVEN MAKE THIS STUFF UP…as soon as we were done arranging a bucket in the attic, I walked down to the primary bathroom to verify that the water mark on the ceiling wasn’t growing, only to discover that there was YET ANOTHER LEAK coming from the bathroom window, above the plantation shutter.

I.

KID.

YOU.

NOT.

That’s about the time I just started laughing maniacally, because, what else are you supposed to do???

I don’t have to tell you how frustrating all these events can be, because I’m sure you’ve experience many on your own.

But combined, the above has cost us countless calls to contractors, four in-home repair visits from the A/C company, and a roofer coming out this week.

That’s a lot of time and frustration—and money.

Meanwhile…I don’t think I mentioned that I finally got a new car about four months ago. I’d love to say this has been nothing but a celebratory thing, to finally have a vehicle under warranty, but…

My new car has now been to the service center four times in four months for the same concern (not important to get into the weeds, here, just trust me that it’s an annoying car problem), and, as of last week, there’s no solvable fix.

I have zero interest in posting pics of my car, so please enjoy this glorious burger shot from last week, when we had to go back to get my vehicle from the dealership (again, again, again):

At this point, a technical assistance case has been opened with the manufacturer, they’re reviewing all the paperwork of the part that was replaced and the solution we’re still seeking, but…chances are, I’ll just have to live with what’s happening until some unforeseen date in the future when an engineering update can “suppress the noise” that my car engine is making.

JOY.

Not only has the above caused a decent bit of stress and frustration (I mean, the hope of a new car is no service needed…for at least a hot second), but it’s a complete black void of my TIME.

Again, a story I don’t need to tell, but…let’s just say that one of the four times my car had to go in for service, it took 16 calls (SIXTEEN?!!) to get to the right person, who could actually answer my questions.

We’ve spent countless hours on the phone, and lots of time driving half an hour away to drop the car off, drive down the road to grab a rental, and do the whole loop all over again.

If I’m sounding like a broken record, it’s because I am. Quite broken.

So.

Many.

Things.

Taking.

Up.

Incremental.

Time.

Okay,next up in the it’s-taken-far-more-time-and-energy-than-necessary list…

New Lights/Exhaust Fans For the Upstairs Bathrooms:

Fun fact: our kiddos have always lurved our primary bathroom so much, they have always preferred to shower in there.

Which is lovely (not really)—except when it’s not, because we have a family of five, several other showers that could be used, and…we finally reached the breaking point.

In an attempt to make the kiddos’ own bathrooms appealing enough for use, I finally tackled the outstanding project of installing new lights/exhaust fans up there. These fun Bluetooth lights that change colors and connect to music. It’s basically a disco up there, now. Halleluiah.

HOWEVER.

It took two months and SIX ATTEMPTED ELECTRICIANS to get this project done.

The first electrician showed up, quoted a price so astronomical that I laughed him off the premises and shamed him for even trying to charge that much.

The second electrician (a neighbor’s recommendation, actually) was a fraction of the cost, but eventually ghosted me after three scheduled and canceled (by him) appointments.

The third and fourth electricians wouldn’t even return my calls.

The fifth was actually lovely, called me in a timely manner, and was half the price of the original astronomical electrician and…I almost, almost caved and used him, but…he was still way too high.

Finally. At. Long. Last. A sixth electrician was the winner (a recommendation from the hubby’s colleague). Excellent price, showed up and did the work, I was riding high on life after the girls’ bathroom was done, until…

he moved on to Little Man’s bathroom and discovered that someone had purchased, used, discarded essential screws and pieces, cut wires, and returned the light I purchased. So he couldn’t even finish the job that day.

I almost pulled out all of my hair.

Instead, I pulled myself together, returned the pre-owned light for a fresh one, had the electrician out again two days later, and…that’s all it took to get these lights/exhaust fans installed:

Six electricians, four in-home service calls (two that never resulted in work), an additional trip to The Home Depot, and…voila (MAJOR sarcasm alert).

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT???? The kiddos are showering upstairs!!! Mission. Accomplished. There will be an entire post on this another day. :)

Okay, this last major one is so BIG that it will not only require an entire post of its own, but, likely, many posts, as it’s the most overwhelming thing (of a lot of overwhelming things) that’s happened in the past few weeks:

Our Coda puppy is not great.

In fact, she’s not been using one of her legs properly for the past 6-8 weeks, and after many vet appointments and an eventual referral to a specialized small animal orthopedic surgeon (and a couple more visits there), it turns out that Coda needs a total hip replacement for the best mobility and lifetime health.

I can’t even begin to describe how emotional this process has been.

Not only has it been heartbreaking to watch our beloved girl, at less than a year old, deteriorate in mobility and energy and zest, but it’s been the most massive burden to educate ourselves and wade through mountains of information and medical advice and the money—oh, the money—that this will require…

It’s been a lot.

Like I said, this complicated problem for our beloved fur baby will have many subsequent posts, but it’s been heavy to carry the burden of concern and care. And we’re just in the early stages here, peeps.

I recently read an article where Taylor Swift said (I’m paraphrasing, here) that when she writes songs about angsty experiences, she’s very nearly through the worst of it. Almost like a cathartic, cleansing experience, and the song is the final step toward getting it all out. 

And that’s exactly what these posts are like for me.

It takes a lot of time and mental energy to draft up a summary of these yucky events. I know it probably sounds like nothing but whining, but, trust me; even on my worst, WORST day, I am beyond aware of alllllllll the blessings in my life.

But it helps, immensely, to type these things and PURGE myself of events and feelings. A mental heath exercise at its core.

Tomorrow is a new day—actually, one filled with painters and closet cleaning, as we’re in the midst of a room refresh for Chicklet (more on that later).

On one of my worst days in the past few weeks, I made and received an astounding 36 calls before 11 a.m., related to all the spinning plates in my life. But for every overwhelming day—or stretches of days—there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and a calm to the chaos, and I know it will come for us. :)

Until then, I’m going to try to turn the pot down to simmer as much as humanly possible, and keep on trucking!

Okay…much more mañana, as I work my way through more Big Picture catch-up posts.

Happy Monday, peeps!

Over and out.