5.22.11: This week

This week's lesson: Faith

Remember this post from a few weeks ago? Well, some of you (Brian) doubted Rex's little seed. But this is what we woke up to this morning. A little bit of faith on Rex's dresser.

I have felt completely overwhelmed this week. It's not that I have anything particularly overwhelming going on, but for some reason I just couldn't handle life this week. I blame it on my schooling--we're running through a semester at double pace and I'm barely keeping up.

Monday wasn't too bad. In fact, it was quite good. Rex started being a normal kid and waking up at 6 am so I decided to take advantage of that and go grocery shopping early. I was feeling good. I had already gone grocery shopping, put the groceries away and cleaned a few rooms of the house before Greg left for work. And it was sunny. So Rex and I met Noah at a park and played for a while. Then we came home and cleaned more before I had to go to class. When I got home from class at 10 pm, I poked my head downstairs and said, "Hey Hon." The reply to which was "MOMMY!" Excuse me? Rex was sitting on the couch eating a bowl of M&M's while Greg played video games. So I put Rex to bed and started on the homework.

Tuesday at 5:22 am, Rex woke up. That's right. He feel asleep at 11 pm and was up by 5:22. As I lay in Rex's bed trying to get him to go back to sleep, I decided we had to do something about his sleeping habits. This was getting ridiculous. So at 6:30 when I realized that neither Rex nor I were going to get any more sleep, I explained the new rules to Rex: 1. You are in your room from 8:30pm to 6 am and from 1 pm to 3 pm--you don't have to sleep, but you must be in your room. And so far it's worked out pretty well. He doesn't necessarily sleep, but he plays quietly (ish) in his room.

Tuesday our tenets also informed me they were moving out. Awesome. I had 30 days to get someone new to move in. Not only are we paying twice what we have previously paid for my tuition, but now I had the added stress of finding a renter. Here's were the faith came into play and I started to get overwhelmed.

Wednesday it rained. And I was tired. And life started sucking. And I realized why I was so funny in college--because I was tired and stressed and overwhelmed and the only way I could keep going without killing someone was to make fun of everyone and they thought I was so funny. I was wallowing in my seasonally and school-ly induced depression, when I remembered what I learned last week, so I got some old magazines and glue out and Rex, Reagan and I did a little art project and then went to MacDonald's. At least I got out of the house. During nap time, I did more homework, but fell asleep and did not get as much done as I wanted/needed to do. And then I ran upstairs and noticed some water on the floor--I looked up and noticed it was coming to the ceiling. I called Greg and he came home early from work to patch the hole in the roof. He had started reroofing last week, but because of the rain had not been able to finish. But his make-shift tarps failed up. He worked on that; I went to class. I came home and started on homework again. That's all I do anymore--homework.

My week culminated in Thursday. Thursday morning I woke to a rainstorm in my dinning room. At first it was just a few leaks. But as the morning wore on, my pots and pans slowly filled with rain water and I wondered what I was going to use to make dinner. And then there was the tuition to pay and the roof to redo and the water damage to repair and the baby to pay for and the hospital bills for said baby and no rent coming in and an orange maternity dress to buy and my hair to cut and Rex's hair to cut and clothe diapers to buy and pretty soon we were getting food from the Church and begging on the streets. I was not handling life very well so I decided to get in the shower to relax and get a grip on reality again. It only was 8 am by this point. When I got out, I noticed Rex's art work on my dining room floor. Greg still had not woken up for work by this time, so I told him it was his turn to care for Rex, locked the door, and got back in bed--maybe life would be better when I woke up. I woke again just in time for Reagan's dad to drop her off. Not only was she wearing sandals (seriously people, it's raining, put real shoes on your kid), but her dad had a turtle for the kids to play with. How could life get any worse? Oh, I know, Greg's car battery was dead and he was running late for work so he took my car. I told Reagan's dad to take the turtle back, closed the door and called my mom. What was I going to do all day, stuck inside with a million pots and pans all over my dining room? Mom called Noah to come over and entertain me. He was working, but the Lord stepped in. He reminded me to do some visiting teaching and then inspired my wonderful neighbor to invite us over for lunch. I had something to do and get my mind off the pending bankruptcy. And lucky, Rex has chosen to express himself all over my dining room and living room with washable markers this time and he cleaned it. When I got home from visiting teaching, Greg was home. It had stopped raining so he took a half day off of work to fix the roof. Rex, Reagan and I went to the neighbor's house where they got out their energy and I told them of my woes and we all commiserated about owning homes and having to pay for repairs. I left an hour later feeling much better, put the kids down for a nap, and then there was Noah, who was already dressed for work and climbed up on the roof to help Greg. They worked for a few hours while I did more homework (surprise) and called the insurance company. They were wonderful. In the meantime, Greg inspected the damage himself and said that it doesn't look too bad--just some wet insulation that needed to be replaced anyway. But we're waiting for the insurance adjuster to come take a look. Thursday night Greg had to go back to work, so I made dinner for a friend and got to spend a bit of time visiting with her and her brand-new beautiful baby. I also took Rex to get his haircut and deposited the money from the sell of Greg's scooter--we weren't broke after all. Life was not so bad.

Friday was nice enough for a run again, but not nice enough for the park--still too wet. I was feeling better about life, but was still really tired and wondering how and when I was going to get all my readings and projects for school done. Then during Rex's nap time, Reagan's dad showed up, but I didn't have Reagan. I was about to start in on them about their poor communication skills as a family (in my head of course) when he told me he had some stuff for me--two and a half garbage bags full of stuff. Brand new or newly new baby clothes. It was like Christmas. My little girl is going to be so well-dressed--mostly Baby Gap. After my personal Christmas, I sat on the couch to rest my eyes for just a minute, but woke up an hour and a half later. While I needed the nap, I also needed to get some serious work on my presentations done. And then I got a few phone calls--people wanting to look at the apartment. Don't get excited, I'd been showing the apartment all week, but once people hear the utility bill, they get scared away. So I showed the apartment a few times while trying to make dinner. And then Kevin came. He looked at the apartment and while showing him the backyard, he asked how much money I wanted to secure the apartment. Still, don't get excited. People do this a lot--say they want to sign a contract and then back out at the last second. I told him that he'd need to wait until my husband got home to sign a contract because I didn't have one, but Kevin didn't want to wait--he paid, in cash, the deposit and the first months' worth of rent and was prepared to pay the last month's too. See, faith. Faith. And patience. We really weren't going to be bankrupt. I just needed a nap and a grip on reality and some patience and faith. Kevin did ask me to spy on his cheating wife though once they move in...

After dinner, Rex and I met Greg at an in-door play place for a much needed family date. We played, went on the carosaul a million times, got some ice cream and came home just in time for bed.

I tried again to get some homework done, but couldn't really focus.

We went to bed early--11 and it was lovely.

Saturday, Rex woke up late--8. I was no longer tired; I wasn't going to be broke; but I still had a ton of homework to do. But I got it done--Rex took a long nap, Greg worked on the roof and I was feeling good about life. It was sunny again. I finished my reading and two presentations during Rex's nap.

Sunday (today) Rex woke up at 2 am. I gave him a sippy cup of milk and put him back in bed. As I was leaving his room, he asked, "Mommy tired?" I said, "Yes." And then he let me go without asking me to get in his bed or to stay with him. It was lovely. He woke me up again at 4--he had been playing quietly in his room, and had found a bottle and wanted it. I filled it with milk and sent him back to bed--he again asked if I was tired and he let me go to sleep. Greg said he heard Rex still up and playing in his room at 5, but at least he was playing by himself. He is such a good kid. He slept in until 8, which means that I did too. And then we went to church, came home and slept some more, had dinner as a family for the first time in a week and called Rex's grandparents.

I'm feeling a lot better about life right now. I've slept a lot, prayed a lot, and become a little more rational about my situation in life. Yes, I have a lot of homework, and yes I still need to find a burnt orange maternity dress for my sister-in-law's wedding, but I can do those things. I also picked out the car seat I want and found some new cloth diapers on KSL for half the price of buying them from diapers.com. Life is good. I just needed to have a little faith and know that, as always because He has proven Himself in the past, the Lord will provide and support and carry me, even when I have a rainstorm in my living room.

Now let's all pray together that next week had some sustained sun or I really might just need to get some depression meds. This weather is getting really difficult to handle.

ps I'm sorry this post is so long, but not really, you didn't have to read the whole thing.