Sunday, June 29, 2008

Unending days



This weekend was one of those so crammed with activity that at times, I had to do those deep belly breaths to keep it together, like this afternoon, driving back from a friend's house where I was rescuing some carpet from a trip to the dump and Thea was hollering her head off and Liam was reciting some crash-boom-bam story at top volume despite my pleas for silence....serenity now!!

Yesterday, the new stove arrived. Black, shiny and beautiful, promises of no shower of sparks, and with an instruction booklet about the size of an encyclopedia. For those who have natural gas hooked to their home, that instruction booklet could be tossed pretty much aside, but not us. We've got propane, so we had to convert it.

Knowing that many brains are better than few, I invited some friends over to help move the stove in and offer moral support on the conversion front. So I made kabobs and my friend Emilie cooked them on my defunct grill with one setting - scorch. And we even managed the vegetarian component easily, and the kid component. And the stove made it inside - but we needed another piece, of course. That would have to wait.

Today, when Thea went down for her morning nap, Liam and I headed down to the rental cabin to attack removing the carpet, which is beyond toast. The place was in need of some tlc all over, but I can only do it in little pieces, so I opted to take out the carpet in the entry way of the room. Liam happily hammered things while I tugged, pulled, removed, and cleaned. I washed the whole area down with bleach water and pondered what to do with it all.

Liam had one freak-out moment this morning, however, when I said "I'm going out and you can follow me after." He came outside all teary eyed - apparently he thought I meant I was going into town. Where does he come up with this stuff? Nevertheless, he does miss his dad and my frantic pace is obviously wearing him out, too.

Thea woke up and we went into town for the parts we needed to finish the stove. Going to the hardware store with two kids typically results in one of two things: Either you get someone helping you who is awash in respect or you get the guy I got today - totally condescending and ultimately wrong in what he sold me because he didn't stop long enough to listen to what I was saying.

So we got some stuff, came home, found out we needed more stuff, went back, got more stuff, came back, put it all together, put soapy water on it, turned it on and watched it bubble. BUBBLES BAAADDDD.

So, I tried another combination of fittings and stuff. More bubbles. So I called a friend, who happened to be on the fire truck today, and they came up and very efficiently put the fittings together. I think the only difference was they used some goop that sealed it all up, but whatever. No bubbles.

Then, we turned it on and found out the oven setting hadn't been adjusted, resulting in two-foot flames coming up from below. BAAAD. So they fixed that, too, which resulted in much climbing on the floor, etc.

I figure I have about eight batches of cookies to make tomorrow in my new oven as a thank-you for their help.

As they were leaving, I asked them where they would go to find cheap carpet. Oh, one of the guys said, I have a big piece in the back of my truck right now, but I'm going to the dump soon. I'll go get it right now, I said, so off my now totally wiped out kids and I went to get carpet. We find his house, and actually have to extract the carpet out from under a few cans, etc, in the back of his truck, but voila, carpet.
Then it was leftovers, berry goo all over the place for Thea, Liam actually eating dinner (once a week, tops), bath for Liam, got him to let me use the shower head to wash his hair, Liam out of tub, on the couch with previously-promised popcorn and Wiggles movie, Mom and Thea in the tub for bath, Thea in jammies despite hollering and kicking, Thea upstairs, nurse, bed, back down to Liam, set him up on a chair and give him a waaay overdue haircut, pjs, book, teeth brushed, into bed, water, back into bed, down to close up the rental for the night, threats to Liam about toy removal if he doesn't go to sleep NOW, collapse on couch with beer and mint cookies (not really a good combo, but who cares.)

So it was a very productive day. But. Holy. Smokes. I. Am. Tired. And not just me.
It is now very quiet in this house.

No comments: