Say I Won't!

These days have been hard. Some days have been so painful, Mom had to cancel school and stay in bed. I've walked through my house leaning on doors and walls to get from point A to point B. But I'm still singing! Some people ask, "How?" or "Why?". I mean, when things are this hard and all I want to do is cry, how can I still stand strong? Why is it that I don't give in and just wallow in the pain and misery? First, let me share a song with you. This one speaks heavily to me. Rebel that I am in my heart of hearts, this song sings to my soul!

Even on a good day, I'm struggling to keep the pain at bay. But on my worst days, I'm reminded that I am NOT alone. Every painful step of the way, I'm leaning on the arm of Jesus. According to doctors, I may be walking on borrowed time. No. I'm walking on God's timing. As long as walking is required to do what He has placed in front of me, I will keep on. And when my legs are no longer needed, I will ride that wheelchair to His glory. 

Through all of this, I have a choice. Accept my defeat and give up hope. OR! There is always an or. Or I can rejoice that these legs are still moving at all. Accept that there is still a purpose for me. And be thankful for the time I have had until it ends! Here's another one for you.

These are revolutionary thoughts that most people can't seem to understand until they truly walk a day in the shoes of opened eyes and hearts. But the more you praise God for His faithfulness, the more you find yourself in joy. The more you see the good through the bad. That glorious silver lining! 

That is where I am. Being thankful. Accepting the calling. And praising God for the wonderful ways He has been working in our lives. From the mountain top views, through those dark and shadowy valleys - I'm gonna keep looking forward. Just Say I Won't!

First Comes the Test, Then Comes the Lesson

In life, we don't always have the lesson first, do we? Wait, do we ever?? I don't think so. I think we always go through a tough time before we understand why. That is IF we ever understand the why.

My husband and I have been in the middle of a new lesson. Patience being a big part of it. Letting go of that idea that we can do anything without anyone else helping is another part of it. 

Last week, we started hearing something that resembled running water in the pipes. While nothing that requires water was on. Hmm that doesn't seem quite right, now does it? Of course we, the kids and I, told Dad when he came home from work. As well as having sent my husband a picture of a puddle that was in front of a door on our house. 

My husband had bought one of those cameras that you use to see behind the walls, that has an LED light and is flexible. We had gotten it to check on other plumbing issues, but now it was looking for a flowing pipe. No matter where my husband fed it through the wall though, he wasn't finding it. Next step was to drill holes in the walls. A couple in the bathroom. A couple in the hallway. Another one or two in the game room and closet. This is when I started to be concerned. He even opened up the air conditioning unit and found that there was a little pond under that! Well, now things are really getting interesting. 

Fast forward and I'm asking the church to pray for us. My husband and I are getting frustrated. With the situation as well as with each other. In theory, we should be able to handle this. On our own. But the more we look, the more trouble we are finding. All because we can't find the trouble! Then he reaches out to a friend in the church. That alone was surprising to me. Then he's asking me to get recommendations for plumbers that have equipment to find leaks under the floors and possibly under a concrete slab. Finally! We are going to get help. Ever want to suggest that to your spouse, but don't want them to feel that they aren't adequate because of it? That was me. 

To the Nextdoor app I went in search of recommendations. Our Neighbors never disappoint. I had a list of places to call within the hour. Unfortunately, I'm calling on a Friday. The soonest, but most expensive one, couldn't come out until Monday. The next in line, both in price and in availability wasn't until Tuesday. Great, a whole weekend of flowing flooding water under my floors. But then I got a notification. There had been a late addition to the list! Jose from Pro1 Plumbing. So I give him a call and catch him on his lunch break. He's willing to take a look, and only charge me IF he finds the leak for sure. He can come within the hour. I feel hope again! 

He shows up. He gets a lay of the house and how the pipes have to be based on where all our water fixtures are. I'm feeling pretty good about this guy. He calls his son and buddy over to help him in the search. They have to have someone turn the water off and on while he listens for the echo of the spray under the floors. He narrows down the area where the leak should be and then they double check to see where the water main comes into the house. All three of these guys are now digging in my front yard that has become a mud pit. I have two puddles now in front of each of my front doors. And he was able to show me water pouring over the slab. Part of the slab even crumbled as he pulled the mud back. 

My husband is at work while this is happening, so I'm having to text him and wait until he gets the messages through his spotty signal. I'm trying my best to keep him informed and also get his decisions on how to proceed. They are talking about needing to cut the carpet and roll it back to better hear the echo. I'm finally getting a price quote too. To find and repair this busted pipe. Which I now know is a gusher after having seen how fast the meter is spinning and how loud the sound has gotten. In my mind, I was determined to talk my husband into just paying these guys to knock this problem out the park. Get it fixed! They have the tools and the know-how. And I really do NOT want to have to rip up floors and tiles and carpet without knowing what we are facing. Not to mention having to possibly buy or rent the tools to cut the copper piping.

By the time they have dug the hole, it is already 4:00 and the heat is getting high. These guys are sweating and clearly tired. The job would take a least 2 more hours. Possibly more. So we all agree that it would be best if they stopped there and just come back in the morning.

Now, we fast forward to the morning after. We turned off our water at their request before they came over. We had moved everything out of the way of the areas they would need clear.

My youngest says, "It reminds me of when we first moved in!" She is so right. That had been my husbands assessment when he got back from work and saw all that the kids and I had already moved. I probably shouldn't have done as much as I did, which wasn't much at all, since my back has been acting up all week.

The guys showed up and found the closest point to the pipe they could get and had to cut into the hardwood floors that we have under the carpet. Then they had to get the ShopVac out and the jackhammer. Turns out, the pipe is under the slab. And the amount of water is incredible! They were carting out buckets filled. By the time they stopped, which was some time close to 5:00 I think, they had carted out about 25 gallons at least. 

Once again, I'm glad we decided to hire these guys. There is no way my husband and I could have done this alone. Even with help from our teenage sons. This is a massive undertaking. And we don't have the skillset for it. Our house was built in a time when they thought putting layers of tar and gravel under the concrete was the way to go. This is why the water is staying in place instead of finding its way into the ground. That, and Midland is mostly clay dirt, so water stays around for a VERY long time. But now we can see why the weeds in the front garden bed were springing up mercilessly! They were getting well watered by this leak. The plumbers had to leave again with the promise of coming back on Sunday. 

I was thankful to start putting our living room back in shape. The game room was near or over the leaking pipe and was quite the disaster zone. 

Then we had them here working through the day on Sunday. Only to find there was more than one leaking pipe! This house was built in 1952. Most of the pipes haven't had anything replaced since they were laid. We fixed one out front. And another popped loose near the front of the foundation. Then sometime, probably quite a while back, another couple joints came apart under the bathroom and game room. A sketchy patch job was revealed behind the water heater. And we were thoroughly ready to just give up. I'd love to have just curled up in bed and wished it all away. 

But we have had to juggle refilling water jogs to refill toilet tanks every time someone had to use the restroom. 

We have four kids who are tired of being trapped in either their bedrooms or the living room. 

Then came the big decision. Do we do a quick patch or do we actually re-pipe the house? A patch job won't hold. Not for long. So now, we are going with the saying, "In for a penny, in for a pound." We decided to have them move all the piping upwards through the attic! I'm glad we have a fantastically strong foundation with about 3 inch thick wood over about 3-5 inches of concrete, over a layer of gravel that was packed in, over a final layer of tar. This house shouldn't ever have issues with settling. Whoo! But they have to reroute the pipes upwards now. Yay...

That is what they worked on ALL DAY on Monday. My husband had to take a day off from work. We went without water, which meant having to purchase huge jugs and more bottled water to keep us going through the night and day. We kept the whole family in the living room to limit anyone getting in the way. The guys worked hard and fast, which made us happy. But it was hard on us all. Being confined in a single room. You'd think it was a zombie huddle. With spurts of activity when someone decided to do something. For me, it was incredibly tiring. Though I did manage to finish reading a book. 

Suddenly we think they are at the end of the job. Putting things back together. Cleaning up areas they were finished in. That is when another leak was found. They had turned on the cold water with no problem. Then they turned on the hot. And water spouted from another joint! I was  feeling pretty dead inside. Too tired. Too desperate for a shower. Just too much of everything at once! 

But as we were finishing up dinner in the living room, they were finishing up cleaning. They even repaired the holes in the wall, which wasn't part of the deal we made. They also repaired the drainage for my washing machine hook up that was leaking every time we washed clothes. I'm more than grateful for that! After all, my husband has been too busy to do it and the way he wanted to fix it was too much of a process. After all, engineers sometimes over-complicate things. I've been washing clothes since the plumbers left without any more leaking water! But that was all they did. I probably sound like those infomercials - But wait! There's more! They found out why we had this sewage smell sometimes. Turns out that the pipe that would vent sewage gases up out of the house, is cracked. So when the wind blows really hard, as it has been, it sends the smells right back in. Jose told my husband how to repair that when we are ready.

Time to think

I have been thinking a lot about the lessons we were facing in this. 

We had to let go and let someone else step in to fix something. 

We had to accept that it would cost us a pretty penny and possibly eat up the majority of our savings cushion. 

We had to 'rough it' without water. Again. 

We had to be patient with this plumber and accept that he has been working on the weekend and dealing with his family wanting his time as well. 

And for me, in particular, I had to accept that my weekend plans were effectively erased. I try my hardest to write my plans in pencil, but the weekend is the only time the kids and I can truly get out of the house and possibly do things. Not gonna lie, spending time at the park was looking really nice... But we couldn't do that. We had to be here for the workers getting things done. We missed church too, while waiting to hear from the plumber on Sunday morning. Not knowing when he might show up. 

I had my moments of doubt. Had moments of thinking we messed up in our choice of plumber. That maybe this was just a bad dream. No, wait, that was just my wish. And yes, even wondering why this was happening to us at all. 

But I will say this. There was so many things that were evidence of God's goodness. Things that I can be thankful and praise-filled about. 

1. Even with the water turned off, we could still use the restroom and flush the toilets. 
2. This plumber was no-nonsense. Honest and blunt with us. 
3. My in-laws weren't here while this was going on.
4. The prices we were facing, while still high for our income, were nothing near as high as they could have been. 
5. God gave us what we needed, included enough money to purchase extra water and microwavable foods to keep us going until the repairs were finished. 

There is a song by Micah Tyler called Even Then. I heard him in person once, and he explained the story behind it. The heartaches and trials his family were facing were still more than what we had here. Part of it says, "Even when the waters won't stop rising... You're with me even then." The waters were rising under our very feet. But God got us through. And sent the right person to fix it. 

What Have I Been Doing Lately?

Not writing, as you can tell. I've had projects lining 2 crafting tables. I've had a friend to help with editing. And cleaning up the clutter around the house. But I don't regret not blogging so much. These projects have been filling my time meaningfully. I feel accomplished when I get another one done. Take this one for instance....

My daughters wanted to have characters from the older Batman movies. The two with Michael Keaton. Then those two from the 90's. They learned about Cat Woman and Poison Ivy. So it didn't take long for the request to make a Poison Ivy dress came about. I have to say that for my first time making something like this with the sewing machine, it came out pretty nice. Now I want to attempt to make another for my own doll...

I've learned to make doll capes too. They wanted their own OOAK Attack on Titan dolls to be dressed like the Scouts. 

Not everything was doll related, however. I did finally create this marble art that hangs under our back porch. The kids had gotten a ton of marbles from a friend. They used the ones that would work with a marble run and the rest ended up in my room somehow. So I got to thinking... How could I use them?? Ta-da! This is what came from such a question. I used a round wooden charcuterie board, painted black. Wire for crafting, I suggest 16-18 gauge if you are making something for outdoors that has to withstand winds. I used old necklace chains from broken necklaces to hang them down.

It came out so well, that one of my sons even asked me to make him a pendant to wear as a necklace in the same style of the wrapped marbles for this project! Then he wanted to give some to friends and wanted some for the upcoming fundraiser. So, I made more. It was fun and has given me the know-how on making other projects! 

I promise more blogging will happen. Just not so frequently while projects are getting done! But I will share some of the better ones with you. 

Reusable Water Balloons?!

Did you play with the water hose as a kid? Chasing siblings or friends? Maybe jumping through the sprinkler system? How about water balloons? Did you love throwing them at others and hoping to get hit in turn? I did! And so, apparently, do at least some of my children. You know what I didn't like? I didn't enjoy having to pick up the balloon pieces afterwards. Tiny bits of busted rubber, a rainbow of colors everywhere! Reminded me of that part in Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters where his very important job was to clean up after the Hero Games were over...

 So, what if I told you that there were alternatives? Like... reusable water balloons? No, I'm not talking about sponges filled with water that you throw at each other! I'm talking about a soft silicon-like container with magnets that keep the top half attached to the lower half. And actually do pretty good at keeping the water inside until they hit someone and splash!

It is a very clever concept called Hydrobursts Balloon by Relatable toys. I got this through Influenster. But when I attempted to look them up, I learned they are just too new! So I'm letting you know what we think for when they start hitting the store shelves.

*Disclaimer: I was sent this product for free in exchange for sharing my reviews. I was not otherwise paid or endorsed. All opinions are my own.*

As a mom, I don't want something that is going to make a horrendous mess in my yard. I don't want bits of rubber everywhere that is dangerous for pets or babies. That makes my yard look trashy. I also prefer toys that are economical. We don't have money to buy tons of new balloons just to throw and pop in a couple seconds. 

These are soft, so the hit won't hurt. Even the ridge with built-in magnets isn't that hard. My 7 and 11 year olds both had a blast tossing them at each other. 

I suggest having a water-filled bowl or bucket to keep the fun going. They are easy to refill like that. 

This is going to make the summer so much more fun! And also give us a good reprieve from the Texas heat. Definitely an amazing product that we enjoyed testing out!