best laid plans

Update on the inclement weather: we have now had our second day of school canceled. The girls are going stir crazy. We were able to sneak out and get pizza on the way to and from the hardware store. Just when I was bracing for all the crazy shenanigans inclement weather brings, our sewer line backed up into our basement. I know it sounds disgusting and it was, but it could have been so much worse. Most of what backed up was clear water probably from showers. We were able to easily fix the problem ourselves. Now we are just in the middle of the clean up. We have half the basement sanitized and we just the other half to do. The appliances are all okay. The animals did not get into the mess. Only my husband tromped through it until it was evacuated.

This was a shock to be sure. As I was researching what to do during this event, I learned there was supposed to be all kinds of signs that it was coming and we did not experience any of them. No running toilets, no issues flushing, no pipe noises, no problems draining… and we just woke up to a flooded basement.

I had this nice plan of watching movies, television, doing crafts and playing a couple new board games we got for the holidays. Then we woke up to that nightmare. So the time off has not been what I was hoping it would be. In fact, it turned into something I would not wish on anybody ever.

On the positive side, we are persevering through another setback. On the negative side, reality was again not like I planned. It has been a lot to contend with my own inner demons about not being a good enough parent or spouse. The real world tends to knock me down a lot. I admit I cried multiple times while we cleaned up the basement. Mostly because I always put things away down there in a way that things will not be ruined in case of flooding. My family does not listen and unfortunately some of my keepsakes were put in cardboard boxes on the floor, which I was unaware of. They are now in the trash.

In the end, things are just things and while they will be missed, the memories are more important. The fun memories I wanted to make this weekend did not come to fruition because cleaning up sewage is a time consuming task. I hope my kids remember this moment, not as a sad and boring weekend, which I am sure they will tell all their friends that it was. But to recall this moment as a time where their parents put everything aside to tend to an emergency; a terrible, disgusting, emergency which did not affect them hardly at all because their parents got right to work correcting the situation. At least that is what I hope to remember. I definitely do not want to remember the gross stuff.

Break is over. Back to cleaning! See you next time!