Dried Out

Y'all.

It's been some kind of week over here.

The kind of week where you have poison ivy on your face and water pipes bust and your windshield has a huge crack in it.  Those are usually the weeks that you're also doing some major life changing, such as starting your homeschool year and adding another child to the mix.

Last Sunday, as in 12 days ago, we woke up without water.

After flipping the breaker a thousand times, we gave up.  No worries, we'd be out all day anyways.

The well company came out late Monday night and deemed it a faulty wire.  They came back the next afternoon and replaced the wire.  We were back in business.

Well color me surprised when I went to wash a sticky child the next Saturday and no water came out of the faucet.

Uh uh.  This cannot be happening again.  Not on Labor Day weekend.  Not 30 minutes before we were having friends over for dinner.  God bless the Queen, we have no water again.

This time the well fixers said a pipe had bust.  And that the first guy should have seen that.  But it's a holiday weekend so for a tab bit extra, they'd fix it.  Too bad their definition of "tad" didn't quite line up with ours.

No problem.  I've watched Little House on the Prairie.  I can be a pioneer woman for a day.

Trouble was, a day turned into another day and when they didn't show up on the third day I started to panic.  Dishes in the sink gives me hives and then there was the whole toilet flushing issue.

It was getting real up in here.

Somewhere in there, I also contracted the itchiest, ugliest case of poison ivy ever documented*.  On my arms, fingers, knees, stomach, and last but for sure not least, the entire left side of my face.

Josie repeated, in her most dramatic voice, declared not having water as, "the most awful thing that had ever happened to her."  

* facts not documented but obviously true.

I dropped Josie off at Hybrid School and had myself a good pity party.  Certain I was the only mother in the world that had to endure 5 days with no water.

Of course, that isn't true.

And of course, God didn't let me get away with my petty, selfish whining.

As much as I wanted to feel sorry for myself, I couldn't help but think about how insanely lucky I am.  I had multiple showers to choose from to bathe and a Starbucks at my beckon call.  I had a car to drive to countless sources of water.

How many moms out there are actually, for real without water?

How do they do it?  

What do they tell their thirsty kids when there isn't a jug of water waiting at the ready?  How do they wash away the germs or clean off the mess?  The reality of what that feels like, even as only a fraction of my reality for just a few days, was hard.  It was a much needed perspective check.  I can't imagine the endurance those mothers must have.  

For me, my dry spell ended late Wednesday night.  

A little dirt and a new pipe and we were back in business.

But today, I will wash my dishes and clean the floor and give drinks to my thirsty kids while thinking of all the mothers out in the world that can't.  I will pray for them and try to channel some of their strength and creativity.  Being a mom can be hard, but could be so much more difficult.