In the middle of the night I woke up with both nostrils completely sealed shut. I couldn't breathe and I had to pee. The effects of Nyquil still strong in my system, I headed groggily towards the bathroom, but not without tripping over four shoes, running into two different walls, and almost completely missing the toilet's seat as I bent to sit down. "Who leaves so many shoes out in the floor? People around here are trying to kill me! And have those walls always been there? And that blasted toilet is in the worst possible place!" I silently shouted in my head. A flip of the bathroom light switch revealed the shoe culprit's identity - it was me. Immediately coming to my own defense, I naturally reasoned that something beyond my control must have made me leave them there. Better yet, the dog probably put them there as her personal chew toys and they were left in my dim lit pathway because of her. As for the walls and location of the toilet, I had no explanation, but planned to look up the builder's name and address as soon as I finished sleeping. Someone had to tell him what a terrible job he did in building this place. Why, I could have been seriously injured by those misplaced walls and that constantly moving toilet! Well, having not forgotten the unspoken challenge between Sam and I only hours earlier, I waited until I returned to the bed before I loudly blew my nose three times. It was time for him to hear just how sick I was. There was no movement or sound from him as I drug out the third and final loud blow. Hmm......"he's playing hardball," I quickly concluded. "Well, it's not over yet," I determined as I slowly drifted off again.
Morning came and I had my first victory in the form of dog duty. Both of us unable to breathe and sounding as though someone had a permanent pinch on our noses, I rolled over in bed and moaned about the pain in my head. "Oh, I feel awful," I whined. "Me too," he cleverly replied. "OOohhh....my head hurts so bad," I slowly retorted. "Let's snuggle" he responded. Ahh haa! "He does feel better than me!" I thought. As the dog lay by my side of the bed, I informed Sam that she needed to go out. Neither of us moved. It was a battle of ills and I wasn't going to let him get the last sniffle. A few more minutes passed and I stumbled back into the bathroom to loudly blow my nose. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched his every move waiting to see if he would lead Lucy Liu out of the room. He did. "I won!" I silently cheered. Well, the day progressed and I realized that I really did feel miserable.
Fortunately for Sam, he was already scheduled to take this day off work, so staying home was a nice little pre-wrapped gift from God. Because the virus originated in our six year old son, we also let him stay home from school. Thus, we have a houseful of sniffling, nose blowing, coughing, and aching people mixed with a shedding cat and a bouncing pup. It was only an hour or so ago when we all came together for lunch and I surveyed the upside down condition of our house. As Ashton sat on his stool talking incessantly, Sam and I prepared a sandwhich and Ramen Noodle lunch while Lucy Liu and our cat, Malachi, scavenged the floor for anything we might drop. We sat down to eat, thanked God for our family and food, and started the movie, Driving Miss Daisy.
Less than 10 minutes into the movie, I got up for something and just slowly looked around the messy room to finally meet my husband's eyes. "I love you, our crazy life, and crazy family so much" I said. With a knowing smile, he said he felt the same. We're in a condo that's entirely too small for our growing family that now includes a pup who is ever increasing in size and at the moment we're completely broke. We're all in desperate need of a haircut and Sam and I could both use some new clothes. Our child talks non-stop and our animals are constantly under our feet. I even broke a toe on the pup's wire cage. We're continuously on top of each other because the space is so small for all five of us (Sam, me, Ashton, Lucy Liu, and Malachi) and there are so many occasions when we're all going crazy at the same time. One doesn't have to have numerous animals or kids to feel like they're in a zoo. I often feel like I'm in one and we only total five. I told Sam that these are the days I want to remember. These are the days that I know we have it all. "Ten years from now when things are different for us, these are the days I want to look back on and remember," I said - the days when we would go so broke that all we could afford were ramen noodles. As a family, we've never been closer to God than what we are today and it makes all the difference in the world. Because we have Him, we have it all.
If you're struggling in life, turn to God and know that He is all you'll ever need. He can fill your worst day with laughter and your poorest day with riches! May God bless each and every one of you!
IMage taken from ballyhooligan.wordpress.com.
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