A Hamster Lost. A Prayer Answered.

I am the proverbial chicken. You know the one-- head cut off, scattered priorities, inability to focus and complete the most menial tasks choosing instead to escape into television/books/facebook (choose your poison) only to emerge to the same chaos. Yesterday was probably one of the worst of those days.

June, generally, has been like that. I spend the better part of the week either getting ready or cleaning up from major excursions (youth conference, Lake Powell, EFY, High Adventure). I do a million errands, spend way more money than I want to, have my older children babysit ALL day, come home exhausted, headachy, and crabby. Only to turn around and do it again the next week. July will be Girls Camp (This week) and Family reunions at the end of the month.

So today, scattered and crazy as it was I returned home with a migraine and go straight to my bed after taking an excedrin (which while delightful in its ability to remove my headache post haste, has the undelightful effect of waking me up at 3 a.m.-- Yay caffeine :{) Maggie, bless her heart, undertakes to lock up the house, get all the kids in bed and be absolutely sweet so I can get some rest.

BUT THE HOUSE IS IN DISARRAY SUCH AS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN. OKAY, it has, but you know what I mean.



The excedrin wakes me up at 3 and I am (as I always do when I am awake in the wee hours) obsessing over any number of things (the house is so horridly messy; I have so much I want to do, but such limited energy; how to improve the state of the economy in general and the state of our business specifically; hope Amy's okay; gotta give a lesson on Sunday; who will our RS teachers be etc. etc. etc.) I am wide awake so I arise intent on cleaning the kitchen to give myself some hope for the future. Some forward progress.



I make progress. I discover the source of the bad smell (bad watermelon) I clear a path, I even start a load of laundry. That's where I discovered the situation necessitating the title of this post. Turbo's (Matt's newly acquired Hamster) spinning wheel was in the Laundry Room sink. We place his cage in the laundry room at night because his nocturnal wheel spinning is not conducive to sleep. For that matter neither is mine. Ooops. I digress. Usually I just parentheticalize. I did it again. Sorry.



Anyway. Turbo's wheel is off and there is a hole out of which he has escaped. I go down to Maggie's room (truly a microcosm of our entire house in it's entropy) hoping that she has borrowed him for the night and he is safe and sound. Not so. She undertook to clean the cage yesterday morning and her methods of securing said abode were insufficient. She forgot about cleaning the cage and he has, apparently, been an escapee for the better part of the day. On so many levels, AAAAAARGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!



Sorry. so, recognizing that I need a little more faith I kneel to pray. Asking that if it be His will, we will find the little rodent before he climbs into some unpatched hole or unfinished electrical outlet and dies and rots, smelling up my house. Maggie and I begin cleaning the laundry room (it is now 4 a.m.) I am, of course, cursing myself and the state of the laundry room, my lack of organization, generally, and the fact that a hamster could live for years on the amount of food that is sometimes found on the kitchen floor. I google finding hamsters and someone suggests turning out lights and shining flashlights around, under etc. I figure it's worth a try and we do it. Within seconds Maggie finds sweet Turbo behind the entertainment center.

I SO DID NOT EXPECT TO EVER FIND THIS HAMSTER. But the Lord saw fit to wake me up (finding a nocturnal hamster in the middle of the day would have been so much more difficult), to answer my prayer, to restore my faith and hope in Him, to provide me with yet another tender mercy to add to the millions I already have, and to remind me that He is there helping me with the smallest of my problems if I will just ask. I guess that is worth getting up at 4 am for.

ANNUAL TWILIGHT MOCKING

Okay. I know I'm taking a risk, but am I the only woman who didn't see Eclipse with a huge group of other women at Midnight? Rob and I will go see it together. Hope that doesn't mean he's relinquishing his man-card.

In memory of my Crafting Days

I just saw on facebook photos of my friend's crafts. She has one little girl. I remember having one little girl-- albeit not for very long. I remember savoring the time I had to craft. I remember not running 25 places at once. Some times I long for that time again-- even though I also remember that being an even harder time.
Even though it's summer vacation I am busier than ever. I run from this class to that lesson to this responsibility to that and give so little to every one. I just watched the cake boss and I would have to say my life is just dirty-iced. A thin layer to keep the crumbs in, but no artistry or beauty. Just survival from crisis to crisis.
I desire more holiness and beauty, but throw those away for clean counters and folded laundry. Which might be, in their own way, artistry and beauty. I know so many moms who love summer vacation. That would not be me.
As we speak I have turned my back to write this post for the better part of 2 minutes. In that time Bentley has taken a brand new package of wipes and spread every last one of them about the room in the most amazing adornment.
I want to be frustrated, but then I see him naked except for a diaper (a blowout just minutes ago-- not a day-long experience) chatting with the kids downstairs in his way and it's all good. Mostly.