The Dirty Truth- language warning

Well, the literal shit has almost literally hit the literal fan. We had an amazing 10 day trip to Hawaii in October (Side note, October is the best time to go to Hawaii. Fewer crowds and more consistently good weather) and the weekend after we got home I headed out for a long awaited girls trip with Bonnie and the Bastian girls at Tammy's house in Saint George. Well, I returned on Sunday and as we were driving home I get a call from Scott that our basement has flooded from a sewer back up...AGAIN. The 3rd basement flood in 3 years and the second sewer backup one.So, for the past 3.5 weeks I've been managing that problem part time since then. There was a literal turd on the floor by the sewer drain in the basement. I was mortified. Our poor tenant uprooted again. I refunded her rent for the month and we've been coordinating getting things taken care of. It's been exhausting and expensive. My two least favorite things. Our house is constantly a mess (thank you children and busy parents) and constantly in need of this little repair or that little repair. I frequently find ways to put small "bandaids" on issues and we're calling it "deferred maintenance". I told Scott that what I want for Christmas this year is a work day. For him to arrange babysitting and to get all the necessary supplies and for us to get some stuff done in the house. Installing that smart thermostat that we got half way through installing and then it was dangling on the wall by it's electrical wires...so I used medical tape to stick it back on the wall. It's been stuck there with tape for months....MONTHS. Yeah, stuff like that. So, there's the shit show in the basement and then there's this morning. Oh boy. We all have mornings like this but it's important to acknowledge them so other's know it's not just them! As I'm getting Maxwell dressed Clara is crawling around the boy's room and finds something that interests her. This is common so I just let her fiddle around with whatever. Well, this time she found a special "potion" Patrick had made. I frequently do not now the origins of these ingredients. Sometimes I do. I'd just instated a rule yesterday or the day before about discussing potions with me prior to creating them so that I can stop him from using things like fluf, a fun little kinetic foam sand type substance that Andrea got us for Christmas last year. He'd used that to make "slime" about a week ago. The creativity never ends and it's such a tough thing to balance "yes, go for it! Make a mess! use our supplies! Create!" and "omg, I'm overwhelmed and we are wasting and distroying stuff". I'm certain I'm not the only one with this problem so, the rule was intended to make space for creativity while setting boundaries like not putting a blue paint and kinetic sand potion under your dresser where your sister can get to it. She got to it. Then Patrick, attempting to solve the problem, grabbed the vacuum and spread the paint everywhere. Then, I plop Clara in the bath and get the spot bot going on the rug and she POOPS IN THE TUB!!! So I empty the tub and while attempting to drain and clean it, she crawls out of the bathroom and POOPS ON THE HALL RUG! Patrick and Max asked to craft using fabric to sew a star (go for it buddy!) and clay to make creations (yes, please do!) That was my morning. And all before 10 AM. The good news is, Patrick made breakfast for everyone basically all on his own and Maxwell tidied the living room wihtout being asked so, I guess I'm doing something right. But damn, this morning was rough. That's life! And still, in spite of it all, I found myself just laughing and thinking...I need to write a blog post about this. So, here we are. Now I'm done and headed into a pile of dishes. Or maybe studying for microbiology. Or maybe Christmas shopping if I can get away with it.