Have You Ever Had One of Those Weeks?

The day both cars gave up

Have you ever had one of those weeks where nothing goes right? I just had one. Both of my vehicles broke down on the same day, which is how I ended up calling a tow truck and a neighbor for help with a two-year-old in the back seat screaming "Down!"

We jumped one car, only to get stuck in the Home Depot parking lot. Called for a second jump, and this time just accepted reality and bought a new battery. The car has a fresh battery now, and I have a new understanding of my own limits.

The Home Depot plot twist

The reason I was at Home Depot in the first place: I needed a new dryer duct. Simple enough. Except swapping the duct is how I found a leak behind the washing machine — inside the wall — with black mold.

So now I have a huge hole in my wall. But I don't have mold. I'm choosing to file that under wins, because the alternative is crying into a bag of drywall screws.

"God is good all the time. Deal with what's right in front of you, and save tomorrow's anxieties for tomorrow."

The pillow incident

That same night, my two-year-old decided to take off his diaper and pee on my pillow. At bedtime. My pillow.

I genuinely considered just sleeping on it. I want to be honest with you about how tired I was. But I wasn't tired enough to do that. Barely. LOL.

And then Poison Control

Somewhere in there I also had jury duty, was playing catch-up at work, and was trying to give the other kids what attention I could without completely losing it.

The next day, my two-year-old refused to nap and instead decided to eat my nighttime vitamins, which is how I ended up on the phone with Poison Control, monitoring a cranky, tired, upset-stomach toddler. Work got pushed aside. Again.

He was fine, by the way. Poison Control was kind, calm, and did not laugh at me, which I appreciate. (If you ever need it: 1-800-222-1222. Save it now, before you need it at 9 p.m.)

What actually got me through

I finally caught my breath and caught up on work. But there were a couple of days there where life got so crazy I didn't even recognize it as my own.

What I kept coming back to: God is good, all the time. Deal with what's right in front of me. Save tomorrow's anxieties for tomorrow. That's it. That's the whole survival strategy.

And at the end of the day, all my kids were fed and safe. On a week like this, that's not the consolation prize — that's the actual goal, and we hit it.

I wish I could say I slept like a baby

But you know.

This is the first in an ongoing series I'm calling "Have You Ever...?" — because these weeks keep happening, and I'd rather laugh about them together than pretend they don't. If you've had one of these weeks, tell me about it. Misery loves company, and I make decent coffee.