The slow life? Yeah right!

I actually don't really try to do a blog post everyday. Honestly, most weeks it just usually happens. I have plenty of things to write about, and I usually have no trouble coming up with a post a day. I also will do many posts in one day when life slows down for me. For example, if JB is doing a night shift, I may take the two hours after the kids go to bed and before I go to bed and pen three or four posts that I can then set to automatically post.

I just jumped over to my blog to see what I posted yesterday. Can it be? The last time I posted was Monday.

It was.

And I have no reason for it other than the fact that our life these last four days was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY.

I have written often during the last year on my family's conscious decision to live a slow life. And this post is to tell you that even when that is your goal, there are some days, some weeks, that it just isn't possible.

This week, appointments and illness and vehicle issues simply swamped our life! There was absolutely no slowness at all. Add to it the fact that we are planning a trip out to the farm complete with a 20' truck that I am supposed to have enough stuff boxed to fill, and I was seriously gasping for breath quite a few times.

Let me back up a little bit and share how life ran away from me this week.

Firstly, JB has worked eight shifts in a row! Every 3 shifts is considered a full work week. This means that he did almost three full work weeks in eight days. The scheduler admitted that this lopsided load was due to an error on his part. But it was too late to change, and JB had no choice but to take on a very difficult schedule. He worked three 12-hour day shifts, then he worked two 12-hour night shifts, and then, after one day to sleep, he went back in for three more day shifts.

It was Monday that he had a very small portion of breathing room since he didn't have to be in until that evening. Of course, he has to take a good nap, so we only had about 5 hours as a family to try to tackle some big things. These included:

1. Taking our new truck "Sunshine" to the shop for a once-over (which ended up taking 3 days due to some bolt refusing to come loose.)
2. Going to the bank to get a bank account for Because of Isaac.  We are an official corporation now and are in the midst of working on our non-profit status. (I'll have to write more on this later.)
3. Having breakfast at Cracker Barrel as a family.
4. Fitting in a bike/run for my triathlon training.
5. Taking Isaac to the doctor for a lingering respiratory illness he had not been able to conquer. 

On Tuesday, JB's mom had to bring her own truck down into the shop they bought it from (1 hour round trip away) to get cruise-control installed. So I took JB to work early in the morning. That became the start to an INSANITY-filled day.

1. Took JB to work (1 hour round trip)
2. Walked in the door and Grama told me we were completely out of diapers. Ran to the store for diapers.
3. Walked in the door with diapers and Grama informed me that JB had accidentally taken HER truck key to work. She had to have that to drive her truck down to Franklin. So I hopped back in the van to drive back down to his work to pick up the key. (1 hour round trip.)
4. The moment I walked in the door, Grama had to take off to make her 9:30am appt. time. I had 10 minutes to get all the kiddos in the car to make Abigail's 10:00am speech class start time. (1 hour round trip.)
5. I had wracked my brain to figure out how to fit a workout in that day, and had come up with the idea to run the track by Abigail's school during her speech class -- Hannah in the stroller and the boys playing in the grass with a soccer ball. The secretary had told me I was allowed to do this. However, when I arrived, I was informed that due to security issues that was no longer allowed. So I opted in jogging laps around the parking lot to fit in my triathlon training for the day.
6. The moment I walked in the house after Abigail's speech class, Mom called. Her truck wouldn't be ready in the 2-4 hours they had initially quoted her. So I drove right back down to Franklin to pick her up. (1 hour round trip.)
7. After that it was naps and then back down to pick up JB after work!

You'd think Wednesday couldn't be worse than Tuesday, but it rivaled for sure. JB's truck was still in the shop and so was mom's. So now we were down to one vehicle for all of us. That meant I had to take JB to and from work yet again. In addition, I had an appointment to pick up some items I had purchased in Nashville. Sidge also had a counseling appointment and Isaac a speech appointment. I also managed to squeeze in a 700meter swim while dropping mom off at my brother-in-law's house to wait for her truck. Craziness.

So now Thursday is approaching. My friend Stebbs and I have scheduled a meet-up in Birmingham at a science center. She is moving to Nebraska this summer so we really wanted to connect at least once more before that move. It was actually a reschedule from an event we had to miss during the last ice storm. JB told me I should cancel with Stebbs, but I just didn't want to! So I left it on the schedule.

But God knows better. Stebbs actually texted me and told me that due to a series of events and illness in her house, she had to cancel. I admitted to her that I should have done that two days ago. However, even if she wouldn't have canceled on Wednesday afternoon, I would have had to cancel by that evening as Sidge was running a fever and Isaac had a terrible case of pink-eye!

Praise the Lord for a SLOW Thursday. JB could drive himself to work, and I had nowhere I had to go other than to pick up one last vehicle from the shop. Now we are home and packing like crazy people to do the first half of our move. 

I will end by sharing a fun video of our family passing the time waiting outside the ER for JB to get off of shift. If his shift is light, we can go in, but if there is "scary stuff" going on, we have to wait out in the van.