At the end of the day, I always seem to look around the house and think, “Why didn’t I get more done?” My kitchen counters become cluttered with library books, preschool papers, bills and canned goods. My living room overflows with board books, pillows and wooden puzzle pieces. My bed is piled with clean but unfolded laundry.

Today was no different. I started the day helping Lily take a shower and coaxing Emmy through constipation. (She pooped on the potty!) Then it was off to drop Lily off at preschool while Margaretha and I went to a MOPS steering committee meeting. After lunch, the girls and I went outside, and I shoveled the driveway with their “help.” (It’s a miracle I managed to clear the whole driveway!) After a small snack, my neighbor called and asked me to babysit her one-year old, which I love doing. Soon after, it was time for Lily’s ballet class and dinner. Bedtime for the girls, and a couple of TV shows later, I’m ready for bed.

The kitchen counter is still covered with clutter, the living room is picked up, kind of, and the laundry is back in the laundry basket, unfolded.

It’s been a pretty satisfactory day.

Are you thinking that today I am writing about these two?

Good guess!

But I’m writing about two other troubles we had last week.

I was making lunch for the girls last Wednesday, and I told them, “Mommy’s feet are freezing!” Yes, I refer to myself as “Mommy” when I talk to the girls. It’s a habit that I’m trying to break. They don’t seem to mind, but I annoy myself sometimes.

Realizing that I was really cold, I took a look at the thermostat. It was down to 63 degrees. I was pretty irritated, since I already had the furnace company out here at the end of October to fix our heat. I called again, and a repairman came out right away. He thought the problem was probably a bad pressure switch (whatever THAT is) and so he ordered a new one.

We had the new pressure switch installed on Friday, thinking that would solve our problem. Nope. I woke up yesterday morning, and our house was FREEZING!

Did I mention that our furnace is not even six years old?

We have been able to start the furnace manually, so we have heat, but I have to call the furnace company AGAIN today.

The other trouble? My car had the MAINT REQD light on, so I took it in for maintenance. Fortunately, one trip to the dealer seemed to solve all my car’s troubles. While the car was in the shop I got a ride to the mall, and was able to get a little gift shopping done. The car was ready before I was able to try on this cute little skirt at Penney’s…the one time I’m at the mall without my children, and the shop manages to finish the work on my car EARLY. When I’m getting a simple oil change and I have children with me, the work takes an hour and a half. But when I have some time to myself, they decide to be speedy grease monkeys.

Not only that, but all of this is costing us MONEY. And it’s almost CHRISTMAS….

Nothing like a little STRESS to keep me on my toes. I’m sorry for being such a wet blanket yet again. This soon will pass…I hope!