Life as a Yowler

Bats, mice, and floods is a nice little summary of our time home so far. I’ll start with the first night home. We were aware that our basement flooded. It happened about 1.5 months ago. My dad took care of the worst of it. We also had someone come in and dry and clean everything. We made the decision that I would drive back before Brandon and the kids to clean our basement. I drove the van back and left the rest of the family for 1 night in Ohio(where Brandon’s family lives). Brandon drove home the next day in the motor home with the kids(in car seats). I drove the van home from Ohio after Brandon’s grandma’s burial service. I didn’t get home until 10pm. I worked on unpacking and cleaning the basement until 4am. I was about to collapse. I went to sleep until 7:30. I woke up and finished the job. I had until 4pm to work. That’s when the rest of the family got home. I was so overwhelmed when I first got home. I just tried to focus on the big picture. I knew it needed to be done. And I definitely preferred it to be done while I had no kids to keep alive. I did things in steps. Step 1 was getting rid of everything that was ruined. It was mostly books, 2 vacuums, a tv, a karaoke machine,  and 2 freezers(had to wait on Brandon for the freezers). Step 2 was putting everything back in it’s place. The entire basement was tore apart, because the cleaning company had to move everything. Step 3 was scrubbing everything with vinegar. I scrubbed all walls, the floor, the area rug, and furniture. I vacuumed everything. I emptied my rainbow vacuum 4 times. Each time the water was black. I worked like a horse. I felt so exhausted and wiped out, similar to how I felt during each child’s newborn stage. I survived. Brandon doesn’t compliment me often. He came home and said “wow! You did amazing. I would never know a flood happened down here.” It even smelled good again thanks to vinegar and baking soda.

After Brandon and the kids got home, and I was mostly done cleaning, we decided to take a break from the work and go have some fun. We wanted to go to my parent’s cottage on the lake. We try to head to the cheeseburger festival in Caseville every year and grab burgers and stay the night at the cottage. We just happened to make it back home the last night of Cheeseburger festival. Our good friends, the Severance’s joined us. The kids had so much fun playing and catching up. We’ve really missed each other.

We got up Sunday morning and went to church. On the walk in the church Caed very excitedly said “oh mom! This is my REAL church!” He was so happy to be home. We heard from my brother Lance, along with Pastor and his daughter about their mission trip to Africa.

Sunday after church we went to my parent’s house for lunch and had a little late birthday celebration for Joah and an early celebration for Lance. It’s hard to coordinate everyone’s schedules. When we returned home from my parents house, Joah went inside first. He came out and said “mom, there’s a bird in the house.” I opened to door to see a bat flying around everywhere. I thought these things were nocturnal. Well nocturnal my butt….this thing was flying everywhere at 5pm. I could see it through the front door. I was too nervous to open it. I recruited Joah, since Brandon wasn’t home yet. He had stopped at the gas station.

All Joah did was open the front door. The bat flew out after about 3 minutes. It was the longest 3 minutes of my life.

We waited until Brandon returned to go back inside. I made him check the house first. We think the bat flew in through the front door. Brandon had been home earlier that day and left the door open for about 20 minutes since the air conditioner wasn’t running.

This brings me to the air conditioner. When I got home Friday night, I realized it wasn’t working. It wasn’t running at all.  We added that to the list of things we needed to get looked at by the plumber. We called the plumber and he came today. He figured out very quickly why it wasn’t working.

A family of 6 mice built a stinking nest inside the air conditioner. They chewed through all the wires.

The air conditioner caught on fire. Thank goodness it didn’t spread. It probably caught fire while I was down in the basement working like a horse. I’m so thankful for God’s protection. A house fire would be a lot worse to clean up than a basement flood.

Tomorrow I got called to Jury Duty. After I get that out of the way, I’m hopeful that our time here at home will go smoothly. I think we got the worst of everything out of the way. Hopefully from here on out it’s just doctor appointments and dentist appointments and normal things to catch up on.

I also should add that we got the sweetest call from Erma Maust, a sweet lady in our community. She wanted us to stop by for a gift. She had garden veggies and eggs for us. Isla kept asking for more tomatoes. Erma also gave each child a picture Bible.

The Bible’s are so fun for kids to read. They are laid out almost like little carton stories.

I caugt Joah reading his last night as he was going to bed with his headlamp. 🤣

Brielle has been busy picking blackberries from the woods since we’ve been back.

Aunt Bethany bought each of the girls the cutest dresses. I have a matching one too. She is always so good to us, and pretty much keeps us clothed. She also got shoes for the youngest three kids and shorts for Joah. She loves to spoil us!