“Don’t worry, mom.
In heaven your house will be spotless.”
~J.T.~

The schoolroom smelled like the septic tank had exploded and landed somewhere in the house. I checked the bathroom, and besides the clothes on the floor, nothing was terribly unusual in there. The next day I smelled it again but the bathroom still didn’t have any problems. When I continued into the big boys’ room I realized the smell was coming from there. I went upstairs and let them know, “Boys, your room needs some attention.”

Somewhere in all this somebody figured out that the outside corner of their bedroom carpet was damp. It’s done this before. It was late by now. Dad and the younger boys were still out at a hockey game for the church men’s night. The big kids had gotten home from bowling with camp friends. I also had just gotten home from meeting a friend for supper. We met at 5:30 and talked for over four hours until everyone else had gone home.

I told my son to put the dehumidifier in there. This morning Dad and the big kids left for an indoor track meet over by Decatur. The boys were given a choice. They could go to the meet and have to be there all day or stay home with me and be put to work. They decided to stay home. The four of us worked in the boys’ room moving stuff out of the boys room into the schoolroom. Again I was amazed by all the possessions we possess.

Something’s going to have to be done about the carpet. We soaked up what we could but the smell is too bad for anyone to currently sleep in there. Last night the boys slept out in the schoolroom, and after addressing what we could in the bedroom, we moved to the schoolroom to clean up there. It wasn’t too bad, but if one room was going to be torn up and messy, then I wasn’t going to have the makeshift bedroom also in disarray.

Dad kept me updated on how the track meet was going. We folded a few loads of laundry, started new ones, and cleaned the kitchen. They watched a show while I took a 1/2 hour nap. I’d planned to go out and finish birthday shopping for one of the boys’ birthdays tonight. I could’ve still done it, but Dad said he’d do it on the way home. I texted a list. I had all these homemaking thoughts I was going to share and process just now, but this works.