Not Real Hardships

Today was a good day. This morning did a quick pick up of all the rooms and I was done by the time the kids all left for school. So the clean house is still here after 24 hours, wow! That's mostly what I've been doing today. I've also spent a bit of time at the computer. I was looking for tips on where to go for some home repairs. I really like using facebook when I'm looking for recommendations. Like when our basement flooded a few years ago, turns out a friend from high school's husband does disaster clean up! Sweet! It was quick getting a recommendation and quick coming out. Plus I had the added blessing of feeling like I could trust them cause I knew them. Same thing happened today. On Sunday evening, the microwave stopped working as Mel was warming up some food. It was dead. Poor Joseph wanted to reheat some mashed potatoes later that night and, poor guy, he had to do it on the stovetop of all primitive things! This was his plan B. Plan A was text his friend and see if he could bring his bowl of cold potatoes over there. But then he'd have to walk, so he asked if he could take the car to drive 5 houses down the street, I gave him a look of "'First World Problems' going on right here...." He replied with a "fine!" as he turned on the stove top, funny.

So I bought a new microwave yesterday but when I plugged it in, it didn't work! What?! Maybe it wasn't the microwave, haha, silly us ~ We just assumed it was cause it's been on it's last leg after Abi heated up a hand warmer in there, thinking she was supposed to warm in up in there like a rice bag. Started to send sparks and made a bad smell, but luckily no fire... so yeah, we needed a new microwave anyway, good thing we thought it was broken to help make it happen. So I went to the breaker box and it was switched off in the middle, but not all the way off. But it wouldn't let me switch it back on. And when something electric won't let me do something, I figure there's a good reason, and not wanting to start a fire or anything, I left it alone. So it might not have just been the microwave, maybe the outlets too? So I threw out an "I need an electrician" facebook request, and hooray less than 30 minutes later a high school friend said her husband is an electrician, he called me later that night, asked what I did when I tried to trip the switch in the breaker box, I told him and then I learned something new: You need to unplug all the appliances first before you trip it after blowing a fuse. Now documented here for future reference. I went up and saw that I still had the toaster plugged in. So I unplug the toaster, go to the breaker box, it resets, and what do you know, it tripped and the toatser and microwave are back on! I called him back and thanked him for being a genius! He jokingly said "That'll be $75 dollars!" The kids were excited to know they won't starve. So the repair emergency was taken care of. There are still 4 more things that need to be fixed - two lights and two outlets that haven't been working since we moved in. He's going to be out next week, go us!

So, sometimes I think I totally would have made it across the plains. The microwave wasn't a big deal to me, but when I freak out about a flooded toilet like I did on this past Friday night, it makes me think maybe I'm not as tough as I thought. Then today as I was on facebook looking for recommedations, I saw this video (heartbreaking) that helps me again remember that our broken microwave and flooded toilets are not big problems.

We are so blessed and should be so grateful each day. I want to help the people of Aleppo. This little kid just makes me think of Natalie and my heart breaks, what desperate circumstances. I haven't done much yet but pray for them. Wesley has been fasting for the people in Syria every Sunday since I showed him this video 3 weeks ago. I still don't know much about what is going on, but have started to watch the videos here and they make me cry. I think I'll donate to the White Helmets. Two videos for my future reference - video 1 who is fighting who and why it's a big mess - and video 2 of how it started.

Dear Father, please bless little Ayah (pictured above) and all the other children in Syria, please be with the, help them, comfort them, we pray for the return of they Son, that he may come and wipe away all tears.