The Thing About Hot Water

Rain and thunderstorms were forecasted all day so I came up with the brilliant plan to spend the whole day cleaning. Frankly, with Ethan and Kai gone for 10 days, the rest of us gone to Kentucky this past weekend, and the general craziness that the first couple weeks of summer bring, we were overdue. My grand plan of course was met with nothing but smiles and yes ma’am’s. Well, at least that’s the way I will record it and therefore remember it for the rest of my life!

Just as breakfast and the children’s “school” work was finishing up Olivia (who has made it her business to read my emails and check my calendar for anything I may have forgotten) kindly reminded me that Kai had a dentist appointment in 20 minutes. In all fairness I wouldn’t have forgotten the appointment, my phone would have dinged 10 minutes before the set time and we would have just been a few minutes late. Note to self; set the reminders on my phone for more than 10 minutes before an event is supposed to start.

The dentist appointment went well. That is if "well" means you leave with all the teeth you came with, which is how we now judge the success rate of all trips to the dentist. We’ve clearly set the bar very high.

After we got back home I’m happy to report that most the jobs did get done. However, sometime between cleaning out the refrigerator and cleaning the cabinets I noticed the hot water was no longer hot. Being the self-sufficient woman I am I grabbed my phone to call Brian at work, and marched down to the basement to solve the problem. When I got to the water heater it was clear, from the rusty water leaking from it, that I wasn’t going to be able to fix it, even with the best YouTube video at my side.

The lack of hot water completely knocked the wind out of my cleaning sail to the point that I was completely paralyzed by the thought of doing any household chores. It was as if vacuuming, cleaning windows, or even mopping were worthless without hot water. The children took my lead and somehow we got going on a Full House marathon. Then, as if being a couch potato was my life calling, the mail lady rang the doorbell with a delivery of Cheryl’s Cookies. Just like that everything was right with the world again. Or at least as good as when we had hot water.