The fridge broke and other fun tales

Family

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On Sunday night of the 4th of July holiday weekend, we rolled into OKC around 9pm, tired and sunburnt. And as we unpacked the car, I noticed there was standing water in the kitchen. YAY. We thought maybe it would be okay and it was just a power surge. But as it would turn out, the fridge decided to go completely kaput on us. Which meant that bright and early Monday morning, I was heaving the big trash can to the back door and disposing of every last thing in both the fridge and freezer. Tons of dethawed popsicles, meatballs, chicken, you name it. Gone.

And naturally Monday morning was trash day and the guys had already come by, which also means that we now have 25 pounds of stinky trash out in the back driveway. ::sigh::

So now it’s Thursday and the fridge was not fixed yesterday as it was supposed to, but apparently will now be fixed tomorrow. Which means that I now have the joy – nay, the pleasure – of spending All The Money to restock the darn thing again.

The joys of home ownership, right? For what it’s worth, I’d never buy an Electrolux refrigerator ever again.

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Years ago when Jude was a toddler, I remember thinking ” If I only knew how many more times I’d have to say ____ to Jude before it finally sinks in, I could feel like I was making a difference.” Things like “thank you” or “please” became monotonous to my ears as I’d prod him to say it until finally one day he said it on his own. This parental monotony, however, does not end with toddlers. Case in point: Jude seems to believe that when he is wearing clothes, they are built-in napkins. Over the 4th, we had a big BBQ dinner and I swear to you, that child was not wearing clean clothes for 2 minutes before I looked over and saw THE ENTIRE LEFT HALF OF HIM FROM SHOULDER TO KNEE covered in sauce. Duh – you wipe your hands and face on your clothes. I’m 99% certain my head spun around and I made him march home and change clothes because EWW.  Or the case of the brand new duvet covered I sale stalked on Horchow until it finally became somewhat palpable to purchase. It was not on the bed 1 day before Jude waltzed out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth and wiped his blue toothpaste-and-foam mouth all over one corner.

It’s a delicate balance, in my mind, to teach the difference between Things Are Only Things  but also We Are Going to be Good Stewards Of Our Things. Do you struggle with this as a parent? I don’t want him to think that we only care about the cost of things, but at the same time I want him to understand the value of working hard to earn money and that nice things cost money. And that it’s being a good steward to take care of our things and not be wasteful or negligent. Why is that so hard? ::shakes fist::

So this picture below pretty much describes my mental state this week:

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The good news is we can now ponder this with popsicles thanks to a restored fridge and freezer.  EXCEPT OH WAIT. ::sobs::

with love,
Rachel

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