Who said Monday was the Worst Day?

Bad smells bother me. Out of all my senses, sometimes I think it's the one hardest for me to ignore. I can overlook a messy house, tune out whining kids, push pain to the back of my mind and swallow down something nasty, if I have to. But bad smells... it's like being accosted every time you take a breath. I am not a mouth breather. To me there are three sorts of heath issues: painful ones, ones that make you vomit and ones that stuff up your nose. I have the same level of response to each one. I simply cannot fall asleep unless I can breathe out of at least one nostril. Sadly, though, this leaves me rather handicapped when it comes to bad smells. I have no choice but to smell them.

At some point, some cat peed somewhere on my living room rug. Either that or one of my kids has a serious kidney issue. In any case, the first sense that registered this morning was my sense of smell and the first scent I sniffed was cat pee. This is not a happy way to wake up. This is actually worse than my previous two worst smells to wake up to: vomit and poop.

I'd worked all day yesterday on cleaning this rug. I borrowed a steam cleaner from my parents and ran it through with Dreft detergent, Spray and Wash, Arm and Hammer something or other, Fabreeze, vinegar, and a $75 cleaner that I bought from a traveling salesman. Nothing worked. The smell just seemed to get worse overnight.

Initially it was so bad this morning I thought there'd been another peeing incident somewhere right below our bathroom window. (Which would be the front door, which is where another puddle of pee smell was lurking.) I hauled the kids out the door at quarter of nine so to be at Petco when they unlocked their doors to buy a specialized Cat Pee Odor Eliminator called Nature's Miracle.

(This is where the third of my morning's insults happened. The second was that I found out the email account that I CLOSED last week was sending out spam. The third was that, for some unknown reason, my van thinks the drivers side rear door is ajar and dings incessantly the ENTIRE time I am driving. It's really quite headache inducing and not the sort of thing one wants to hear when one has been smelling cat pee all morning.)

I purchased my miracle at Petco, stopped at Ace for lime to pour around the perimeter of the house (at which the van dinged the entire time we were in the store, despite the fact that the van was off, the key was out and all the doors were shut) and came home to the blessing of a quiet and curse of a stinky house.

I spent all day cleaning. I sprayed, I scrubbed, I vacuumed, I steam cleaned, I mopped, I laundered, I wiped, I scrubbed, I sprayed some more. At the end of the day I carried the rug outside and draped it over the kid's playhouse because it stunk so bad I was getting a headache and my throat was starting to close up. (This could be a result of all the chemical compounds as well, but the point is: THE RUG STILL STINKS.)

Here's the good news: We have 30 new fish as a result of our trip to Petco. All my floors have been mopped at least once, most of them multiple times. Some of my living room windows have been washed, one of them inside AND out. The house no longer stinks. It's 7:00 and I can now put all my kids (and myself) to bed.

Hockey, Anyone?

So, on top of the cat pee smell (which, I must confess, has taken up the majority of my time and energy today), my baby boy's room smells like poo. I looked around this morning, stripped his bed, picked up toys, didn't see anything. This afternoon it still smells strongly of poo, so I decide to wipe the floor with Clorox wipes. As I'm wiping under the changing table, a hockey puck, made of tiny turds, slides out. Wiping into the hall, I notice other little turdlets, under the air filter, because, apparently, my lovely boy was sliding them under his door this morning.

Might as well be Monday

It's a blah day. At this point I'm thinking any sort of clarity or sense of well being can be attributed to the steroids I was on for the first half of the summer. Ever since my trip down to Virginia for my grandmother's funeral I've been completely wiped out and as mentally incapacitated as ever. I have the memories of clarity, therefore it's not completely the same, but I can't make any new connections. Being tired all the time sucks.
I think I have a bladder infection. I woke up Monday night with horrible pains and I've continued to hurt since. The pain has narrowed down to a bladder infection. Dr. R. has called in a script, but I still have to pack everyone up to get it.
The kids are tired of summer. They're bored and they're picking on each other all the time. I can't wait until school starts. Having the two older girls gone in the afternoon will be a lovely break for everyone. I can put the younger two down for quiet time and I can sleep. I hope.
I feel like I could be doing so much more as far as teaching the kids. I see opportunities... and they all take energy that I don't have. I don't have will power to fight through being tired and feeling sick. I'd never make it in the armed forces. Sometimes I wonder why God gave me these brilliant kids when they could be so much more with someone else. Then I figure He gave them to me because He knew they could survive on their own.