Torture or Treat?

This week has been a crazy, busy week. Everything that could be going on this week is. From a major event at church (post and pictures to come), to co-oping at the preschool, to work parties for both Michael and I on the same night, to hosting a chicken stew tomorrow. It is a busy week.

Today was scheduled to be my cleaning/cooking day to get ready for the chicken stew. Given how crazy the week has been so far my house is a mess and I've not had a chance to get started on the prep for the stew. Luckily, I've stayed on top of laundry and already done the shopping for the stew but that is it. Today's to do list is very long. It started with needing to run a few errands. We needed cat food and glitter glue. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy that getting glitter glue was high enough on the list to be one of the early errands of the day. It is actually for work and I have to have it on Sunday. I knew if I didn't get it this morning I would likely forget it and that would be a big problem for the 60 or so children planning to make angel ornaments Sunday morning.

We did the pet store run first and then hit Michaels for the glue. When we walked back to the car I noticed this.


Yep, that would be a screw in my front passenger tire. While I was not losing pressure in the tire (love being able to see that while driving) I knew it needed to be fixed sooner rather than later. And knowing how difficult doing anything with the tires on my van is I knew I would have to take it to the dealership and it would take hours to fix. I didn't want to wait until Monday to deal with it as I knew that would stress me out to no end. I knew just not driving the van until Monday was also not a choice as it is the only vehicle we own that all six of us can get in at one time. And I knew we would want to go somewhere over the next 72 hours together. I knew fixing it on Saturday was going to be as bad or worse than fixing it today as the chicken stew is tomorrow!

So I bit the bullet decided to fix it today. My original plan was to find someone from school that the big kids could go home with and just bring the littles with me. I couldn't get ahold of the friend. So I called my mother-in-law for help. She graciously agreed to have the littles stay with her and have my father-in-law pick up the bigs. So I could wait for the van without having to try to pacify children. The good with the van is the screw had not completely punctured the tire and it could be repaired and the airbag light that is on and needs a sensor repaired is covered under warrenty. The bad news is there was a nail in one of the back tires and both back tires were worn enough they needed to be replaced.

So here I sit two plus hours later. I've had a nap. I've surfed the web. I've read part of a book. I'm now blogging. I probably have another hour or more before the van is finished. My house is still a disaster and none of the cooking has been started for tomorrow. I will definitely have a long night in front of me but for right now I'm thinking that silly screw was a treat as it allowed me the first "me" time I've had in several weeks!

Jenn who is so very grateful for in-laws who will watch children while I wait for the van!