Chickadee Manor

The one where things did not go according to plan...

So, remember how yesterday I said today was going to be THE day to tackle the exterior side of the windows?  Yeah, well, that didn't happen.  Not even close.  It seems I have been slammed with some sort of virus.  I was feeling slightly iffy on Wednesday but thought it was just due to my being on antibiotics for an extended period of time due to a sinus infection.  Apparently not.  Last night was not good and today I spent almost the entire day in bed or on the couch in the living room, only getting up to help when things could only be done safely by me and otherwise enlisting the help of my eldest two kiddos to help reach things, pour milk, etc., for the littlest ones.  Thankfully, Dwayne was home over lunch and went to the grocery store (twice!) today to pick up what we needed and took over in the meals department.  Judah actually napped on top of me on the couch this afternoon and we all took turns choosing cartoons and HGTV shows to watch while he snoozed and the rest of us took it easy.  I am optomistically saying that I am trending upward but that is also how I felt on Wednesday night.  We shall see in the morning!  Those windows will just have to wait.  Or perhaps I will have to try cleaning them with winter windshield washing solution...has anyone out there tried that? 

I will leave you with some silly selfies that I took with the kids when we got out to the hunting cabin last weekend.  Everyone was glad to be out of the vehicles after two and a half hours or so of driving and more than happy to goof off for the camera! :)

 

Plumbing and Moose Hunting

Hrmn.  There seems to be a correlation between plumbing problems and Dwayne going away moose hunting.  The last time he was away for an extended period of time hunting we had issues.  We have the same ones today.  Blech!  I'm off to pour my eco-friendly dish soap and some near boiling water in the toilet.  I hope it works...

Why do these things seem to happen when husbands and dads are out of town?  I guess it forces us to learn something new!  That's what I'm going to tell myself anyway.  That this is actually a good thing.  Okay, maybe not good but not horrible either. ;)

Update: Plumbing situation resolved.  2 for 2 with the dish soap and hot water.  Easy, cheap, convenient, and it works!

" It could have been worse...

it could have happened to me!"  At least that's what Pop used to say. :)

Only this time it DID happen to me.  Dwayne is away moose hunting for a few days so I'm holding down the fort.  Usually Dwayne being gone forces me to do things I don't normally volunteer to do.  For example: going outside late at night to turn off the generator or anything else in the pitch dark while the wolves are howling.  (Not exaggerating about the wolves by the way.)  This time I got to deal with toilet issues.  Not my idea of fun.  Ask Dwayne how freaked out I get when HE unclogs the toilet.  I go cleaning crazy.

The toilet super-clogged today.  Good thing we are well versed in using the great outdoors when necessary and that we have a large wooded property on which to practice such skills.  Makes for ultra quick "bathroom" trips especially now that it is officially freezing out there. (Yes, there is frost!  And snow in the forcast for Saturday.)  I spent well over an hour trying to plunge the blockage away.  My palms hurt.  I couldn't locate a snake either at our house (running around outside in the dark with Hendrik's flashlight) or from our neighbour, or at Mom and Dad's (driving in at 10p.m and looking in and around their house and garage with Hendrik's flashlight).  I came home and put the kids in their beds as they had fallen asleep on the drive.  (Riley had actually been asleep before we left the house and remained so the whole time.)

In the end I googled.  I had nothing to lose and I was running out of options.

I tried making a homemade snake from a metal coat hanger.  It took me 45 minutes to unwrap the thing first.  I got rid of all of our plain metal hangers a few years back and replaced them with plastic ones with the exception of a few that had been macramaed with some sort of fabric.  After almost getting finger cramps from dismantling the hanger and having the hook part snap off in my hands, I finally got the wire untwisted with my itty bitty Swiss army knife pliers and tried it out.  It did nothing.

There was a suggestion for leaving an enzyme based product in the toilet overnight but alas! we're out of Septo-Bac.  This actually works.  I've tried it before.

My last resort was hot hot water and dish soap.  I squirted a bunch of my mandarin non-toxic, ecofriendly soap in the toilet and filled up the kettle.  I dumped the almost boiling water in and waited.  A few air bubbles.  Better results than anything else so far.  Nothing doing half an hour later so I plunged again.  I think it worked.  I have to wait for the suds to subside before I can be sure.

Fun, fun, fun!  It's only 1:55a.m.

Oh yes, in case the toilet incident wasn't enough, we had another related incident.  Whilst I was disinfecting the bathroom after my plunging attempts earlier this evening the kids were watching TV in the living room.  On one of my trips to take dirty laundry outside I noticed an unmistakable smell.  I found this a little bit weird as the bathroom smelled clean and there was a faint aroma of bleach in the air.  I thought maybe the former odor had migrated or something.  I walked past a few moments later and figured there had to be something causing the smell.  I found it.  Fortunately, and unfortunately.  We had a dirty diaper incident in which the diaper failed to contain what it should have contained.  Ugh.  More cleaning and disinfecting and grossness.  Followed by bathing of child responsible for diaper incident and another child completely covered in chocolate pudding.

Not the sort of eventful day I dream about but I'm less squeamish about the dark and about dealing with the toilet.  I suppose that is good.

I anticipate needing coffee tomorrow.  Maybe a vat of it.  Too many short nights in a row.  The event's leading up to last night's late night seem incredibly mundane now.  I won't bore you.  I'm wishing for that sort of boredom myself though! :)

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!  The suds have subsided.  One happily flushing toilet!  I'm off to finish cleaning the bathroom, shower, and go sleep.  Good night!

P.S. Please forgive any errors of grammar, spelling, or cohesion of regular thought.  My proof reading skills have been fumed away by the bleach!

One of those mornings...

This morning Hendrik woke me up all excited to go to his music & movement class. I got he and Riley changed and dressed and was about to put them in their jackets and warm clothes when I looked out the window. Dwayne had taken the car, and thus Hendrik's car seat with it, to work. The van was in the driveway but only had the two front passenger seats in it as it was used to haul building supplies earlier in the week. I called Dwayne at work just to make sure. It was just as I thought and the van was low on gas as well.

Dwayne offered to come and get us and the we could drop him back off at work on the way to class but by the time he would have got here, the kids got loaded up, we got him dropped back at work, I got the kids unloaded and out of their winter clothes at the Rec Center, the class would have been half over and I didn't think it was fair to interrupt a 30 minute class 15 minutes in.
Poor Hendrik was very disappointed but has recovered rather well as toddlers tend to.

To top all of this off, while I was getting everyone ready Riley fell off of our bed. Thankfully, our bed is quite low and the floor in our room is carpeted but still...