In list order, my week last week, I dealt with:

an overheating car

sewage backed up into the house (the bathroom only! but ick!!!)

cleaned raw sewage for an entire day (I'm still cleaning it out of nooks/crannies)

a huge maple across the entire front yard

smashed sidewalk

smashed flowers (they're not too smashed and will grow since it's so early in the season)

walking across the street to get a radiator hose

walking 26 blocks to get another two heater hoses

learning how to bypass a broken heater core on my car and how to install heater hoses (hear me roar!)

talking to the city about fixing the sidewalk as they cleared away the tree

dug a hole

found the seeping sewer

cleaned out the clog

filled the hole

called and met the locksmith

broke a door pane

talked to Michelle about her upcoming party menu and odds/ends

I still have to install the new dead bolt and replace the pane. It's been a lot. But yesterday, I got a perspective that made me jump for joy. It seems like I have been a fish living in a dirty bowl who is getting a clean bowl. When you clean a fish's home, first, the fish gets taken out of the bowl and placed into a smaller vessel in clean water. Then the old, dirty water gets discarded. The true vessel gets scrubbed clean, filled with the good water, and then the fish goes back in. Voila! It can't be done any other way. If you dump some of the old water and put in some new water, sure it's cleaner, but it isn't clean, It's diluted dirty water. I am pleased to be at living in clean water and that the vessel is clean now. If it can just filled back up with the clean water, I'll be swimming! Oh, and I was a proud mommy. I've never understood "honor your father and mother", until I saw it in action. I am still crying proud tears. I took LF into the main sanctuary at church and when we met people, he was very nice and shook hands. People said, what a polite boy. I beamed. There have been times in my life I've gotten "looks", and it's nice to be on the other side of it now. But.... more than that... LF wrote a song. An amazing song. I didn't have any hand in it. Then he decided he wanted to sing it for our pastor??? Again, all him. I had no idea what he was up to. When Jerry asked me how to introduce him, I said, "LF, Dot's great-grandson (of course was implied and we smiled.) Everyone knows Dot!". LF told Jerry what he hadn't told me. Jerry announced that they were in for a special treat. LF, Dot's great-grandson (aw! was heard in unison.) was going to sing a song he'd written in honor of my grandmother. Honor rang in my ears. I started crying right then; I don't think I've stopped. They clapped and I hugged him as he came off the stage. I always thought honor meant you should do what you were taught, good manners, that sort of thing. Honor is a passive thing that a parent receives. We cannot do what we teach. They do it or don't. And he did. Life is hard, dang hard, but it is great! And the best is yet to come, but I know it's coming.