No Good, Very Bad, Hard Hard Day
So we started off the morning with the death of our first family pet, the beloved Frodo the Fancy Hamster, master of all things fluffy and cute. He entertained our family for 2 1/2 years, which I think is pretty long for a hamster, and now he has gone to "hamster heaven," as my oldest daughter put it. He is actually out in the garage awaiting burial because we had heavy rains all day today.
There was some weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
There were many, many tears and lots of wadded up kleenexes.
I was most surprised by our 6-year-old daughter's response - she was just as heartbroken, even though it wasn't "her" pet. Our oldest saved up her own money to purchase Frodo, thereby giving her full ownership of our furry friend.
I think this was the first death our kids have experienced. It was rough...but it's a part of life. They didn't want to hear about that, so I told them something comforting while putting them to bed last night (while Frodo was on his way out):
"The Lord is near the brokenhearted."
It's a snippet of a Psalm, I think. Didn't have time to look it up. It just floated into my brain at the right time. Thank you, God!
I told them, as they snuggled into their beds, "God hears your prayers. He was sad when his friend Lazarus died, so he understands your sadness. Ask him for help and comfort."
I don't know what they did with that knowledge, but it made me feel better. I hope it helped them some, too.
In other news today, my husband and I decided to divide and conquer some errands.
First, a bee stung our oldest child on the foot. Okay - that seems to fit into today's theme. She got over it because she wanted to go to Toys R Us, a distraction from the loss of her pet.
My hubby took two of our kiddos for their toy adventure and a trip to Walmart to pick up a memorial photo collage of our dearly departed.
I took our middle child to the grocery store with me (a "mommy and me date" - at this point in the parenting game, anything where there's just two of us counts). She'd been dying to use her kid-sized grocery cart at the store, and I've been promising to let her for quite a long time. I try to keep my promises, so we dodged through the pouring rain to Aldi, little pink and purple cart in tow. We filled our carts with groceries and checked out - it feels good to be stocked up for another week of homemade breakfasts, lunches and dinners. She loved picking out some items and filling her cart - it only held about 4 things, but she was triumphant. Totally worth the effort.
We loaded into the car and, because it had stopped raining, I removed my jacket. Normally, this has no effect on anything. This afternoon, we went to two more stores and I missed some important texts. After an hour more of shopping, I figured out where I had left my phone and read the following:
"Car won't start."
"Jumped the car. Still won't start."
"Was there gas in the tank?"
"Tried gas. Didn't work. Called my parents to take us home."
Whoops! I totally missed these important, crucial texts. They were stranded at Toys R Us for 2 hours. <Sigh>
So thankful for my in-laws, always willing to help us out! They brought the last three-fifths of the family home so we could eat spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and discuss how we're going to buy a new van.
The car's not doing so hot, either. It's shuddering as it runs. It was already scheduled for service on Monday.
My husband's first comment was: "So, which of us is going to get a part-time job?" Oh boy.
I had a few ideas, and so did he. We knew we'd have to buy a new vehicle soon because the van wouldn't pass inspection this time. We thought we had til October, but now we know we're looking at next week for car hunting.
And as we were pow-wowing about our conundrum, the ninja puppy peed under the table and dropped a load elsewhere.
Perfect. Thank you, dog.
So, to summarize our No Good, Very Bad, Hard Hard Day:
Our hamster died
Funeral delayed due to pouring rain
Kiddo stung by a bee
Our van died
Our car is shuddering
We need to get another job
and the Ninja Dog did his thing, just to add one more insult to the day.
Tomorrow has got to be better.
It just has to!
...so I looked up the Bible verse for encouragement, for you and me.
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