Just Write {34}

On Sunday morning Asher shouted, We have a leak! and I came down the stairs to see him standing barefoot, water up to his ankles, Legos floating by, plastic bobbing up and down and laughing at me in primary colors.

RYAN!!! That was me, with the shouting this time and there came my husband to stand at the bottom of the stairs with me in disbelief. It had rained and rained the night before. So much that a big empty plastic bin that was sitting outside in the storm was full halfway up by morning. And this would be the night that our sump pump up and stopped working. I could write a million whining words about the mess, I really could. The sopping wet very large area rugs, the piles of soaked laundry, etc…but unusually, this became a day that I may even call good.

There was panic at first and while Ryan struggled to fix the pump, I kept the children away from all the standing water to be sure every power cord down there was unplugged. I knew we’d need my parent’s help so I went to get them at church to stop them from driving home and having to come back in to town again. While the pastor prayed, I snuck up to my dad and pulled on his shirt and he came out to the foyer with me. I told him how I was going to write all day and now this and I tried not to cry. I have a few paid writing things and some other obligations and I’m so behind and overwhelmed and and and…

Then an usher came by to bring us communion, standing there in the back, just to be sure we were included and we awkwardly accepted and usually you wait for the pastor to pray and say the words that mean it’s time to swallow the bread and the cup but I was distracted by all the water so I absent-mindedly swigged down the grape juice and swallowed the bit of bread right that very moment. Then I realized everyone in the church was still waiting, including my dad and we started to laugh and laugh and my dad kept pretending to turn to the usher and he was saying, Thanks for the snack! Then we laughed and laughed some more. I handed him my empty cup so I could leave again, since I was standing there in a sweatshirt and jeans that were wet on the bottom and rolled up high. Do you want another snack before you go? He asked and I laughed all the way to the car.

The boys helped pick up toys and they used squeegees and brooms and it was good for them to learn to help this way. Elsie and I went to get everyone lunch and we all sat at the table and we had communion. It doesn’t really matter how you take it or where you take it or when anyway, as long as it’s about Love and being together in a moment’s respite from the hard things that bring you together.

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This is the 34th installment of Just Write, an exercise in free writing your ordinary and extraordinary moments. {Please see the details here.}  I would love to read your freely written words so join me and link up below. You can add the url of your post at any time. Just be sure it’s a link to your Just Write post, not to your main page. Then please link back to this post in your post so people know where to go if they’d like to join in.) (Any links not following those two guidelines will be deleted.)

Also. Please take a moment to visit someone else who has linked up! It’s a really good way to meet new writers and get inspired by the meaning behind their moments. Word?

 
Attention writing Mamas: Did you see the writing contest yesterday? You can send me an essay for a chance to have an hour consultation with Kate Hopper, the author of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide For Mothers and a feature on Literary Mama Magazine! You can learn all about it in yesterday’s post.