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I got a phone call at 6.10pm.

Your vinyl has arrived. I know it’s short notice, but can we start work tomorrow?

I hesitated for barely a second before agreeing. If I put it off, it might be another 3 weeks before my bathroom and kitchen floor is replaced and honestly, I’m sick of the current sight of it.

Remember what happened? My hot water cylinder burst, leaving me flooded and without hot water. Yay me.

I hung up and spent the next 10 minutes freaking out.

They are pulling up my floor TOMORROW.

They are pulling up my FLOOR.

MY FLOOR! They are pulling it up! TOMORROW.

Needless to say, Nathan was rolling his eyes at me by the end of my spiel. But dude, you don’t realise. They are pulling up my floor. My kitchen and bathroom floor.

I might be hyperventilating a little.

Because you know what else is happening this week? I’m getting horses. Two of them. They are coming from a lovely home, she’d rescued them previously. They aren’t in great condition, but they should build up fast enough here.

Horses.

Which is lovely. I haven’t had horses in years and I still miss them.

But the work to get my property ready before Saturday when they’re being delivered is huge. My stable, which had been used by the previous owners as storage, needs cleaning out, I need to head out and pick up some hay, I need to have chaff and stuff on hand because the grass won’t last forever and oh my god, the work.

I’m fully prepared for the work. Looking forward to it in fact, [I need water containers and feed containers and I need to comb over the paddock (again) for glass and wire and I need to clean the stable and double (triple) check the fences again and ohmygodthestableneedscleaningbecauseyoudon’twanttoknowwhatIfoundinthere] and I’m going to love having horses again.

But did I mention they are pulling up my floor tomorrow? My kitchen and bathroom floor? And that they’ll be here for 3 days, working on it? THREE days, with small children needing to eat and showers needing to be taken and ohmygod.

I’m going to be a busy, busy girl. (Not busty like I first typed. Not unless Isaac suddenly decides that boobs are boring and I don’t think that is going to happen.)

I’m looking forward to it.

I think.

Right after I stop hyperventilating.

Amy upon waking gets out of bed and promptly gets her knee stuck in her gate. Instead of being able to ignore her for a few more minutes, I’m forced to bound out of bed and save her. Isaac is awake too and happy to see me. I smile at him and drag myself back out into the lounge room. It’s only been 6 hours plus baby feeds since I was able to sleep and I’m not ready to be awake yet.

I pop the TV on and snuggle Amy on the couch. Isaac gets placed on the floor to play and I stumble back to bed. I kick Nathan with icy feet to get him out of bed. He had an early night, it’s his turn this morning. Grumbling he gets up and I hear a happy little girl shout ‘Daddy!’ before I fall back into sleep.

***

Amy is dumped on the bed.

Here, watch her and have a look at her mouth while I get a face washer.

Hmmph? What happened?

Don’t know. She was outside playing.

I blink sleep out of my eyes to see that Amy is covered in blood. She doesn’t seem upset or hurt. She sucks her bottom lip and I see where the blood is coming from; her lip is already swelling.

What happened kiddo?

I was outside playing. I go find Daddy.

Happily she jumps down off the bed, not a care in the world. I hear Nathan chasing her around the house, trying to watch her face. She isn’t hurt, just bleeding. I snuggle back down and sleep. Again.

***

Isaac is crying. I hear the pump running telling me Nathan is in the shower. I climb out of bed, my shoulder throbbing. Picking Isaac up, I sit down and feed him. He gulps at me hungrily, his eyes already starting to close in sleep. It’s only been 90 minutes since I kicked Nathan out of bed to do the morning shift.

Slowly Isaac finishes his feed. I wrap him and settle him in the pram. He falls asleep while I climb back into bed, loathe to be awake yet.

Sleepily I watch Nathan get dressed and start folding washing. I curl up and pull the blankets higher. Amy plays in the lounge room alone and I can hear her getting frustrated with the dog.

Seven! Come! Here! Now!

Nathan leaves and I remain, not sleepy anymore, just exhausted. Getting dressed seems like much too much effort and I try to count how many spoons it would take me to get dressed.

I climb out of bed anyway and dress slowly. Nathan has the pleasure of putting my socks on for me and brushing my hair.

***

I curl up in the chair and sip at my cup of tea. I’ve just finished the few emails I had left to do and my reader is empty for the first time in days. The sun shines, beckoning me.

***

Weeding the garden feels never ending. For each weed I pull, there appears to be two more just a little further on. Amy jumps on the trampoline as Isaac gurgles in his pram next to me. The sun shines for the first time in days. It’s warmth is very welcome.

I give up on the weeds and instead check for peas of a size to be eaten. Underneath, in the part I can’t easily get to, I find some. They’re sweet and I share them with Isaac. My lettuce is coming up and is almost large enough to be picked. My salad greens are starting to bolt to seed, so I sit in front of them picking the flowers out of their centres and eating them raw. I’m not ready to give up the greenery just yet. They can seed in a few weeks for me.

I pick my way through the garden and poke at the area that should have beans coming up. All the rain recently has done it good, even though it nearly sucked my soul out of my chest.

***

Coming inside, I sit down to write a blog post. Amy is outside playing when I hear the gate swing closed. The gate that should have been latched.

Looking out of the window I see her racing away across our paddock. I ditch the laptop and grab my shoes. Racing outside and through the gate she sees me and races away faster. The grass is thigh high on her and she’s not very fast.

I catch up to her as she tries to escape through the fruit trees.

Mummy! You come chase butterflies with me?

Laughing, we run through the grass chasing butterflies together.

So for the last few days, it’s been raining.

And raining and raining and raining.

Did I mention the raining?

The river, that runs about 1km away from our house broke it’s banks and we spent just a leeeetle bit of time peering at it concernedly. Eventually it turned out we were looking in ENTIRELY the wrong direction, as it broke it’s banks closer to the house and flooded a paddock or two.

Not my paddock though, I didn’t need a river to flood it. A badly drained highway will work for that.

I haven’t been out into my paddock since the rain ended, but I have stood and looked at it. I looked at it hard. Unfortunately, simply looking at it didn’t drain the water, nor did it dry up the ankle deep mud that is everywhere. Or the puddles Amy keeps escaping to splash through.

Anyway, the water that ran in off the road made it’s way in a steady stream through my yard. Where it ran under the house. I’m too scared to look under the dining room, although I can guarantee that there is a pond under there.

Another pond that is.

Two sides of my bedroom got a little soggy. Just a little bit though. I mean, it wasn’t like there was water seeping up through the carpet.

Oh wait. There was.

But today! It’s sunny! And I weeded the garden and picked all my leafy greens for lunch and reduced half a dozen dislocations, all at once. I’m making the most of the sunshine, because the rain is meant to reappear later this week.

And honestly, I’m not sure if my yard will cope with anymore rain. We might just drown in a pit of mud.

Which would be less than pleasant.

My front yard.

The river, after the levels started to drop.