What A To-Do!

This past week has been an utter disaster in terms of ticking off the items I had planned to get done before school starts.
My trip to the Post Office took ages- and then there was the whole stolen bag debacle. So Tuesday night I felt drained and just flopped in front of the TV. The Card Protection Policy did much of the work, stopping cards [and there has been no attempt by anyone to use them] but on Wednesday morning I still had the membership cards and reward cards [National Trust, Libraries, Boots, Sparks etc] to sort out. But I had to ensure my sermon for Sunday was sorted, so that took priority. Friends kept sending encouraging facebook comments, and sympathetic messages [Hold on Ang, maybe God has something better in store for you]

Thus it was rather late on Wednesday before I tackled the ironing mountain - which included laundry from before the holiday, during the holiday and since the holiday. So 9am Thursday morning I went upstairs to put everything away,  A brief task, I thought - taking my cup of breakfast coffee upstairs. I put everything away. Then went to drink my cool coffee- and knocked it over. The carpet was a mess! I decided I ought to take the opportunity to do the whole bedroom with my Vax Rapide. I shifted all the furniture I could [i.e. not the bed] Vacuumed the carpet, loaded the machine and began. I went over the stain once, then I worked from the window back across to the coffee stain. But I noticed a black smudge had appeared. I stopped, and cleaned under the Vax [had I run over something which was smearing?] I went over the coffee stain - and the black got worse and worse. The Vax began to smell. I switched it off. Bob came in and we checked - the Vax motor appeared to have burned out and soot was emerging from the exhaust holes underneath. Bob fetched the Little Scrubber handheld cleaner from the garage.[This had not been unpacked since the move- we found shopping bags, a missing funnel, and earplugs in the box!] The LS made some, but not much improvement to the soot. It was midday - and we dedided to hire a Rug Doctor Carpet Cleaner. 

Off to Tescos to collect it, only to find they had no detergent. Rang RD who told us another local supplier. Decided to buy lunch from the nearby chippy [it was well past 1am] but they were shut! As we drove to the next one, Bob said that marriage to me was exciting- he never knew what each day would bring! Had lunch and by 2.30 I was back upstairs, wearing ear defenders [these machines are so noisy] At last my bedroom carpet was clean.
You can see the four stages of the cleaning process here -

So relieved it is clean again! But of course, hiring the RD machine isn't cheap. So then I felt obliged to do all the other carpets and the stairs. It took ages

I managed to disconnect Bob's PC, and lose 2 hours of his work.  I felt really useless, and generally sorry for myself. 

But a friend on holiday in France telephoned, she'd picked up on the net about the theft - and Steph rang after work to cheer me up, and Bob managed to recover the lost files...and life didn't seem quite as bad after all.

I may never complete my to-do list, but I have to accept that interruptions happen sometimes, which take over the day completely. I may be feeling I have lost a few days of planned activity to deal with minor domestic crises, and I've lost about £30 and a nice purse - but that is all I have lost.

• I have a home [with clean carpets] - thousands of people in India, in the USA and elsewhere have lost their homes this week.
• I have cash in the bank [and a new bank card] - many people in my own town, let alone the rest of the planet - are genuinely in need.
• I have family and friends who love and care for me - lots of people are lonely and feel unloved.
• I have a job to go to [tomorrow I am off to school for a training day] while others are unemployed and undervalued.

So I thank God for all I do have, and maybe my to-do list should be more like this one...