Ugh.

Ever hear the saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that it isn't the big things that drive a person to insanity, it is a shoelace that breaks when there is no time left. That one little stressor that just trips the trigger. Well, we had shoelaces snapping like crazy around here today.

First, I overslept A lot. Not normally a bad thing, but I'd been in a bit of a cleaning mode last night and had wanted to get going with more this morning. Of course, by the time I woke up, I had slept off all that motivation. I have noticed that I have a period around this time each year where I'm motivated to do nothing - probably some depression, but nothing that I can't deal with by talking with Amy, exercising, playing with the kids, watching some funny movies, etc.

Second, I decided to take the kids today to a park out near the lake. We'd been at this park last weekend and when Accalia saw it, she asked to stop there so she and Cole could play. I think my mother's influence (i.e. worrying) is definitely something that rubbed off on me. When I see the kids jumping off something, or climbing up something, I start thinking of everything that could go wrong. This was the case today as well, but I'm no longer like that as much with Accalia. I think it is because I've seen what she can do and she knows what she can do (and still gets a bit scared of being up too high). With Cole, however, I was hovering around him as he'd run back and forth on this catwalk between two slides. He slid down one and was back to running around and climbing on the stuff. I think I got comfortable with Cole not trying to do too much as I took my eyes off him to look at the lake nearby and was thinking of the beach I'd seen driving by and how we've not been to that beach. That's when Cole started screaming. I could see his leg dangling over the end of the catwalk and ran to him. Blood was pouring out of his mouth. I got Accalia and we headed for the van. There, Cole let me take a look - two cuts on the lip - - still wondering if he'd bit through. He was basically done crying (started again as soon as the van stopped at home and I opened his door to get him out of the car seat - guess no one comtorts like mom). He's doing okay at the moment. Guess we'll have to see how it heals.

Third, I was installing a new toilet seat when Amy told me there was something I needed to see upstairs. The waterbed had leaked. A lot. One tube was basically empty. The pillowtop was drenched and there was mold forming on it We had no idea as we'd put down a water proof mattress pad to protect from accidents in the night (Amy has this drooling problem.....) Anyway, the bed is essentially toast. I bought it back in 1994 with my first tax refund. GIven a bed has a ten year life on average, it did okay. We're going to look at getting a king size (though I doubt it will fit up our stairs- had to take out a window to get the box for the queen up). Whatever we do get, it will NOT be a waterbed. It'll be the first time that my primary bed hasn't been of the water variety since I was 12 or 13 (yep, I was quite the little playa).

Fourth, I had one project I wanted to complete this weekend - repaint my 5 y.o. grill. I started taking it apart and things were going swimmingly, until the last couple of screws. I sprayed 'em down w. WD-40 and tried - they didn't move. I flipped the ting over and tried jarring them loose with a hammer. Nothing. I went back to work with a screwdriver. Nothing. I tried using a locking needle nose pliers to get the damned things moving. Nothing doing. The screws are still in the frame of the grill, along with two hunks of the bottom of the grill. Yep, on one of the flips, I gave the grill bottom a little kick and the piece came loose, leaving behind a couple of bits and pieces. Maybe we'll end up using that as a planter. Very white trash, I know.

After that, I disassembled the bed. I'm going to look on-line at grills, though I'm guessing many are stored away until the spring so the stores can start gearing up for Christmas.

Here's hoping no more shoelaces break tomorrow. Don't know how close I am to having the trigger tripped.