Embrace the Chaos

Max leading stretches before the first day of Circus Camp

Jack hanging from the "trapeze"

Max about to do his hip-hop solo

Taking their bow

Ella on the trapeze

Melanie on the trapeze

Beautiful faces, painted or not

Some preliminary drawings for Alex's room makeover

Alex in his room, pre-makeover

Shanna and the boys about to get medieval on that furniture

***I will post pictures of the incredible room makeover after a certain someone has come to see it in person!!!

We had Shanna and family here for the week to go to Circus Camp with us. When they arrived, around 3:00 am Monday morning, our water had been off since Sunday. We had hoped John could fix it, but alas, it was not meant to be. We had 8 children who had to be out of the house by 8:00 am. That in and of itself is no easy task, but with no running water...forget about it! Every bathroom smelled and felt like a port-a-potty. On Wednesday, I took it upon myself (with Alex's help) to fill every cooler we possessed and all our empty water jugs at our neighbor's house. We proceeded to put a cooler full of water in every bathroom, with a cup to fill the tank, so we could finally, thankfully, flush! Remember me saying I had guests...and 5 extra children? Sadly, and frustratingly, the 1.5 gallons it was supposed to take to flush the toilet was misleading. I think we got 2 flushes, if we were lucky, out of those heavy-as-all-get-out coolers full of water. Man, I did NOT want to haul those coolers again. Thankfully, John and Alex hauled the next load, to get us through until we had running water again. We finally did get our indoor plumbing back. I swear Shanna had a religious experience taking that first shower! Amazingly, and to add to the general chaos of the situation, Shanna and I did a total room makeover; from giant mural, to recovering furniture, to painting walls, to antiquing everything, etc....all with no water for most of the time. Shanna finished the room for the big reveal Saturday around 2:00pm, when it was time for them head home. Yes, I most definitely had to embrace the chaos! I will never forget the struggle nor the joy of this most extraordinary week.