Looking for a little humor in your life? I know I could sure use some after the day I had yesterday. So I figured I would share my story. If nothing else…hopefully someone will get a good laugh out of it!
The day started off like any other typical gloomy, gray, rainy Monday morning. I had carefully crafted my daily “To Do” list, determined I was going to be able to check off everything on my list by the end of the day, no matter what. Isn’t it funny how life interrupts the plans you have made for yourself?!
I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time in the afternoon to put together several new autumn card designs I had been formulating in my mind. To ensure this, I decided I would get dinner started in the morning—letting it cook all day so that I would have minimal dinner prep to do before sitting down with the family to eat. So I pulled out my huge stock pot, filling it with yummy ingredients so that we could all enjoy a big pot of Great Northern Beans & Ham for dinner. I got it simmering on the stove and went on with the rest of my day.
Now most of you know that the “Busy Lil’ Bees” name we chose for our craft business truly reflects our schedule. I work as a property manager in addition to operating my own medical transcription company and managing this craft business my sister and I started. Needless to say, I stay on the move constantly and my days can get a bit harried at times. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not complaining…I rather enjoy staying busy. I do, after all, take after my father who hasn’t been able to sit still a day in his life!
So off to work I went, ready to get my day going! Two hours into my work day, I knew it was going to be tough to get everything done on my list. Things just seemed to keep popping up and throwing the rest of my schedule off course. I shrugged it off, however, determined to keep plugging along. I was thankful that I only worked a half-day and would have the whole rest of the day to try to get caught up on my list.
Fast forwarding a bit…I ended up leaving work a half-hour later than expected. That’s just how it works sometimes in this business—you can’t just jump up, shoo everyone from the office and close the door in people’s faces while you flip the sign to “CLOSED.” I finally managed to get home and as I am heading up the walk I can hear my cats crying from inside the house. Keep in mind, that this is pretty strange. My cats rarely meow unless their food bowl is empty, they inadvertently get shut up in a room, or decide they simply cannot go on with their lives if I don’t let them in the bathroom with me. So I fumbled with my keys to get the door open—only to be greeted by a plume of smoke rolling out!!!
I make my way inside, heading to the kitchen with my eyes stinging and my throat burning. Despite being set on simmer, I find that the pot of beans I put on in the morning had boiled over and all the water cooked out leaving a charred mess in the bottom of the stock pot that was smoking profusely at this point.
I said a quick prayer of thanks that I came home when I did—before the whole house could catch fire. Then I set about opening up all the windows and turning on fans to try to get the smoke out. I checked and made sure our pets were okay—soothing two cats that were very vocal in their dislike of the disruption to their daily routine. Luckily, the dog seemed oblivious to all the chaos. In fact, she seemed perfectly content. What a trooper!
A friend, who had volunteered earlier in the day to come and help me get my cards made, showed up during all this and helped me get the kitchen cleaned up. Thank God for wonderful friends! I tried to convince her to go back home so she wouldn’t have to breathe in all the smoke but she insisted on staying. She got my mind off of the smoky mess by herding me into my home office and helping me get my mind back on to creating these autumn cards. She wisely pointed out that I couldn’t do anything more to clear the smoke out any faster so I might as well get to work on something I could get done!
Working together, we created the three cards. I didn’t get around to taking a picture of them yet. I think they turned out pretty good—considering all the chaos around us at the time!
The smoke finally cleared, although the smell still lingered somewhat. After offering repeated thanks for all her help, I sent my friend home and set to work on figuring out what I was going to do about dinner. Serving charred beans didn’t seem like an idea that would have gone over so well. I let the dog in the house only to notice that she had decided to wallow in the muddy yard from our recent rains. Keep in mind that my husband had just given her a bath the night before. I sighed heavily, breathing in the aroma of my charred, disastrous attempt at dinner, and decided at that point it didn’t much matter if she tracked mud into the house; nor did I have the burning desire to give her another bath. Besides, who would notice the mud past the smell of the house?!
My cell phone rang…it was my husband. Turns out he had to work late because he ended up sitting at the dealership several hours that morning waiting for his car to be inspected. This wasn’t bad news for me because it gave me extra time to get dinner taken care of. Then he told me that the car failed inspection and we had to get to get two new tires and a battery. UGH!
He was able to finally make it home a few hours later, we ate dinner, and I settled down for the evening to create my “To Do” list for the following day. I stared at my list for the day. I didn’t know whether to cry or burst out laughing. That’s just the way life works sometimes. I can make a list every day, with the greatest intentions of getting it all done, but there are just going to be days where everything falls apart and the list becomes less and less of a priority. So I decided to throw my list away and skip making a list for today.
I’ll just chalk it up to another crazy day in the life of a crafter…
P.S. I haven’t had a chance to take pictures of the card designs we completed. I will put that on my list tomorrow. Scratch that…I’ll get around to posting them just as soon as I can! In the meantime, don’t forget to check out our other card designs at
