I've never missed you as much as I do right now!

 

 

 

 

 

I woke up this morning and began my normal routine of stumbling blindly and half asleep to the coffee pot to make some "liquid gold".

 

I then turned on the computer to begin checking emails
 and walked down the hallway to wake the children so we could start our day.

 

About thirty minutes into our morning, the lights went out.

 

No electricity. Uuggh.

 

No electricity means no school work and we had a full agenda planned out for the day.

 

No worries. We shall do housework instead. This always makes me happy.

 

Except...

I noticed, as I began to clean,  that the water pressure was a little low.

I also noticed that the toilets girgled back at me when I flushed them.
Well that's weird.

 

Oh. no.

I got a bad feeling that this wasn't supposed to be happening.

 

I didn't worry about it and continued to pick up around the house.

 

About an hour and a half pass by, and "Alas!" our electricity turns back on.

 

Yippee! The schooling festivities can begin!

 

About this time, my husband calls.

He's working out of town for the week.

(insert sad face here)

 He called to see how things were going and if the electricity had turned back on or not.

 

I told him that it did in fact turn back on and mentioned that the water was acting funny.

 

To which he replies, "Oh, no."

 

To which I inquire, "What Oh, no?"

 

Realizing at that very moment what the "Oh, no" in fact means,

I say, gulping in fear,

 

"Oh. No!"

 

We live in the country and have our own water well.

 For some reason, unbeknownst to me,

each time our electricity turns off,
the water pump stops running and

we have to reprime our well.

 

This, my friend, is no easy task.

 My husband, my amazing husband, does it ALL the time,
without complaint.
 

But, where is my sweet husband, the problem solving-jack of all trades I married?

 

Not even in the state!

Oh! No!

My man has skills ya'll.
 He knows things that I didn't even know could be learned.
 He is so smart and intuitive and can do just about anything he sets his mind to do.

But, he's not here. It's just me.
 

I begin to panic, slowly.

Okay, more like rapidly.

So, my husband begins to tell me how to reprime the well.
Joy.

 

Let me just paint a picture for you...

 

I'm still in my pajamas.

Still sipping on a cup of coffee.

I hadn't brushed my hair

or my teeth

or had done anything else in the hygiene department at this point.

Those my friend, were my fashion plans for the day.

The whole day.

I'd hoped to get out of pajamas just to get into new ones later in the day.

That's it.

 

I hung up the phone and proceeded to get dressed to go outside and reprime the well.

 

I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, because everyone knows it's just better to reprime a well, in the country, where nobody can see you...with your teeth brushed.

 

I turn on the faucet just in time to realize that now...

there is NO water.

None. Zilch. Notta. Not even a drop.

 

To which, I may or may not have shrieked in horror.

 

I then go outside to face the giant, AKA, the well.

 

Let me just interject right here,
 and say that I am not a wimpy diva-fied gal.

I'm not afraid of a little hard work or harsh conditions.

I love camping. I love the outdoors. I don't even mind sleeping in a tent if necessary.

I've helped my husband several times on his job,

 pushing wheel-barrels around filled with brick and mortar, going home with sand and dirt in places where...

well let's just say where there should NEVER be sand and dirt.

I've helped him remodel our house, enjoy working in the yard and completing projects around the house with him.

I can honestly say that I know my way around a tool box.

(We make a pretty great team.)

 

But today, I was alone and

I had no desire what-so-EVER to prove my wo-MAN-ly tough girl abilities.

None.

 

But, we had no water and we needed it. Badly.

 

Being that we did not have any water,

 I had to sneak over to the neighbor's house and borrow their water to reprime our well.

This meant I had to get our water hose and connect it to their water hose and then connect that hose to their water connection outside.

 

Seems fairly easy, right?

 

Wrong-O!

 

Their water connection did not have a knob to turn to open it,
so I had to get a crescent wrench to open the valve.

The only crescent wrench I could find belonged to our neighbor and it was all rusty and it wouldn't even budge to open.

I knew I needed to get the rust off and loosen it with some sort of greaser, and my husband had the WD40 in his work truck, which was out of the state!

So, I went inside and grabbed the Pam spray from the kitchen.

It worked!

 

It took a little while, but I finally got the wrench open and opened the water valve.

 

Then I proceeded to drag the water hoses to our yard and to our well.

 

Today was a really pretty day.
The sky was blue and the clouds were white and puffy like cotton.

 

But,

and I mean a big ole' BUT,

 there was wind.

 

Not a light relaxing breeze.

Wind.
Lots and lots of wind.

Hurricane force winds!

That's right. Hur! Ri! Cane!

 

My little guy came outside to help me and at one point he said,

"Mom, the wind is blowing so hard it feels like a tornado is going to fly out of the bushes at any moment!"

 

I'm not sure what he meant by fly out of the bushes, but you get the point.

 

It was strong!

 

It was also cold wind.  Freezing cold wind.

(Of course it was.)

 

Our yard was also sopping wet and muddy. It rained a monsoon last night.

(Of course it did.)

 

So there we were, me and my little guy, fighting the wind, the cold, and the mud.

Bleckkk!

 

After getting the water hose to the well, I called my husband for the rest of the directions.

 

I had to turn off the breaker to the well,  then unscrew two screws that opened valves and begin to put water in them to prime the well.

 

Easy right? Sure it is.

 

That is if I could only remember one simple thing.

 

I'm not sure what happened between getting the hose and the wrench and the wind and the cold and the not enough coffee and the no getting to brush my teeth and everything inbetween,

but I totally forgot something I have been teaching my children since they could talk.

 

Lefty loosey. Righty tighty.

 

Who doesn't know that?

 

Apparently I don't.

 

I tried for fifteen minutes straight to unscrew a screw the wrong way.

I swore to my husband, who asked me several times if I was turning it the right way, 

that I knew what I was doing.

 

But....ehemm...

ooops.

 

I finally unscrewed the screws to the valves,
poured the water in and finished the steps he told me,

word for word, step by step.

 

It was time to test it and see if I had done it correctly.

 

My son walks to the faucet, turns it on and...

no water.

 

I seriously thought for a few seconds,

"That's it. I'm done. We don't need water today. We can wait until he gets home."

 

Then I realized he wouldn't be home for several days.
Then I thought of the children.
Then I thought of me and my unhygiened self.

Nope, that won't do.

 

My husband then told me I would have to repeat the process all over again.

 

I. wanted. to. cry.

Like a tantrum, pre-school, three year old with an attitude cry.
 

By this time,

my hair was flying in my eyes from the wind,

my pants were soaked all the way up to my thighs,

my socks were soaked,

my shoes were so wet that they squished out water when I walked,

 I was cold and very aggravated.

I was spent. Simply spent.
I had been outside for an hour now, trying to get the water on.

 

My husband encouraged me on the phone to try it again,
"You can do it. Just try again. I know you can do this."
 

 

I did.

Without even thinking about it.
 I hurried through it without a thought and within 20 seconds,

I was done.

 

I walked over to the faucet, turned it on,

and there was water!!

 

Beautiful wonderful amazing clear water!
Woohooooo!!

 

My little guy started jumping up and down in our wet muddy yard, with his arms waving above him,

"We did it Mom! We made water!"

Oh man, it was such a great feeling!
 

I called my husband after I was finished.

He congratulated me for getting the well primed

 and told me how proud he was of me for not giving up.

I replied, 

"Thank you, but I've never missed you as much as I do right now!"

 

Today I realized, how much I appreciate him.
 

I don't want to ever take for granted how important my husband is.

He's not just the leader of our home, or the bread winner, or the muscle around the house.

 

At times...he's the lifeline that runs through it.

 

He's the one that keeps things working smoothly and the one that takes care of them when they don't.

 

He keeps our home safe and protected.

 

He does like the Father,

and keeps watch over our flock by day, and by night.
He stays up and watches over our house when the weather is bad.
He wakes the kids and brings them into our bed to keep them close to us. 

 

He prays for all of us. Every day.

He encourages me when I feel like giving up. He believes in me when I don't believe in myself.

 

He's that strong voice on the other end of the phone that gives me direction and comfort when I need it the most.

 

He has the heart of His Father.

 

He loves fearlessly.

He loves me. Oh, how he loves me.

I've never loved him as much as I do today.

I'm so thankful for God's hand on his life and ours.
I'm thankful that he chose my husband just for me, and just for our family.

(I'm really really glad he will be home in a couple of days!)
 

Thank you God for my sweet boy who helped me today.

Thank you God for water!

Thank you God for my amazing husband!
Thank you God for placing him as head of our home and guiding his steps along the way!
 

 

Thank You, Jesus, for being the Well that never runs dry.

 

Hug your husband today when he walks through the door from work.
Hold onto him for a while before letting go.
Tell him how much you value him as a person and as the leader of your home.
Tell him how much you appreciate all that he does.
Tell him how much you miss him when he is away.
Tell him you've never loved him as much as you do right now.

Love him fearlessly!


 

 Ephesians 5:22-24
 

 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.