Give Me Some Air

...to breathe. I really do need some space and me time. June was one crazy month. You guys must be so tired reading about my never ending 'crazy' days, weeks, months now. What can I say. I am one of those people who attract crazy-ness. The whole world knows that I live in a house as big as a chicken pen. One movement and you are liable to bump in to something- mostly injury inducing. It is a different matter that I still have trouble keeping it clean and organised. Let me not even go there. With the brat becoming more and more naughtier by the day, I have almost given up any semblance of order in my life, and the house is just a small part of my many hassles !

June was a time of unprecedented flow of house guests. Six adults to be precise. All staying with us at the same time. Eldest being somewhere in her 60's and the youngest ofcourse being Yohaan. Hubster's childhood friend calls us one morning from UK, informing us that his dad who works here in the UAE has suffered a stroke and can we please check on him before he flies in himself. So off we go to the hospital and find the old man almost dead due to a massive stroke. Frantic phone calls back and forth, much running around for visit visas and the friend's family arrives en masse. Mom, elder brother and lil sister. And as it happens with us Indians, they ofcourse stayed with us. We wouldn't dream of saying no because it was after all a medical emergency. Again, it is a different matter that Yohaan thought it was all one big partayyyyy! He was so excited and obviously happy with the sudden deluge of guests and the extra attention he garnered.  They were with us for approx 8-9 days.

Mommy, ofcourse died. Cooking, cleaning and responding to needs. I dont want to crib about it because I always like guests. However, hosting folks in a really small house did me in. There were people all over!! Added to that, hubster's another friend from childhood is staying with us for 2 months looking for a job. I kept telling myself it would be okay. Okay. It will pass. The reason why I got so overwhelmed was that I was ill prepared to host anybody at such short or practically no notice. My cartons from the big move 3 months ago are still in  a state of mess. I have only our master bedroom functional because I haven't summoned the energy to fix the guset bed room -yet. The living room/ dining hall has furniture designed for a large house, so there isnt much space. Thankfuly, we do have two bathrooms.  The logistics of 7 adults and one toddler under one tiny roof is pretty nightmarish. I did a good job of being calm but I must confess I lost the battle to chaos, much mess and dirt and a perpetual  state of fatigue. In my mind, this is not the way to live or even host friends. There should be for example clean linen, clean toilets, simple but good food and and an over all sense of control. I had nothing going for me. To their credit, our friends were very accomodating and undemanding. But I still felt inadequate. Nothing I did looked or felt good. Except maybe for the clean/fresh linen I managed to provide everybody.

Miraculously their father did a u-turn and survived the stroke! The family were naturally more relaxed at this news. So were we. Because everybody loosened up. Enough to enjoy some good meals. Some general mall hopping and many laughs reminiscing over childhood stories. I got to know hubster's friend and his family. Got some interesting insights in to family dynamics and most importantly some of the early childhood influences on my husband. I kind of understand better as to why/how he has chosen to be the kind of husband/father /son/friend/brother that he is today. As I closed the door on the last of my guest departing for India, I heaved a sigh of relief and a sent up a grateful thanks to the Lord for my family. It was a mad, hectic week. But not without lessons learnt in gratitude and God's provision for us. He somehow kept me going without falling apart even though I was so not equipped to handle myself leave alone so many guests!

Cherry on the cake you would like to know? In considerable pain Yohaan, who had to go and sprout 6 teeth together in June alone! While the guests were here. Not much I could do. When will it end, Lord?