Time for a Pity Party...

Plot twist! In a rare turn of events, Matt came down with an illness yesterday, and he has not consumed spinach or kefir. The symptoms are similar to what the boys had, so that means I'm much more vulnerable than I had initially thought. And maybe I didn't actually poison them; the smoothie may have just been a red herring! Rather unfortunate timing, but what can you do?

I picked up Finn from school yesterday and because our walk is mostly through a park, the mud and slush were not conducive to bringing a stroller. Of course, Finn was too tired to walk and Lev was also tired, so I ended up carrying 55 pounds of children the entire kilometer home. Through the mud and slush. Ugh. Dreading a replay tomorrow!

I mustered all of my courage and energy and successfully took both boys with me to meeting last night. Paul and Roman were super helpful on the tram ride, and Finn was a model citizen during meeting, so it was well worth the effort. I almost gave up before we even got started because both boys screamed through supper, and then as we rushed out the door, already a couple minutes behind schedule, we discovered the elevator wasn't working. Although Finn is perfectly capable of (very slowly) going down steps by himself, in the interest of not missing our tram, I grabbed both boys and hauled them down the seven flights of stairs.

Just in case our week wasn't interesting enough, our washing machine stopped working. Some googling revealed that there was a drain fault, and YouTube videos claimed it was as simple as removing a filter plug and cleaning it out. As luck would have it, it was jammed, which meant I would have to tip the washer in it's back and remove the filter and pump assembly to clean it out. Sure enough, the housing was crammed with screws, nails and coins! Just when I thought there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, I realized those charming little spring hose clamps require roughly seven hands and large doses of careful patience to reassemble. Some borrowed tools, help from Finn, and 36 hours later the washer is reassembled and ready to go. And wouldn't you know it, but the same fault code displayed and it still won't drain! I give up. Who needs a washing machine anyway.

I've come up with a far from satisfactory work-around for the time being. If I leave the filter plug out and carefully monitor the cycle, I can catch the drain water on a baking sheet and dump it into the toilet, about a dozen times per wash. FAR from ideal. Charmingly, appliances are not grounded here so every time I touch the wet baking sheet on the wet floor I get some serious shocks. Every appliance shocks me when I touch it, so at least I'm used to it.