Overwhelming Generosity

Where do blog posts come from and why do they always hit when you're in the middle of doing something else, like washing the dishes or better yet, sleeping? At 2:45 am my muse woke me up with a great blog idea and creativity held me captive until I told the story from beginning to end. But just telling the story in my mind wasn't good enough so here I am at 3:18 am penning my post

What started my muse thinking was the fact that it was getting warm in the bedroom. Being only May 6th we don't run the air conditioner 24/7 yet. When I'm sound asleep I don't really notice it being warm. But obviously, my muse did. And she remembered life without air conditioning at all.

Last summer as the temperatures started to rise we called upon a friend who for the last few years has had to charge our central air conditioning unit. Each year he would comment that he didn't know how much longer it would last and each year we survived the summer without issue. It took him about a week to come over as he had been on vacation at the time of our call, but he did come.  But the charge didn't last longer than a day. I'm not even sure it lasted a day to be honest with you. He gave us an estimate for a couple different ways of approaching the situation and told us to let him know when we decided.

I was devistated. Best case senario, we were out four or five thousand dollars.

After Butter was born we used up all our reserves and racked up new debt with me staying home with him and later only making minimum wage. We didn't have anywhere near four or five thousand dollars to spend on the air conditioner we were having trouble just making our monthly mortgage payment.

So I took really cold showers, several times a day, and tried to stay positive and open to creative ideas from God. This was no easy feat as heat makes me very cranky.

Then on Sunday afternoon CurlyHaired Princess called. She and her husband were moving to another Airforce Base and wanted to stop by for a moment. We had already said our goodbyes but I thought this was just another one. But when I answered the door there she stood with her husband and a window unit. I don't remember if I cried then or after they had gone but I do remember being overwhelmed by their generosity. Nickel installed the unit in our bedroom window and for the first night in weeks I slept soundly and comfortably. Peanut slept on our floor and Butter slept in bed with us (well, at least until he decided it was too crowded and moved to his couch in the livingroom).

My mother told me she and my dad wanted to do the same for us because she knew the one unit wouldn't be enough so off we went to buy another window unit. This picture is from that purchase. Doesn't poor Peanut look hot?! Heat makes her cranky too.  We found one a little bigger than the one CurlyHaired Princess gave us and installed it in the dining room. So for the summer we survived with two window units. They are fancy enough to come with remote controls and timers. The timers are wonderful! I could turn them off and tell them to come back on in so many hours, like maybe just an hour or so before we get home from work. Or I could time them to go off in so many hours, like the middle of the night. The kitchen didn't have any air, but to be honest, even with the central air the kitchen was always hot. And I just don't spend a lot of time in there in the summer, making meals as quick and easy as possible. The children didn't have AC in their bedrooms either, but it's not like they sleep in their rooms most of the time anyway. To this day, I often find them both asleep on the couches in the living room year round. As long as they sleep I don't care too much if it's in their beds or on the couches.

A year later we're still using the window units. Nickel just got the one in the bedroom back in the window last weekend. Bless that man!  Our electric bills last year were no different than with the central air so we've opted to use the window units for at least another year. We will eventually fix the central air and will hopefully be able to bless someone else with the window units. But until then, whenever I'm hot and turn on the AC or am cold and turn it off I will be grateful for the generosity of my friend, her husband, and my parents, who all agree I'm much easier to get along with when I'm not hot!