Can My Life Get Crazier?

I was helping my mom with apartment hunting last week for my grandma. You see, once my grandma gets out of the rehab facility, she will be unable to stay at her apartment because it just isn't wheelchair accessible. My grandma isn't walking anymore. Apartment hunting was a bust. she's on a couple of 2 year waiting lists, but that is obviously not going to work. 

So where is the solution? Some would say a nursing home. For many reasons that isn't an option for my grandma. The next place available is to live with us. 

What? In my tiny 900 square foot 3 bedroom house that already has 6 people living in it? Yep. So my mom (who was with my grandma) and my grandma are moving in here. Yeah, that means 8 people. 

My one bathroom won't cut it.

The appeal of this house when we first bought it was the attached garage that is partially converted. There's no permits involved, so the whole thing isn't really legally more than a garage, but it does have a small bathroom that we have never used because it needs ventilation to make it legal...and ventilation is very important to me in a bathroom.

The girls have been staying in the garage because there is plenty of room for their two beds (a bunk and a loft) and everything else that goes along with three girls. Now they are moving back to the room in the house that was reserved for my mom (who technically on paper still lives here) and I was using it for an office.

So much for the extra space.

All 3 girls will be in the little room along with my mother, who has said very emphatically that she would rather live in a tiny room with them rather than with her mother.  This will be temporary until we get a travel trailer or something for my mother to live in in our backyard. She really likes that idea and is willing to wait to get it.

The advantage of my house is that since I came home from my own rehab experience in a wheelchair due to my MS, most of my house is already wheelchair accessible...except the garage. Why put my grandma in the garage? Nobody wants to put a hospital bed in a room down my long hallway, the air conditioner in the garage can be set differently than the rest of the house, and she needs way more room for all her stuff. She is, after all, moving from a 3 bedroom apartment to a one room garage. It will also be easy to make the bathroom in there more suitable for her needs.  My main bathroom won't work for her yet.

So, if you know me and have ever been to my house, you know that I'm not an organizational guru. For reals. Far from it. I am also a terrible housewife. I suck big time at regular cleaning and move to my own little beat as far as that goes...and that won't work for my grandma. Sure, I'm a great mom. I pour myself into my family and I know it shows in the people my kids are becoming. Still, I have one huge fault. I'm a mess. 

This mess is what I am dealing with this week to get my grandma moved in. After the mess comes the construction. After at least part of the construction comes the general moving in Grandma's stuff. Then we get Grandma.

I have a lot of work to do.  The girls are already on Thanksgiving break. While I know that their hands will be helpful, I also know that they are kids and I want them to have the time off to be kids, too. This week that will mean playing in the yard quite a bit so they are out of my way.

In the middle of all this, I got a phone call. I am in the system now to substitute teach. This week is only the secondary for the district, but I can do that if I'm available. I don't know how to do this, but I know that our family could use the money, so I'm going to be trying to figure it out. 

So, if I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, do they all have to happen at once?  Good thing I don't have to control them all.