Pick Up The Shovel, Dig Another Well

Yesterday morning, we woke up to absolutely no water. We’ve been through this too many times before. Thankfully, our well is not dry. However, our well pump has gone out several times during the last 5 years that we’ve lived here. It’s hard not to feel extremely discouraged when it happens. It's not that I'm surprised when things breaks all the time. We’re pretty aware of the fact the bad can and does  happen- seemingly often.

The problem is that my thoughts don’t just stay in one place though. They spiral into a chain of related thoughts of cause and effect. I give myself to fear. I start to think about how we need a different floor plan for Gabriel. He isn’t going to be able to do steps very well, if at all. We’ve come up with some great remodeling ideas so we can stay here. We love the hill we live on. We feel really blessed to be a part of our community and Norwayne Schools. And, quite frankly, there’s not much land for sale out here. So, when we're faced with something else that's really expensive, it makes me want to worry about how to have to come up with who knows how much for a well pump that should have been working a lot longer than it has. If this kind of thing keeps happening then we'll never have enough to do anything! There. The endless cycle of my thoughts.

I keep thinking of the Paul Overstreet song “Dig Another Well” (Lyrics below, with lot's of punctuation missing because I did a copy/paste of the lyrics.)

“Well Ike had a blessing from the Lord up above He gave him a beautiful woman to love 
A place to live and some land to farm 
Two good legs and two good arms

 Well the devil came sneaking around one night
Decided he would do a little evil to Ike
Figured he would hit old Ike where it hurts
so he filled up all of Ike's wells with dirt

 And when Ike went out for his morning drink 
He got a dipper full of dirt and his heart did sink
 But he knew it was the devil so he said with a grin 
God blessed me once and he can do it again 
He blessed me once and he can do it again 

So when the rains don't fall and the crops all fail
And the cows ain't puttin' any milk in the pail 
Don't sit around waitin' for a check in the mail
 Just pick up the shovel and dig another well 
Pick up the shovel and dig another well 

Now me and old Ike got a lot in common
 The Lord blessed me with a beautiful woman 
He gave me a job he gave me a home
 He gave me a well to call my own

 Now when I go out for my morning drink 
And get a dipper full of dirt my heart does sink 
But I think of old Ike and I have to grin 
Cause God blessed me once and he can do it again
 He blessed me once and he can do it again 

When the rains don't fall and the crops all fail...
 Well the good book says Ike finally won
(Pick up the shovel dig another well)
 The devil got tired and he left him alone 
(Pick up the shovel dig another well)
All I know someday I'm gonna win too 
(Pick up the shovel dig another well)
 Cause the good book tells me what to do
(Pick up the shovel dig another well)
Pick up the shovel and dig another well
Pick up the shovel and dig another well
 Pick up the shovel and dig another well.”

Since there was really nothing to do at home, and since I’d been promising the kids for two days that we’d go swimming, we went swimming. I started the van. Beep. Warning. You have a flat tire said the bright orange prompt on my dash. So, I rigged up the air compressor as described by Amos. Who decided to give tools “male” and “female” parts anyway? Oh well, the important part is that we got air in the tire and had a fun afternoon.

Lucky for me, I got a little break. We took my sister Joy out for her 40^th birthday. It was a lot of fun. Just us original seven kids, and mom and dad, went to Tres Belle in Bath. The atmosphere was cozy enough. Though, it was tough to stare at the roaring fire in the oven while the hot sun hit our backs through the window. I imagined how cozy it would be to eat there in the dead of winter. Our waitress approached our table and read the specials to us. The only thing that reassured us that she was still speaking our language was that she would interject words like chicken or duck here and there. I stared intently into the near distance as if I understood and was absorbing her bilingual foodie vocabulary. Valerie asked what one of the menu items was. “That’s a noodle,” she informed us. Oh. A noodle. Duh. Not having a television has really thrown me out of the Food Network Loop. I liked Ina Garten’s approach the best. If she said it in French, she’d tell you that it just means flattened and fried. Then, she’d show you how to do it.

We got our pictures taken behind the birthday cake like we were little kids. We laughed, like we were little kids. The best part was, we didn’t fight like little kids and nobody had to take us potty. It just dawned on me that it took my mom around 30 years to take all seven of us to a fancy restaurant at one time. One thing that didn’t change was that we still picked off each other’s plates and made too much noise at the table. That’s the best part of a big family. Unfortunately, my dad doesn’t really remember us. On the way to the restaurant, he pointed to the ring on my hand and asked in Hugarian,(He doesn’t speak English that much anymore, at least not to me.) if I was married now. I looked at him and we both started to laugh. It’s sad. I don’t know if I’m numb to emtion or if I’m in denial. He always asks who we are. As we all sat at the table, he wanted to know if all us girls were sisters. He was worried about who would pay the bill. We assured him that we were taking care of it. Then, behind our backs, John Harabedian took care of it. Thanks, John.

We went back to mom’s house. We sang Happy Birthday and Joy blew out the candles on her cakes. (Yes, cakes plural.) Later, I took a nice long shower at mom’s house and enjoyed things like flushing the toilet and drinking out of a glass. Then, I came home to my excited kids. Turns out that Amos got to be super-dad while I was gone and built an enclosure for Shelly. We went to bed, exhausted. I woke up at 3am because Jack likes to sleep with his feet facing our heads. He kept kicking me in the backside. Then, I lay awake thinking about how I hope I don’t have to use the bathroom, which in turn made me have to pee. It reminded me of when I was 16 visiting family in Romania. Only I didn’t have to leave the house to use the restroom and get flown at by scared chickens and barked at by a protective German Shepherd. This was a much more peaceful experience and washing my hands with bottled water wasn’t all that bad.

The only great thing about Ava waking me up at six this morning because she couldn’t get the Berenstein Bears to start in the DVD player was that she fell back to sleep in my bed. I am enjoying the quietness of the house while all the kids sleep… just some birds chirping outside. Think it’s time to open God’s word and “dig another well” for today. 'He blessed me once, He can do it again.'