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Prepper

 I really wanted to walk Sawyer into his classroom on his first day of school.  I imagined getting to watch him greet his teacher, helping him get his backpack situated, and tucking him into his seat before saying goodbye.  Then I imagined it again with his three small siblings hanging off me, and it wasn't nearly as sweet.  It spurred me to swallow my pride and ask a friend for help.

We have the greatest neighbors where we live.  I know people who do not, so I feel extra fortunate.  It was a neighbor that I asked to watch our youngest three kids while I took Sawyer to school.  I wouldn't be gone long, and I knew Fischer could be a good helper.  

The day before school started, I had a handful of projects I was trying to wrap up, plus I was hoping to get the house semi-clean.  The last time we asked this friend to come up, I was jetting off to the ER and the house was in shambles.  I wanted to make a half-way respectable impression.  Yes, we often live in a pile of filth and chaos, but occasionally, we don't.  Occasionally.  

As I was picking up toys and sweeping up ants, I was also prepping some green beans inside and melting beef fat in the hopes of making tallow on a burner outside.  I got a little distracted, and the tallow got a little hot.  It got a lot hot, actually.  I know you aren't supposed to let it boil, but I thought maybe it would be fine.  I brought it in, and it smelled a little funky.  I thought it might just be me.  I asked Ross his opinion.  He said he couldn't smell anything.

Until he could.  And it smelled bad.  Very bad.  

I immediately put the lid back on and took it out of the house.  We opened windows and doors and turned on fans.  It was rotten.  So rotten.  It smelled like a combination of death and the most terrible farts you can imagine (it's crass, but accurate).  And I wasn't done.  

The house still needed cleaning.  The floor was so sticky from every number of things; I couldn't let it go another day.  I pulled out the mop bucket, but I was out of floor cleaner so I combined water and vinegar and went to town cleaning the floors throughout the house.  Of course, the smell of vinegar just settles in as well.  The floors looked better, but it didn't help the odor situation.    

Needless to say, I went to bed with the scent of pickled-fart and death burning my nostrils, and wondered how I still have friends.  

(Note: By the morning the house had aired out, or we had gotten used to it...)

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