There Are Many Great Deeds Done in the Small Struggles of Life. - Victor Hugo

Peonies....my favorite 

Summer is a such a gift. I have been loving every second of it. My children have been home and we have been cleaning like crazy, organizing our home, and bedrooms. Every Summer we go through all of their clothes and shoes to see what fits and what doesn't. I have taken so many trips to Goodwill this week. If I measured my week as successful by Goodwill trips this week would have topped the charts. 

We have been pulling up tile and preparing to put in new floors downstairs. This winter we heard loud popping sounds early one morning. It frightened me I thought someone was breaking in the house but it turned out that my tile was just popping up off of the floor. It was so odd. Then we came home one day to see eight tiles had buckled, they looked like a little tile tent all in a row. Our poor doggie was scared out of his wits! I'm sure it made some loud noises. 

As any blissfully ignorant town resident I began to put the tile in my garbage can and pile it on the corner of my lot for bulk pick up. It started to become quite a sizable pile and I was kind of proud of all the progress we had been making. It's hard work pulling up those tiles. We had settled into a nice routine each day of me driving Ellie to swim team practice while I walked the canal. We would come home have breakfast and then get started on one of our projects. It was still quite early by the time we arrived home since swim team ends at 7am. 

On Wednesday, we pulled into our garage just as the Town of Gilbert truck pulled up next to my house. I was searching my brain...did I forget to pay the Town of Gilbert bill? May had been an especially stressful and busy month. The town employee walked up and informed me that this tile pile had to be moved within 24 hours or I would receive a fine of $250.00. Just then the Garbage Man showed up he got out of his truck to look at the tile pile and THENNNNN he peeked in my trash can and told me he absolutely could not pick up my trash can full of tile and two weeks worth of Arizona sun rotting garbage. As I was talking to the very nice town employee who informed me that a neighbor had reported my tile pile which honestly, kind of made me sad. All of these things raced through my head like: I am a nice person, I am not piling my tile here to be annoying. I didn't know, I thought you could for bulk trash pick up! Plus, to top it all off my son who is the muscle of the house was gone for the week to church camp. I was thinking out loud all of the ways I could get rid of the trash or who I could call and I said well, I could just pile it in the back of my Altima and take several loads to the transfer station. To which he replied..no, you can't do that it isn't safe. I felt stuck. Completely stuck and kind of helpless and pretty much super alone and like I had been snitched on and was in trouble. It was a pretty crummy feeling. 

I knew what we could do first. We could unload the yucky tile in the garbage can and add it to the tile pile. Except, I had been doing all of this work with out gloves. In fact, the only pair I had was sun rotted and had been thrown out earlier in the weeks purging process. At 7:15am Ellie and I headed to Home Depot. I purchased two pairs of gloves so we could at least get to work and do what we could with this problem. We came home and to our dismay...began to separate the tile from the stinky, hot, garbage. It was disgusting, but we can do hard things in this house. 

Then I actually said a prayer. I knew that when you had done all you can do and you are faced with a problem you don't know how to solve...pray. I felt that I should put a plea for help on Facebook one on my church's Facebook page and one on my neighborhood's Facebook page. I felt that if I was bothering my neighbors maybe one of them would come and help me.

You should know something about me, I am fiercely independent. If I ask for help it is because I am really up a creek. I HATE asking for help, maybe that's why I've been single for so long. I have to learn to ask sometimes. Just..... the whole damsel in distress thing makes me want to gag.  

I felt quite anxious about the whole situation. I felt anxious about asking, I felt anxious that this tile pile had been bothersome to one of my neighbors, I felt anxious as I had a lot on my plate that day and another friend really needed my help. But as soon as I put that plea on social media I felt a sense of calm and a feeling that said, you won't have to worry about the tile. Help will come. All of my anxiety melted away and I trusted in that assurance. 

The response was astounding. So many people came out of the woodwork and offered to help me in so many ways. There was so much kindness and love that my eyes leaked tears. I was so grateful. I felt bolstered and like I lived in the best neighborhood ever! I felt the goodness of so many people. So many. 

Here is my heartfelt thank you. You were a direct answer to prayer. Whether you believe in that or not, I do. Thank you. 

I came home around four pm to see this. 

Every last scrap, gone. Someone had come to help me when I didn't know how to go about solving the problem myself. It was what we call the Tile Miracle. 

Thank you. XOXO The Sunny D