I suppose I should first say that I wasn’t exactly a pioneer woman. More like a suburbanite left floundering after one of her crutches of modern convenience was suddenly snatched away. Let me explain.
Not too long ago when we were still living at our old house, we received some bad news via a passing jogger that kindly hammered on our door at five am. Being a careful woman, I sent my big, strong husband down to answer the door in case it was an ax murderer (I watch a lot of crime dramas before bed). After about fifteen minutes, I began to wonder if said ax murderer had gotten him or if he was starting breakfast, so I headed downstairs to investigate. Plus I was hungry.
Opening the side door, I found water geisering high enough into the air to hit the ceiling and shower back down on half the contents of our garage. My husband was precariously balanced on the edge of our car and the water heater, the source of the impromptu fountain show. He was soaked and I could barely hear him over the sound of rushing water.
It seems a concerned jogger saw water rushing out from under our garage door into the street and was neighborly enough to stop and let us know. Our water heater was broken and was now purging all of the hundreds of gallons of water that had been stored in its six-foot-tall cylindrical tank. Yay.
After some confused efforts to shut off the water, we contacted the company that had installed the tank and got the promise of emergency assistance on the way. The man they sent was super nice but his news was not. We needed a new tank and it was going to cost over a thousand dollars.
Gulp.
This was, by the way, the same week I quit my job to be a full time, stay-at-home mom, the week I found out there was going to be a delay in accessing my savings to help buffer us through the transition, and the week we found out I was pregnant for the fifth time. So, you know, a little busy.
Though it wasn’t ideal, we decided to wait until we had the funds. Which turned out to be a month.
And here’s what those four weeks taught me:
It’s really hard to take a shower in a trickle of water. I don’t camp. Ever. But it might have been an improvement over what we were working with. The water was lukewarm at best, which was better than freezing, and came out in a pretty pathetic stream from our once vigorous shower head. As a long-haired woman, my shower time went from ten minutes to an easy twenty. Suddenly, the idea of the great outdoors and a surging waterfall sounded heavenly.
Solar heat is our friend. Since all our running water was cold, we needed to figure out a way to bathe the kids. Our trickling shower would have taken an eternity with four little ones so we got creative. Filling any available vessel with hose water in the yard (picture small Rubbermaid containers and plastic bears that once housed bulk animal crackers), we left them out in the sun all morning. With the weather still in the eighties and nineties, we were able to get hot water by late afternoon. We then carted it all upstairs for bath time.
I love my dishwasher. As my parents can attest, I hate washing dishes. With the sudden loss of my dishwasher, I took a not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane. Washing a day’s worth of dishes for half a dozen people was my least favorite chore of this month. But I did learn that soaking them outside in water, soap, and sun made the washing go a lot faster. Again, thank you Las Vegas sun. And thank you mom and dad for the lessons in presoaking. You were right.
Finally, what I learned was this:
Throughout life’s challenges, God never gives you more than you can handle. And nothing sparks creativity and ingenuity like need.
I was pretty proud of our family. We figured out ways to get around our little hot water shortage. No one complained and it became a bit of an adventure. It was also a shared experience that we could laugh over together in the future. Living without one of our creature comforts, even a small one, made us feel resilient. And when we paid for our new water heater in full the following month, we felt accomplished. All in all, we were better for the experience.
But I’m still wary of camping. Because only a masochist calls taking away hot running water and indoor plumbing fun.
This was our little challenge to work through and, with God’s grace, we did. Have you had any challenges in your life recently that you thought you couldn’t handle, but ended up working out? Or not? I’d love for you to share your story in the comments!
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