Friday evening, my kids and I got home from a long day out in the sun. We noticed right away something was wrong when we could barely flush our toilet. It was fine through the evening and I got the kids to bed. I just hoped that it wouldn’t be a problem through the night since I’m up so much in the night. 34 weeks pregnant means constantly interrupted sleep to use the bathroom.

 
First thing Saturday morning, the flusher (as I had started calling it) broke right off in my hand. So I had to lift the lid off the tank and flush it myself. I was not looking forward to having to do this each time the kids used the bathroom since going up and down the stairs many many times would not have gone well with my big pregnant self.

Luckily my kids slept in late and left early afternoon for visitation with their Daddy. I sent this picture to my Dad and my brother and talked to them to figure out what I needed to do. Usually I’d be telling my husband this needed taken care of, but since I’m a newly single mom, I had to figure this out. My landlord is never easy to get a hold of, so I wasn’t about to wait around on him.

I was told to go to Ace Hardware and tell them what I need. My brother would be over to put the new part on for me. I walked in to Ace and told the first person I saw that I had no clue what I was doing there and needed help. I showed her the ‘flusher’ and she pointed me to the right aisle and called for someone to assist me.

Ten minutes later I was out the door with my new toilet tank lever. (I guess it wasn’t called a ‘flusher’. ha!) The man who helped me explained exactly how to replace this and what kind of tool I would need.

Once I got home, my brother and nephew were here waiting for me. I pulled out the tools I had on the main level but did not have any pliers. Again, stairs are hard for me, so I didn’t want to go down to the basement looking for one down there so I grabbed something that seemed close enough and went upstairs to the bathroom.

My brother was all set to replace to replace this for me when I said I wanted to give it a try myself first. So I leaned over and got to work, baby belly occasionally bumping into the lid. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d figure out how to do it all. But guess what!

I DID IT!!

Okay, I know, you may be cracking up at me right now about being so excited about such a small thing. (It’s okay.)

OR you’re happy that you’re not alone in things like this. (You’re welcome.)

Either way, I’m happy to have figured out just another thing in life.

AND…

When my kids got home and had to use the bathroom, they told me I was going to have to go upstairs with them to flush when they were done. When I told them I replaced the part while they were with Daddy, they were SO EXCITED and rushed up to check it out. My kids were proud of me and that made my day. It’s the little things like this that I hope my children will remember. Our lives changed drastically in April and I’ve been doing all I can to show them that we are okay with the new makeup of our family and that I am able to figure things out on my own even when difficult challenges come up.