Seizures, Stitches, Sump Pumps

We have had an eventful few days since John left with Reubs and Tom for the LCMS National Youth Gathering to be held in New Orleans.  I am so thankful for Kat to be here helping.  I did fine on my own with 10 kids for a week when they all went to see Josh, (see below a couple pictures of my son, of whom I am SO proud!) but needless to say I got next to nothing done in the way of household upkeep.  No idea how Big Mama gets so much done.  She is amazing.

Since I cannot put up a name or a picture, you will just have to imagine my littlest boy and his three stitches in his forehead.  That happened on Tuesday evening, as we were getting ready to head to a Little League game (that we ended up missing).  Seems the little guy didn't look where he was walking, and Matt didn't look where he was swinging his baseball bat.  And that pretty much says it all there.  The victim did just fine, no screaming, no flailing, no calling the nice Dr. a b****.  They gave him a DQ ice cream coupon, so naturally we headed right there after the stitching. 
Jaime has had a seizure two of the last three days :(  She had an increase in her meds last Friday (after finding that the rash she had was not an allergic reaction to the seizure meds, but strep throat) so they are waiting another week before increasing further.
Yesterday, as Kat and I were organizing the basement while the kids were watching a movie, I got caught in one of those sequences that prevent you from moving anywhere but one more step back for everything you fix.  I tried to wash a feather pillow (yeah... you know what happened) and the little filter on the end of the washer drain hose filled and plugged, then popped off sending feathery water into the tank where the sump pump is.  The pump in turn plugged up and stopped working (bad, bad as we were having a rain storm and that thing keeps the basement from flooding).  So I unhooked the pipes, pulled the dumb pump out of the barrel/tank, and started pulling the gump out of the intake.  Turns out it was hardly any feathers, but mostly uck that had built up since the last time we cleaned it.  Thankfully it started working again.  Then I put it back in, where one of the pipes let loose and started spraying water everywhere.  So I pulled it back out.  The hose clamp is stripped.  Now I cannot find a hose clamp anywhere and I know we have some... sigh... I offer a bribe to a few kids and after about a half an hour we have a hose clamp.  Finally get it all back together, pump out all the rain water that is getting rather high in the tank, and now have to clean all the feathers out of the washing machine.  Meanwhile, as I am spinning my wheels downstairs, the kids are tanking the place upstairs (somehow as they just sit  in front of a movie, the house around them does a fast forward deteriorating two step that will take days to put right).   
At any rate, today it is back to my house Reclaiming/Decluttering Project #1297 which is my chosen form of self therapy.  This is what I do when I need to get back on track after being derailed by a series of unfortunate events, which has been the case in recent weeks.  I wallow for a while in self pity, immobilized and useless, feeling sad and helpless.  Then I get up and start throwing stuff away in an attempt to make my life easier to manage I guess.  This weekend for the best day of summer/midsummer's eve (aka My Birthday) I will have a bonfire of major proportions as I say good bye to a ton of clutter while I listen to my favorite tunes from 60's AM radio and some good old 70's rock and roll :)

I forgot to mention the names of these sweeties when I posted their pic the other day:

from left:  Fluffbuster, FooFoo Cuddlypoops, Burton Guster, Ghee Buttersnaps