Sometimes You Just Need To Have a Good Cry...

Sometimes I think the best option is to simply sit down and have a good cry...

Well, that's what I did today.

For the last four weekends we've had open house inspections as we try to sell our home.

(Let me assure you that getting a house ready for scrutiny by would-be buyers is no small feat, but especially not when you are 38weeks pregnant, and have two young children who come along behind you to leave some grubby finger-marks on the walls and rumple up the beds while you are otherwise occupied, cleaning like a mad-woman.)

We started out with excitement and high hopes. Surely all our hard work was about to pay off!! But the weeks went past, and finally one offer.

Almost $50,000 below what we were hoping for.

I had a good cry, then, too.

This was not the scenario I had in mind all those months that I dragged my pregnant body up on chairs to paint ceilings, and then onto hands and knees to scrub decking and paint skirting boards. I certainly wasn't picturing this when I got up at 4:30am so I could grout bathrooms before going to work...

My tears soon gave way to indignation. How dare they make such a lousy offer! Didn't they know that I have slaved over this house???

More time passed. They raised their offer twice. Now they are only $30,000 less than what we wanted!!

Meanwhile, each Saturday, hope rose again. Maybe today would be the day? Someone would fall in love with our home, and make a decent offer that we could work with.

That's what I was thinking this morning, too, as I walked away from my spotless home, after four straight hours of cleaning and vacuuming, and making beds "just so". We went to the mall and wandered around for a while, because we couldn't think of anything else we wanted to do. Not that we had any money to spend. We can't even afford our mortgage, which is precisely why we're selling our house, and desperate for a decent price...

When we came home, eager to know how the inspection had gone. The real-estate business card left on the bench, said that one person had come to look today - the same person trying to buy our house cheaper than what we're willing to part with it, for.

Well, really! This was too much. I went and sat in the backyard and had a good cry. One of those cries that I once heard Oprah refer to as "the ugly cry". You know, where your face goes into all kinds of ugly contortions that you have no control over, because you are too busy sobbing?

So anyway, I had one of those cries, feeling utterly sorry for myself, and wishing life would just go away and leave me alone for a while. Enough already!!

There's something cleansing and releasing about a good cry, dont you think? After my sobs had given way to annoying sniffles, I got up and braced myself to carry on, because....well....because there is no other option but to "carry on"...

Is there?