Today was a really, really bad day. The transmission needs to be replaced in one of our vehicles, and then this afternoon my 3 yo spilled a glass of water on my camera and laptop. The good news, my camera still works. The bad news, my laptop is fried.
When it happened I didn’t get too upset, I was probably in shock. As the day went on, I started thinking about all the things that were on my computer (which had not been backed up in forever) and started getting more and more upset. My computer is my brain… I do everything on my computer from shopping, to paying bills, to scheduling, to homeschooling, to editing my photos… My photos! The thought of losing my photos was too much and around dinner time I just wanted to go to bed.
I talked with one of my friends about the whole thing and she told me to focus on a solution and stop dwelling on the problem. She was right, although it took me a few hours to get out of my funk. Dh and I talked it over and figured out that a $50 USB docking station
While I have lost the convenience of my laptop, I did not lose thousands of pictures, emails, files, and other information I had on my computer.
Lesson #1 learned ~ back up your data on a separate hard drive frequently. We have a hard drive for this very purpose, but I got busy and didn’t take the time to back up my computer. If you do not have an portable external hard drive 
Lesson #2 learned ~ When toddler spills a glass of water on the computer, immediately unplug the computer and, if it is a laptop, remove the battery. I hesitated removing the battery and had I been quicker I might have a working computer.
As for the car, there is no $50 fix. I am thankful we have our emergency fund to cover the cost of replacing the transmission.
So today was pretty crummy, but only when it comes to the material things. My kids had a great time playing with their friends, we had several of our friends drop in throughout the day, and everyone went to bed tired and happy. And that is what matters most…
