One step forward...

We were feeling pretty confident. The pliers, gloves, and shovel had been put to the side. Then, I heard a little voice yell, "MOM!!!! THERE IS A MOUSE IN MY ROOM!!!"

Harland was out in his office working on his paper, and I was folding laundry. This mouse was a bold one. He kept coming out and running from room to room and then seemed to look right at me as if to say, "watch me walk right around this trap.". Isabel helped me with the laundry and we watched together as we hoped the mouse would accidentally get into one of the sticky traps.

I woke up this morning to find the pliers and gloves by the front door. Harland had found two mice in the traps when he came in last night. He did some swift killing and they are gone, and we are glad.

Harland headed to the restroom for a much needed shower last night after an evening of filling in our trenches in the yard with dirt and a night of executing mice. He got into the shower and turned on the faucet and got water for about two seconds... then it stopped. Our water tank is empty. I guess our first week of conservation has not really worked. Our 2000 gallons are gone. Thankfully, the water man is coming today to deliver more.

Well.... he was scheduled to come today. He just called to tell us that his truck broke down and is being towed to a mechanic. It could be fixed today and the water delivered late in the day, or it could be a few days or even into next week. We are back to water bottles. Thankfully one of our only friends here has a water tank and truck that we are hoping to be able to borrow tonight if the water man has not come. We can try our hand at hauling our own water.

When things are creepy or frustrating, there always seems to be something to help me put things into perspective or at least to distract me. On the drive to school this morning, I had to interrupt my usual circle route because Nathanael forgot his glasses at home. We came home after dropping Ben off and took the other road to the elementary school.

We turned the corner and saw on top of the cliff what I think was three eagles. One was standing on a big leafless tree branch right on top of the cliff with wings outstretched. The other two were flying around the still one. He would rotate his head and move his wings to catch the wind and be able to stand on that little branch. It looked like a totem pole. Dark rain clouds were behind him over the mountain. It almost didn't look real, but I have two small witnesses and a fuzzy picture taken with my phone. We pulled off the road to watch until we eventually had to go to get to school on time.

I didn't think at all about the water cistern being empty or the mice scurrying in the house as we watched those birds. What an amazing sight that we would have missed if we had been on our usual route to school. They were gone when I drove back home. I think we were the only people to see it up on that cliff. What a beautiful distraction from the day to day trails in the valley.

Isaiah 40:30-31 "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will run and not be faint."