Of Mice and Sin

Tired of snow pictures yet? No? Oh good, because I've got plenty more where these came from! We are having a snow storm unlike anything I've ever seen before. Even people who have lived here for many years haven't seen anything like this in a very long time. Our community is basically closing down. Schools are closed, stores are closing early and the police are asking everyone to stay home if possible. Everyone except for the people in snow removal. Ben just started a new job in snow removal. He worked a 19 hour shift overnight last night and this storm isn't finished yet.  Some of the guys worked longer than that but you have to sleep eventually, right? He's being initiated into his new job in a trial by fire sort of way.  

This is the snow fall since noon yesterday. Occasionally, this much snow falls in a week or so but in one day?  

Good thing our beef went to slaughter already because this trailer isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

This has been shoveled once already.

The kids took my picture as I took my turn keeping the driveway manageable.  In case you thought I just ate bon bons all day. Haha I'm kidding, I know you didn't think that about me. (but I do eat bon bons, just not all day!)

I have a very disturbing story to share here so if you are bothered by grossness, you really should just scroll right on past. I'm serious. You've been warned! I was getting ready to go outside, gathering my snow gear and putting my boots on. All laced up, I stood up and immediately, something didn't feel right. I can only describe it as what it might feel like to stand on a small mandarin orange in the heel of your boot. Soft and wet. Panic immediately set in and trust me, I couldn't get that boot and my sock off fast enough. Rookie mistake, yet again! When, oh when, will I learn to look IN my boots before I put them on? Yup, you guessed it.  There was a mouse in my boot. (Come on, say it with me... Ewwwwwwwww) Emphasis on the word was. What I don't know and what I will probably spend too many hours of my life trying to guess, is whether he was alive before I stood up or if he had been deposited there, already deceased, by one of the cats. I'm praying for the latter because the thought of the former is simply too much for me. Seriously, there is no less than 18 pairs of boots in this house.  9 people, two pairs of boots each. One pair of gumboots and one pair of winter boots. (Some may have, ahem, more than that but for our purposes here, there is no less than that.)  I'll do the math, that's 36 individual boots. What are the chances that a mouse would end up in MY boot?!! If you remember reading about my thoughts on mice in this post, you'll know somewhat of how I felt this afternoon.  To make matters worse, my boots were in the laundry room!! Yes, that's right, inside the house. So as of right now, it's Mice 1, Me 0, but that's about to change.  Let's just say, it's on. Oh yes, we're doing this. Those mice aren't going to know what hit them. After I deal with my boots, of course.  I hope the feeling of squished orange on my heel goes away soon. Seriously folks, you can't make this kind of stuff up.

Now we'll return to regular blogging. 

About less disgusting things.

I hope we don't need to close this gate anytime soon.

Very pretty but oh so, impractical.

This picture is from our neighbour's house.  Unbelievable.

I had a fair bit of time to think today.  About 4 hours actually, as I was clearing the driveway. (I was trying to keep my mind off other, rather unpleasant events of the day.) I was watching the snow come down and wondering, among oh so many other things, if my work was just an effort in futility. I mean, it is coming down just as fast as I can move it. You hear people saying that there is nothing more depressing than shoveling snow while it is still snowing. After considering it for a while, I disagree. Can you imagine if we waited for the snow to stop falling before we started digging out, how much more work there would be? Instead of doing a little here and a little there and staying on top of it, it would take such an enormous amount of effort, and I would probably just throw my hands up and give up. That led me to think of sin. My sin. If I ignore it and do nothing about it, it takes a greater effort to turn from it than if I deal with it immediately and not let it grow into an insurmountable obstacle. Sin is just like the snow that falls. We don't have a choice whether or not it will fall, but we do have a choice, whether to let it pile up or dig out from it, right away. That's what I was thinking, anyway. Maybe next time, I should take my MP3 player with me, so I'm not alone with my thoughts for so long. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23