Too Quick to Judge

BEWARE THIS IS LONG AND A BIT DISGUSTING

This week, the Lord has been teaching me multiple lessons. I don't think I could even begin to list the number of things I have been learning. However, I must say the biggest lesson I am learning is that sometimes even when I don't realize it I am much too quick to judge.

Those of you who are on facebook and have noticed my status this week would know we currently have an infestation of mice. Now I will be the first to say that I think mice are cute -- when they are outside and far away from destroying anything I own. However, when they appear inside the house I think they are one of the most disgusting things on earth -- even worse then a stinky diaper. Probably at the beginning of the summer I began to hear mice in the walls. I told JA, but whenever I said something -- they stopped. The result = my husband did not believe me, primarily because there were no signs of them in the house. That is until Sunday night. Sunday night I sat down to feed Ezekiel and saw one scurry under the couch. Monday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table and watch one scurry across the living room and down the stairs. Monday afternoon I was heading upstairs when one runs down the stairs and hides under the washing machine. Tuesday night Kara spots one upstairs running into her bedroom. Tuesday night I feel one brush against my back as I sat on the couch to watch a movie. Tuesday night we spot one under our bathroom sink. Do you get the picture -- We have a major infestation and the mice are not afraid of us!!!

Out come the traps in full force. Within the first twenty-four hours of the traps being out we catch six mice. I don't think I've ever even heard of catching that many in one day. Believe it or not the mice have not gotten into the kitchen or affected any of the food. In addition to the mice, the weather has been so nice that the kids have been playing outside a lot this week. The problem is they forget to close the kitchen door. Result = flies, flies, and more flies.

To top this off, yesterday afternoon I was standing in my kitchen looking at the dishes from the day that needed to be washed. I could not help but step outside of my situation and realize that if I was standing in anyone else's home seeing mice, surrounded by flies, and a pile of dishes I would consider them to be the most unsanitary and rather disgusting home. But if you looked at the rest of my house -- clean floors, laundry caught up, food put away, relatively clean bathrooms I began to realize that I cannot judge others. Anyone could walk into my home and at that moment walk out never wanting to return -- but that is not typical of our home, especially the mice :(

Next time I am tempted to judge someone by their home or appearance, I hope I will remember my experience this week and realize that sometimes people fall a little behind in cleaning and that the sneaky pests can get out of control before they even realize there is a problem.

Just to let you know, we have now put fly paper outside in our garage and the kids are not letting in nearly as many flies as they were before. We have stopped up all visible outside entrances into the house, and will hopefully be decreasing the mouse population rapidly. After the mice are gone we WILL be shampooing all carpets and deep cleaning the house.

But on a side note, I have to show you the picture of a mouse JA caught last night in our house. The poor thing didn't even get to taste his demise as he died reaching out for his cheese.