I live in Army housing. (for those of you who also live in Army housing, I’m sure this paragraph will not surprise you) It’s not glamorous, but it serves it’s purpose. It’s old, but it has ”charm”. With that, you inherit problems that don’t always get fixed. Our house has been known to have problems with mice. Lovely, right? The people who lived here before us had a bad mouse problem, but thought they had it fixed (maintenance had to seal up the area where the cabinets meet the floor because it was not put in properly in the first place). Well, we moved in and about 6 months later discovered mice. We ended up killing 7. Ew. We thought we had fixed it and this morning I woke up to a mouse scratching/chewing in my bathroom… on the insides of the walls. It gives me the creeps and makes me physically nauseous just thinking about it! Ok… why did I write about this? It gets better…

My MIL used to teach (and live) on an Indian Reservation. She looked up the meaning of mice (Native Americans believe that each animal that comes into your life has a certain purpose). A mouse means that you are either too busy and not paying attention to details or you are paying too much attention to detail and can’t see the forest for the trees. We deduced that the mouse was teaching me that I need balance in my life.

Therefore, I sat down and finished a hat that I was making for a friend. I called her up and asked when I could bring it down to her. She is fighting stage 4 cancer. This is her second battle. Timothy, Joanna, and I walked down to her house and she was sitting out front waiting for us. We had just intended to drop it off and go. However, she said, ”Maddie (her daughter) was so excited to hear that Timothy was going to come play with her.” I remembered our little mouse message and decided that we didn’t have anything pressing to do and spending time with Elizabeth and her daughter was more important.

We sat and laughed. Elizabeth held Joanna for a little while (but she got too heavy pretty quickly) and the kids just played. For a moment we could bring a little break for Elizabeth and Maddie.

I walked home with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart. How many times do I get wrapped up in my own life that I don’t take 30 minutes to walk down to Elizabeth’s house and show a little Christian friendship? How many times do I get wrapped up in training a 2 year old and don’t appreciate the things he does? I gave my kids extra hugs and kisses today. I sat on the floor and played with Timothy just a little bit longer than usual.

Although I’d rather not have a mouse/mice in the walls of my house (and I’d rather not have to wait until NEXT THURSDAY when the exterminator comes to Fort Campbell), the mouse did provide a little lesson and a little blessing.