Be Careful of What You Pray For

Christi has been praying for simplicity and de-cluttering of our home. She's also been praying for a new couch, but she won't admit it. ;-)

Well, her prayers have been answered... but not exactly the way she expected.

It all started late last week when she thought she felt a little "itchy." I told her that it's probably just a combo of mosquito bites and dry skin. I didn't want to alarm her by admitting that I was also "itchy." None of our kids seemed to be affected. And so life marched on until this past Sunday. That's when the life march kicked into a full sprint. On Sunday morning, Christi and I were having our usual cup of coffee and morning conversation about life in general. Ironically, we were talking about things that we had to accomplish around our home ... "to simplify our lives" (little did we know that everything was going to happen more quickly that we thought). At that moment, I felt something crawling on my arm which was the beginning of the roller coaster ride... you know that slow clicking up the first hill just before you go over the hump and everybody starts screaming. I looked closely and found a tiny critter just strolling along minding it's own business. This thing was smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. I showed Christi and that's when we "went over the hump of the first roller coaster hill." Our conversation immediately switched from "simple living" to this:

Christi: Is it a flea or a tick? Is from Daisy? I told you to give Daisy a bath and put Frontline on her.

Me: It's not a flea. Fleas jump. This thing isn't jumping. It's crawling.

Christi: Is it lice? How'd we get that? Are they bed bugs? You know bed bugs have been all over the news.

Me: I don't know. It's too small to see what it looks like.

Christi: Well we need to do something! Eeewww! I hate creepy crawlies. Now my skin is really starting to itch. We need to do something!!!

Me: We will. Just calm down. Relax!

Christi: I can't relax! We've got creepy crawlies all over our house!

Me: We don't know if they're all over the house. Right now we only know they're on the couch we were sitting on. The kids haven't complained about being itchy. So just relax.

Christi: I can't! They're probably everywhere!

I had to act calm or she would've probably gone into full hysteria. So I opened the front door, and asked Christi to give me hand with the couches, lazy boy, and rug. We tossed everything right out the front door onto the lawn. I'm sure the neighbors were wonder what the heck was going on, but I didn't care. These tiny critters declared war and invaded our peaceful home. Christi started going through all the toys and items in the living room that were cloth. We took down the curtains and through them in the washer with hot water. Next we gathered all our clothes, stripped the beds, and threw them into the laundry room. All pillows that couldn't be washed were tossed out the front door. We mopped and cleaned the house, vacuumed all the carpets, and then stopped for lunch. Christi finally spilled the beans about her prayers for simplifying and de-cluttering our home. Well, we were certainly doing that! We just needed the proper motivation. Unfortunately, the stress was taking it's toll. We were both losing our patience with the kids and each other.

After lunch, we decided to let the older kids swim while Felicity and Maria took naps. I gave Daisy a flea bath and Christi continued with the gigantic pile of laundry.

Between tasks, Christi and I would sit at the computer and diligently search all over the web to determine exactly what type of enemy we were dealing with and the best tactic to eliminate these pests. I wanted to avoid the Orkin man knowing that he would scare Christi into thinking we need to spend thousands of dollars to take care of this problem. We searched everything from lice, fleas, chiggers, to all different types of mites.

At the end of the Sunday, we were still not conclusive about our adversary. That night, I didn't say anything to Christi, but I thought about taking down the nest that Christi had been telling me to get rid of for the past month... which is a whole other story in itself. I didn't finish the trim and soffits around the bay window, so a momma bird decided to make a nest there. I convinced Christi that it was good idea for the kids to be able to watch nature up close. It also bought me some time on finishing the bay window. Christi was getting tired of the bird poo all over the window, the sill, and front steps. She told me to get rid of the nest and I replied, "St. Francis wouldn't be very happy."

Monday morning Christi had an epiphany and finally narrowed the search down. Apparently bird nests have what's known as "bird mites." I went out to take the nest down and saw a bunch of them crawling around. Ooops! My bad! I guess I should've finished the window before the bird made a nest. I called in work and took the day off to handle my debacle.

In the end, the baby birds were old enough to fly away, the nest came down, the momma bird and her babies didn't peck my eyes out, I completely saturated the outside of the bay window with pesticide, and finished the trim and soffits around the bay window. We put Borax powder on the carpets, washed the inside walls, windows, and floor with a Borax and Clorox solution. When I went to the store for the pesticide and cleaning supplies, I stopped by the furniture store and order a new sectional corner couch that Christi has been wanting for years.

Last night we hung a white sheet on the bay window. Woke up this morning to check for tiny black dots... none! So far so good.

Hopefully, if we don't see any more creepy crawlies, this weekend we'll be sitting on our brand new couch in our fresh, clean, simple, and de-cluttered living room.

The moral of this story... God answers prayers, but not always the way we want Him to.