Blog – 7-26-17
As I write this, I am up in my favorite camping spot, Yankton, for the week. It’s the first time this season we’ve had the camper out, and I have been looking forward to this time with great excitement. This lake is my happy place, and I had lots of plans for how God was going to meet me here!
Let’s just say the week didn’t start as I imagined. We got the camper out of storage and pulled into our camping spot, excited for our vacation to begin. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we had had visitors over the winter months. As John opened the storage units underneath the camper, he saw remnants of a major mice party! There were mice droppings everywhere, piles of insulation and nesting materials, and overall destruction every place we looked. This was like a Spring Break party gone bad! Unfortunately for them, four of the little creatures were still partying, but their merriment was ended abruptly by my husband.
I nervously opened the door to the inside of the camper and approached the kitchen. I cringed as I pulled the cupboard door open to the cabinet under the sink because we had had a couple of mice the year before. My fears were quickly realized when I saw the remnants of a major shindig that took place there as well! The year before the festivities were contained to the sink area, but they expanded their territory this year and the party got much bigger and better. They obviously invited all their friends and family! There was mice poop in literally every single drawer. They even ate my dish towels, and one of my wooden spoons was literally chewed in half.
Can you say disgusting!
John and I seriously considered setting a torch to the place right then and there, but our better judgment somehow took over. With a let’s-get-this-over-with-as-quickly-as-possible mindset, we set to work cleaning up what we started calling the mouse orgy.
I got bleach and rubber gloves, and I took everything out of my cupboards. Every single piece of those cupboards was scrubbed, every dish and utensil was washed and then dipped in bleach, and absolutely every corner of our camper was cleaned within an inch of its life. We threw things out right and left. We even had to throw away the tent John had had since he was a child since the mice had decided to use it for bedding and had completely destroyed it.
All of these glorious activities were taking place in 100 degree heat as well, which made it extra fun! Our son Christopher is with us, and he had the glorious task of climbing through the storage area with the Shop Vac we had to go and purchase. He’s so glad he came with us!
After taking a pick-up load to the dumpster, getting the kitchen put back together, and vacuuming the very last corner of the camper, at about 6:00 we finally called it quits. We were hot, sweaty, and beat. We couldn’t take it any more.
The good news is I decided about 30 minutes into this grueling process that we had better make it fun or we were literally going to go crazy. I started joking with John about how the camper had never been this clean. Isn’t that awesome! I reminded him that we finally went through all those things we’ve been meaning to go through and got rid of so many items we never use. I felt a sense of pride as I opened my perfectly organized cupboards.
I researched the classic book written by John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men,” as I was writing this blog, and I found out something very interesting. Steinbeck wrote the book based on a poem written by Robert Burns called “To a Mouse.” One line in the poem reads,
“The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.”
As I read that, I had to chuckle. Man, is that ever true.
You could definitely say that this week has gone awry. I could let the mouse orgy ruin the entire week, or I can try to salvage every bit of good out of this situation that I can. I know one thing for certain, my attitude is going to make all the difference.
I have to admit, when I awoke in the middle of the night to water in my bed from a broken ceiling vent we hadn’t noticed before the downpour we had last night, I wanted to cry and bolt for home. But as I sit here today and watch the sun shining on the lake, I realize once again that sometimes our best laid plans get derailed. And when they do, it’s up to us to make the best of it.
And besides, this little story of mice and men, it will be great fodder for upcoming speeches!
Hugs and love,
Jill