Ten Days and No Water

It was ten days till I flew to Oregon and we had no water. The simplest way that I can describe what happened to Shane and I is our water main broke. When I asked him exactly what was wrong, he went into far greater detail, all I know is, for two days we didn’t have water and suddenly we had a huge ditch dug by the house and the old, hand dug well was open and Shane and his dad were looking in trying to figure out what to do.

The water trouble started before I was a mere ten days out. It started about last Thursday, when at that moment, it just seemed like a pump went bad and we had no water for the rest of that evening and until Shane got a new pump. But come Sunday, and we were waterless again. So by Labor day, pipes were getting dug up and assessed, and Tuesday, Shane was juggling work calls and emails while helping his dad install new pipes.

 

For what ever reason, though things seemed fixed, we again ran out of water this past Thursday into Friday. Our well was simply dry. This has never, ever happened before. If I hadn’t been anxious about the water issues at ten days out from Oregon, I now certainly was.

This brings to mind the story in John 4 where Jesus meets the woman at the well. I thought it was a pain having to haul water from the creek that runs through our property, around 150 yards downhill from our house, for various things. But back in those days, it wasn’t because someone’s water happened to not be working that you would go to the well. Everyone, every day had to have water, and the one source for it was the well outside of town.

When Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Of course the woman said back, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

It would be such a relief for anyone to not have to worry about water any more. It is a concept we don’t necessarily deal with daily, we just turn the faucet and there is the water. We are aware it is something we need daily, but there isn’t the daily struggle surrounding it generally. When we can’t get to it, it creates issues. The need for it would be magnified back then, no faucets, just a well, simply the physical labor alone in gathering water each day just to quench ones thirst, man oh man. She thought that was the type of relief Jesus was offering her, this daily task would be avoided, and for her, this daily task was made more difficult because of her shameful lifestyle. Because of her history, she didn’t go to the well in the cool mornings like the other woman from the town, she went midday when it would be hot and extra uncomfortable. 

She came when she could avoid other people. But not that day. That day, she met Jesus, and he was willing to talk to her and change her life. Jesus went beyond her temporary physical discomfort, Jesus cared about her soul. He used an image used before to describe himself, like in the book of Jeremiah where is says the Lord is the spring of living water in chapter 17 verse 13, but it would’ve been SO relevant to this woman getting water, midday, at the well. 

We seem to finally have water again and this little hiccup before my trip to Oregon has reminded me that God cares. Someone hearing this might exclaim, “Wait, you think that is God showing how he cares?” I do. First, we got water again, we had to really assess our water source and it gave us a good heads up as to what we will eventually one day need to replace. Second, at least it happened in September and not mid January with frozen earth! Third, I got a much better image of how important water is, and how I need to be more grateful for it. Besides that, having family offer their washers and showers reminded me of how blessed I am to be a part of this family and live where I live. While I don’t have the daily task of hauling water from the well like the woman in the story, for those couple of days of no water, I could just barely imagine the relief she might’ve felt hearing she would never have to thirst again, but love knowing that Jesus was referring to more than just physical thirst and to our spiritual need and no matter what our circumstance or past, he cares.

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While You Were Away

Okay, so it was me that was away for most of summer not writing, I just get so distracted with nice weather, places to go, things to do, I don’t take the time to sit in front of my laptop to write. You could say it is fall now, why the hiatus still, but it has been a really warm fall, so getting things done still keeps me from writing. Last weekend, while Shane road Scott’s four wheeler with friends in West Virginia, I stayed home and painted our dreary dining room.

Our dining room is where I often sit and do things on my laptop, draw, and clearly cook and eat. With gold shag carpet, the unfinished dark red walls were feeling a little suffocating and enough was enough. With the dining room chairs that my mom had gotten refinished for Shane and I now in the dining room, I decided to paint the walls in a bright color that would compliment the Navajo design.

So turquoise it was! Okay, so the paint sample says something like “Sailing Blue”, but it is a turquoise color, and I love it. To add to that, I had fun, a lot of fun, with texture. It was super simple too, just a little bit of paint on the wall, apply tissue paper, and paint over. Go big or go home they say, and being that I am home, I just went big then sat back and enjoyed my work, excited to show Shane when he got back.

The room is so much happier and I adore the texture. I ordered a southwestern valance, and soon we can check this room off our to-do list!

Summer Flew By

Summer came and went before I knew it, sunflower decorations have been replaced with pumpkins, and pumpkin recipes are covering my table.

Summer left us with some good memories, a new closet that is oh-so-close to being finished and big ideas for a garage and addition. For now, I’ll leave you with photo’s of our new walk in closet that is still being organized and final touches are being installed.

This idea of mixing trees into functional furniture always makes its way into Shane and I’s conversation when we are talking about remodeling and doing a DIY project. Of course our closet would have trunks be the focal point. These trees came off Shane’s brother’s property and we came up with all the measurements, or so we thought, for all the piping and set to work on turning the blue bedroom into our master walk-in closet.

The thing is, when we put together our plan for the lay out, we didn’t think about where the studs were. This is fairly important when you are attaching things to the wall. We honestly lucked out by starting with the corner you see pictured above. As we rounded the bend and realized our mistake, we had enough pipe to edit our design. Had we started on any other wall, that may not have been the case.

We added shelves to the center of the room, and I have put in baskets that act as drawers. You can see Shane getting creative with some left over wood in this photo.

On Labour Day Weekend, we got busy again with our closet and Shane’s dad helped us put in our very cool lighting. You can’t see it in this photo, but I promise, as soon as it is done, I can’t wait to show it off. It will tie together this whole mix of nature and industrial, or industrial plus nature look.