It's been a while since I last used this blogging site, so please, have patience and continue to read on. So much has happened over the last year or so; my dear mother passing on to her glory in October, 2011, a nephew on Charlies side, then a great uncle on my side, and just five months after my mother's demise, my younger sister, Barbara, passed away from Lou Gehrig's disease. It has not been an easy two years, believe me. But, God gives each of us another day, another sunrise to look up and praise His Holy Name! And that is what we should do every day that we can open our eyes and look up.

Fast forward to today, May 1, 2014. This morning is cloudy with bouts of sunshine. We just came through two days of lite to heavy rains, a long soaking rain. And that is just what it has done--soak into our basement. How depressing, to have to go down to the basement every couple hours and pick up the heavy, wet towels that soak up the water. Charlie bought a wet-vac a couple months ago to make it easier to clean up the water. I don't use it at night because it makes so much noise with it's powerful suction that I am afraid, especially at night, that I will disturb him when it's my turn to clean up the water.We generally take turns, his watch is at one o'clock and mine is at three a.m. It usually works out just fine. I use the sponge squeeze mop to clean it up. Charlie used the wet-vac because it doesn't disturb me. He is a much lighter sleeper and would wake up if I used it at night. But, you can bet that I use it during the day!

Last night about 8 p.m. we got a call from our daughter, Marie. She was very distraught. She came home from her work to a basement full of water, backed up to her basement steps. She didn't know it until she stepped down into the water which was several inches high and she slipped and fell, hitting her hip on the steps. Ouch! She's a trouper though and pulled out the wet-vac her hubby had bought last year and she began sucking up the water. She called us and was in tears because they had just bought new furniture for their basement "living room". The water was all under every piece of furniture and she "just knew" that the wooden tables and cabinets would be ruined now that they had been sitting in water for most of the day while she was at work. Charlie, of course, blamed it on himself for not going over to her house and check on standing water there. However, Marie did not blame her dad because she knew it wasn't his fault if the sump pump took this time of heavy rains to break down and stop working. I told Charlie what was happening over there and we shut off the television, put the dog out (she hates rainy days and gets a stubborn scowl on her cute little face) and we packed up our boots and raincoats and hopped in the truck.

Marie's husband, Tom, was on his way home from Frederick, Md. to help us all clean up the basement in his house. But, we got there in less than fifteen minutes so we were deep into cleaning up the water when Tom finally walked in the door. He jumped right in to finding out why the sump pump wasn't working because, ultimately, that was the reason the basement got flooded. When he pulled the pump from the sump hole it nearly split in two pieces. It had literally rusted and pulled apart so it wouldn't have worked anyway. Before he got home, Charlie had called him and told him the sump pump wasn't working at all. On his way home he stopped by several stores but they had all been sold out. Finally he stopped by another hardware store and found one. He brought it to the basement and proceeded to hook it up. In a few minutes it was doing the job it was bought for, thank God. Charlie, bless his heart, had been using a small pump for almost three hours, pumping the rising water out of the sump area. He was glad to see Tom come home to take over with a new sump pump.

In those three hours we had been at Marie and Tom's house, I had helped Marie move furniture around and vacuum the water from behind and beneath pieces of good furniture, back and forth, back and forth, until my back bothered me something fierce. Marie, dear girl, ran and got Charlie and me some bottled water for our thirst. Marie urged me to sit a few times until the pain in my back was gone. Feeling guilty because her dad had been standing the whole time holding the small handpump in the sump hole, causing his hips and legs to really bother him, I did not sit but a few minutes at a time. I continued to vacuum the still-wet spots on the floor.

Long story short, Marie and Tom thanked us several times for coming to help her. It was our (shudder) pleasure to be able to help our daughter and son-in-law get the water out of their basement. We were old hands at this chore for we had done it with every heavy, long rain we'd had over the past six and a half years since we'd moved into our dream home. We were the proverbial experts at moving water. We said our goodbyes and drove home to confront our own water problem. I prayed the whole way that there was no more water in our basement.

Once we were home, I let the dog out of her cage even though it was way past her bedtime. She'd been in her cage for three hours and needed to use the "facilities" outside. We did what needed done in our own basement and then got ready for a much needed rest for the night. I set the alarm for 3p.m. so I could get up and check the water level in the basement and clean up whatever water had come in.
Before I got into bed, I knelt beside our bed and I sent Jehovah a prayer of thanksgiving for watching over us on the wet roads, for Tom finding a sump pump, for God's hand of safety over us all, and just for giving us many blessings during this trying time. God is good. Always. So, I thanked Him once again, told Him I loved Him and thanked Him for being my Father. (A loving Father always looks after his children, and that's what God did for us.) I climbed into bed, said goodnight to Charlie, kissed him and dived into dreamland until 3a.m. I won't go into the getting up to sop up water again. I just did it without waking my overly tired husband. When I was finished cleaning up water for forty-five minites, I tippy-toed to the bedroom and eased myself back into bed. It was goodnight sweetheart and I was in dreamland until the six o'clock alarm went off so my husband could get ready to take his brother's van to be looked at.

Oh, well, another day, another blessing. I got my working clothes back on.

God bless you, my friends. Spring is finally coming. The farmers need the rains, but not all at once like it has been. We don't have much to look forward to except the wonderful sunshine that will warm the days and dry up the soil so the farmers and those energetic enough to make a garden can take their gardening tools out of the sheds and get to 'crackin'.

Hey, Folks, it's spring! Enjoy! Pack up your troubles in the old kit bag and smile, smile, smile! God has given you the gift of another spring day. Hallelujah! Amen!