Being a rural pastor's wife post #3

Here is another practical tip. Think of your water and air situation in your home.
Water-I think of this because when we lived in OH our water was terrible. My dad would get a couple of gallons of water out of the drinking fountain at work and bring it home to us daily. We used this "city" water for all our cooking and drinking and I only washed my hair with that water. I've also heard that those who drink tap water have more miscarriages. I think of how close we are to farm land too.
We have a Brita filter and we filter all our water for cooking and drinking with that. We buy bottled water for traveling. I try to drink that bottled water when we are at church instead of church water or lemonade. I don't think our system is the best. I know others that pay $20 per month for a Culligan system. I know some have paid to have a nice water system installed in their house. I know some have big jugs of water delivered to their house. If you add up our Brita filters which we change regularly and the bottled water we buy for traveling we probably spend close to what it would cost to have a Culligan system.
I post this to get you thinking, especially if you are drinking tap water and you live in a rural area. 
Air-I have a friend that had to move out of their parsonage because the mold was so bad. They were sick all the time. Our Lambs seem to have colds a lot. We have talked about getting someone out here to clean out the air ducts. Our parsonage is about 40 years old and I can't imagine how much dust and dirt is in our ducts. Our streets are gravel plus they did a lot of work in town here last year for a new sewer system. I'm sure that adds to the dust and dirt in our home.
Ram's dad bought us a nice air filter that we put in our bedroom. At first we thought it was a strange gift, but we appreciated it. We recently replaced the filter and it was unbelievable how much dirt we could see on that filter. Ram and I have seemed to get less colds since we got that air filter.
I know that you may not be able to afford to get your air ducts cleaned or to get a nice air filter, but I hope this post gets you thinking. Perhaps start a savings fund for this purpose?
Please add any comments about air or water in your rural homes.
Come back tomorrow for another practical tip about being a rural pastor's wife.

Wordless Wednesday

BEFORE

AFTER

Wonderful day yesterday

First, one of my birthday presents came in the mail. Ram's parents said I could buy something I needed. I chose the warmest rated coat that Land's End sold. The catalog said it was sold out in this green pattern, but on the internet it was available. I hit a sale (they have them all the time!) with 25% off and free shipping. Thank you, Ram's parents!

Next, I wore my new coat to the chiropractor and the receptionist said my coat was cute. Plus, I love to go to the chiropractor all by myself. I love the almost an hour to drive there and listen to talk radio instead of kids music, get my treatment in peace and quiet, and drive home.

For supper we made homemade pizza and the Lambs love to make pizza. I have to have the only children that 2 out of 3 Lambs didn't like supper. Lamb 3 wouldn't take one bite. Lamb 2 loved it but only ate half of his. Lamb 1 hated it but ate it all because he was hungry and knew nothing else would be offered.

We had a little talk before clean up time last night and it went better than it has gone for a long time. We have had trouble with Lamb 2 helping recently. But yesterday, after the talk, with some kids music on, everyone helped and the huge mess was cleaned up fairly quickly. We ended the day with the Lambs by reading a book about St. Nicholas to get ready for Sunday.

But here is a photo of the best part of yesterday!

See the gravel in front of our garage? They went a little beyond our garage with gravel. We will be able to park in our garage soon after 2 months of being unable to. I baked cookies and had Ram take them out to the workers. On Thursday they had put some fresh dirt down. I was so happy they were attempting to make the roads drivable that I gave them cookies. A little while after the cookies then they delivered gravel. I know that was coincidence, but I'm almost willing to give them more cookies so they work some more in our town.
I know I have blogged about this a little, but it was so frustrating to not be able to park in our garage. It seemed like the few times I drove by myself were the ones that 2 Lambs would fall asleep on the drive home and I couldn't carry 2 Lambs by myself, nor could I leave 1 Lamb in the car by himself when he was a block away from our house. We only went major shopping a few times in the last month, but it was no fun to carry all the Costco shopping when we couldn't park in the garage. I am so tired of needing 2 or 3 pairs of shoes for each of us every time we leave the house (muddy and not muddy). And don't even get me started about the mud in our house-even though we took our shoes off as soon as we got inside, we still will have to shampoo our carpets after 2 months of this. There is no place by our back door to change shoes so everyone loses their temper every time we go someplace and then again when we get home. I recently bought myself and Lamb 1 and 2 new shoes from Lands End and they are so muddy that I don't know if it is possible to get them completely clean.
Anyway, the workers on our road were a joyous site for us. We may really be at the end of this mess in our town. It is wonderful to not have to wait until spring! We didn't move our cars so they are still out in 12 degrees, but hopefully we can move them back to their homes in the garage soon.

The Lambs wake up call for me today

The Lambs came in a few times this morning asking if they could get out the Lincoln Logs and questions like that while Ram and I slept in a little. When Lamb 3 woke up I sent him to play with his brothers. I must have been sleeping harder than I thought, because I had no idea they were in the basement longer than bringing the Lincoln Logs up.
The Lambs were playing quietly beside our bed. I opened up my eyes and Lamb 3 was using two toilet cleaning brushes like canes. I freaked out because I just used one of those brushes to clean the toilet on Monday. I'm sure there was still cleaning stuff on it. We washed Lamb 3's hands and face, just in case, but as far as we could tell, he was just walking with them, didn't put them near his body.
Lamb 2 reported that he had to go to the bathroom while they were in the basement and that is when Lamb 3 got the brushes. I keep the cleaning supplies up high, but I kept the brushes in the bathroom downstairs where the Lambs rarely go. I need to find a new place to keep the brushes now!
Lamb 2 also reported that Lamb 3 took those brushes in the living room and I could tell he took them across the dirty clothes that came down the laundry chute, up the steps, down the hallway, and in our bedroom. As far as I can tell, no damage was done. I'm not sure if bleach spots will show up later on our carpet? We already have one bleach spot on the carpet in the hallway from when my old cleaning lady did that. This is a time that I hate living in a parsonage-you never know what young children will do. It's so much worse when the house doesn't belong to you.