Being Grateful For Water...

I’m sitting in our little one-room house, praising the Lord to ‘Stronger’ by Mandisa…What a great song! Bill thinks I’m crazy when I praise the Lord…On well.
Bill is sitting up in bed with pillows all around and drinking his first cup of coffee…It’s freezing cold outside and all the water is frozen. I took these pictures of the water barrel.



Guess most people from West Texas have done this many times, but I confess, it’s the first time I chipped ice to boil water. On my visit to the outhouse, I found the water I usually wash my hands in was a block of ice. Couldn’t break it, although I’m not sure I would have wanted to wash my hands in such cold water anyway.

Yesterday I broke down and washed my dishes inside the house. It was so cold outside, I couldn’t get up the nerve to stand at the table outside in the wind and cold and wash those dishes. Even though I warm up water on the stove, it was too cold outside. We have very little space inside, so washing dishes is a challenge. But better sardines inside than popsicles outside, right?

Needless to say, the laundry I usually do when the water comes on in the morning won’t get done until the pipe thaws out. We only have one faucet and it’s frozen solid this morning. It was hard to do laundry yesterday as the wind was blowing so hard and my hands were freezing when I hung the clothes on the line. But I got three loads done. This morning, they are still on the line, and I will have to get up the gumption to take them down…Brrrrrr!

I can remember my mother hanging clothes on the line when it was very cold in Mt. Shasta. I guess I have really taken my clothes dryer for granted over these years. It was such a blessing when we lived in Texas. Now that the weather has changed, I guess I need to hang some line inside the house for those wet days.

A few days ago, I really considered our water. Thanking the Lord for water, I was thinking about how precious it is to us. Since our town water service is intermittent and we purchase drinking water in 5-gallon bottles, it has become even more precious. When we lived in Aspermont, I bought water, but when we didn’t have drinking water, we always had tap water.

I have learned to do laundry and dishes when the water comes on, although I have a 50-gallon barrel to hold a supply for necessities, it isn’t nearly enough. I am sure I took showers that used more than 50 gallons of water. Humbling, isn’t it?

Bill has talked about the lack of water in Mozambique when he and Larry Melton visited there in 2007. We take so much for granted, don’t we? Water…Thank you, Lord, for water!

What an awesome God we serve! He provides our every need, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. Thank you, Jesus, for providing our needs. Help us not to take that for granted. Give us grateful hearts, Lord.

Love you all, and thank you for reading our little blog. Blessings in the glorious name of Jesus!




Found a ladybug hanging on for dear life when I opened my washer after the rinse cycle. Amazing little ladybug...Thank the Lord it was able to fly away after all that spinning!




A little hen keeps making her way into my kitchen to eat the dog food. I think she's developed a taste for Kibbles and Bits!