… … Ants … … … … … …

They really do work hard and never give up!

The house we're subletting for this month has an ant problem. At
first I assumed it was a normal dry season ant problem. Then they
started coming through the floorboards… and in the windows… and out
of the countertops. Joel's not completely overreacting when he
refuses to get out of bed without his shoes on.

We were careful at first using simple soap powders to deter them.
Lately, Kent has pulled up the loose floorboards to put poison
underneath them! Then we paid a gardener to chop down some extra
vines and tree branches because all our clean laundry on the line
had ants crawling all over it! While the laundry IS better, we're
still not 'winning' and we've asked a friend to check into
exterminators. The problem is that they come through the brick wall
from next door, so we can kill all we want and not solve 'the problem'.

There is a missionary story you may have heard that goes something
like this:
During the first year a new missionary sees a bug in his soup and
refuses to eat it.
During the second year the missionary sees a bug in his soup and
picks it out with his fingers.
During the third year, he sees a bug in his soup and says, "Hey!
Extra protein!"

Let's just say we're still at the picking-it-out-with-fingers stage!