After weeks of itching and allergic reactions, two weekends ago we decided to rule out one more thing by flipping this house…. well, parts of this house.
No, it wasn’t some cool Fixer Upper interior design show, it was real life Africa:
Flea control.
Yep, you read it right, two weekends ago we fumigated our sleeping quarters.
After isolating our continued “hives” to our bedrooms and thanks to a few google searches and the trusty advice of the medical people’s dermatologist in South Africa after digitally checking out Hannah’s spots, we determined the cause to be bugs and we got to work.
God gave us just enough sunshine and heat on Saturday to remove all the mattresses, spray them down with bug killers, remove all the bed frames and pieces, spray them down with bug killers, leave the frames and mattresses outside in the sun to bake for hours, spray the baseboards in the rooms and pepper the remaining parts of the rooms and wash pillows/sheets/etc., drying them on the clothes line in the sun.
Saturday night we made the best of it with a “slumber party” downstairs while the rooms upstairs rocked their fumigating ways. We kept things light and enjoyed the time together despite the extra work.
Sunday it rained but there were pockets of “sun” in order to finish drying our bedding. We also reassembled the rooms and had our sweet guard treat our “yard”, windowsills, door frames and the back guard’s house with an effective and yet safe for animals/kids pesticide.
Monday, Eden started having bites so she got a one-way ticket to the refuge cot in out room and then has joined Rachael’s full sized bed while her trundle bed was happily wrapped in plastic for a week. Go, go gadget bug starvation! 😉
Our skin is clearing up and I’m happy to announce that we have no new bites. =) God has also blessed us with pretty good sleep despite the challenges and changes. And one of the sweetest fruits from all this is watching Rachael and Eden sleep forehead to forehead. I’m not sure if I’ll even get Eden back out of Rachael’s bed once we unwrap her bed because she sure loves snuggling her sister.
That sister love is strong!
– Thankful, grateful and blessed even in the thick of it.
Praise Jesus for no new bites!!!
No new bites! Praise the Lord! I have a picture of Rachael and Abi sleeping here face to face with Rachael’s arm around Abi. It IS so sweet. I’m pretty sure that never happened with my sisters. Hehehe
I’m so glad this mystery was solvable!