Yesterday was rough.

I woke up feeling like the cosmos was out of balance and that the setting right of things was entirely out of my control.

I felt a lot like this little squirrel probably did. It had gotten jostled out of its warm, safe nest and was being held captive by something so large and strong, all it could do was hold its breath and wait.

Then, mid-morning, Zivah's hamster, Whiskers, met with an accident. A few minutes later, Z brought her to me in concern. "She's cold, and she's not moving much," she told me. I took a look at the hamster, and it was pretty obvious Whiskers was in real trouble.

The next span of time was awful. Zivah was in tears; Finley was shook up, but trying her best to ease Zivah's pain; Joe filled a water bottle with warm water, trying to do anything to help Whiskers and keep her warm. And then Whiskers passed, we tucked her into a check box, and Chris went out with the kids to bury her.

Thankfully, we were going to Nana's that afternoon to celebrate her birthday. We all needed distraction. I tried my best not think about Z's excitement and joy the day after Christmas when we went to get Whiskers or the tears of loss...

This morning, the kids were getting ready to leave for school, and I was standing in the living room, and looked up out of the window facing east. The sun was a big, orange circle of warmth, it's light reaching out to our house over the tree tops.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. - Lamentations 3:22-23