(This is me most days. You'd be hard pressed to find proof of tears from me lol)

January, I'm not gonna lie, has been a terrible month for me in so many ways.

It was an inundation of crap after crap, from all angles, from Steemit, to the rental agency, to everything else in between.

The only thing that kept moving me forward was our house and now that we're here I'm faced with even more challenges.

I just need it to stop or at least get a break from the amount of crap I'm dealing with. Everything at the moment feels like an uphill battle and it's all getting a bit much.

Challenges

I always try to view challenges as opportunities to grow stronger and smarter.

Like my rat problem for example.

I've read through dozens of websites and everyone's suggestions in the comments of my previous post and I reckon by now I've got at least 6 things on my list to try.

And wouldn't you know, a Kookaburra just flew up in one of our trees as I'm writing about the rats.

They are on my list!

Did you know Kookaburras are skilled rat hunters?

I learned that from one of the ladies in the Blue Mountains Social page on Facebook when I tried to borrow someone's unwanted Diamond Python in their back yard.

I was all.. Please can I borrow him? We have a rat problem. lol

Which, btw, I learned cannot be moved without a license, so there goes that idea. I'm hoping the lady is a neighbor and that Python will find it's way to me cos I want him lol

The Universe self correcting.

I live an extremely blessed existence. Somehow, someway, things ALWAYS magically work out in my favor.

Even when I'm wading through shit creek without a paddle, in that pile of steaming shit, will be a random gold nugget.

This was my gold nugget yesterday.

Can you see him? Here's a zoom shot.

I was in the office unpacking and when I finally walked out to get another lot of crystals from the "charging table" I saw this guy up on the tree.

I love trees, y'all know I do, but I'm not gonna lie, that tree gone has done wonders to our view.

People have said, what if they build a huge house right there and they end up blocking our view with a house.

This is a residential zone and from previous research when we were planning on building, the max height is 8m from ground to roof according to the Blue Mountains City Council.

This is about 8m, maybe a tad bit more.

The house across the road is the builders house and I doubt, even if the council permitted it, he would drop a monstrosity across the road from his own house.

But the council will never buy in to a huge block of units. That's just not how the Blue Mountains works, this is one of the reasons we chose to come up, because this council protects the environment and it's people's way of life.

They won't even allow fast food outlets up here.

The last McDonald's before you come up is at Blaxland, roughly 35 minutes away from me. There was talk that KFC was allowed up, but that was about 2 years ago and still no KFC.

We're different up here and I like that.

So back to my new view..

Here's yesterday's photo.

This is how it looks this morning.

How's that for a random gold nugget? 😁

As for those rats.

I don't know what the pest guy did yesterday but I can't smell that smell in the kitchen today, even though he said he couldn't smell it.

No rat tracks where we've usually seen them and a lot less poop around the property.

Also the stray ants have disappeared, as for the cockroaches and spiders we never saw them inside the house to begin with, and I doubt they'd even attempt it if they witnessed the dousing yesterday.

He went to town THAT hard, it took all day for the solution to dry up inside the house.

All pet and human friendly of course, but I still had to keep Fluffy in the laundry while the solution dried.

So today?

I'm deciding not to focus on my troubles. I permitted myself to shed a few tears before I sucked the rest back in and now Im getting on with my day and finding a way to overcome or bypass the obstacles in my path.

This helps me.

Today's tip?

Keep going and stay positive. Shed a tear if you need to release your emotions. It's actually quite healthy to have a cry here and there. But make sure you get back up and dust yourself off.

And if you need help just ask. You never know what will happen.

💗 Arly

PS. Still no internet

Gif courtesy of Giphy