A broom, a bag and a snake !!!!!

Sometimes in life you have experiences you aren't prepared for. When these experiences come along, often you find you have more strength then you thought you had. I had one of these experiences this week.


I was busy cleaning up the kids bedrooms and rushing around the house getting things done with Sam, Eli and Liberty at home. I had finished putting another load of washing on (we always have a load of washing on around here), and had cleaned up someone's mess in the kitchen.


I then decided to head down to my bedroom to check on Eli and Liberty who I remembered were playing on the DS's. Sam was following me, hassling me about more food from up the top (I keep all of our snacks up in a top cupboard) and he was really starting to get to me.


It was in this setting that as I rounded the corner to walk down the hall way towards my bedroom that I received a shock! Out of the boys bedroom which is right next to mine crawled a snake!!!


I stopped in my tracks and in a few second's this is what my mind saw and did:
Snake!!! AHHHHH!!!
It's in the house!
Liberty is on the floor.
It is sliding towards Liberty.
It is 2 steps away from Liberty
Stop the snake!
Don't take your eyes off the snake.
Yell at Sam, 'Get me the broom quick'
Sam, 'There's a snake mum'
Sam runs to get the broom
Say calmly to Liberty, 'Libby, snake, get on mum's bed, QUICK!'
Snake has lifted up it's head and in strike pose!
Liberty is all excited to see a snake but get's on the bed quickly.
I start to sweat, feeling sick.
Sam hands me the broom.
I grab the broom and slam the broom down on the snakes head, holding it down on the bedroom floor.
I tell Liberty, Sam and Eli to go into the rumpus room and close the door.
I realise I now have a very mad snake trapped under a broom and I can't believe the situation I have got myself into.


I was sweating it big time. Deep breaths, deep breaths. 
I really don't like snakes and am scared of snakes and here I am looking down at a snake wriggling right underneath me. Aaaaahhhhhhh!


I was racking my brain trying to work out what I could possibly put this snake into, whilst I was holding it down. Ice cream container, NO, plastic bag, NO, glass jar, NO....Help!


So I did what any good wife would do, I got Sam to get me the phone and called my darling husband, Matt at work.


This is me: 'Matt, there is a snake in the house'. 
Matt freaks out: 'A Snake!'.
Me: 'I have the snake trapped under the broom, I need help trying to work out what to put it into'.


Then followed a conversation that was supportive of what I had done, many ideas of what to do, but offered no real solutions on how I was going to get out of this mess.


I then decided I was going to get this snake into a bag. 


I started to get a little teary because I knew I was on my own and (let's not go into the conversation that happened afterwards about the fact that Matt did not drop everything and come and help me!) it was hurting my arms holding this snake down and I knew I needed to dig deep to get this snake into a bag. As I looked down the hall way I could see one of the kids library bags (you know the material draw string kind) sticking out of the hall linen cupboard.


I yelled out to the boys to come help me and they eventually (after many frustrating directions) got me the bag. I then sent them back off to the rumpus room to watch television and to close the door. 


Once I had the bag I tried to place it on the ground so that the snake would crawl into it but by this time the snake was really mad. It was flipping it's head around everywhere and was bitting the broom and anything it could reach. 


Man was I scared!


This is where I stopped. I said a prayer. I refocused and told myself I can do hard things and put the bag on the ground in a better position. I then slowly released pressure on the broom and let the snake crawl out from under the broom. I only let pressure off when I saw it's head starting to go into the bag and prayed it would stay in there long enough for me to tie it up.


I could not believe that the snake crawled into the bag, stayed in the bag and I was able to tie it up and take it outside to wait for Matt to come home to dispose of it! 


As I have wandered around the house this week, hoping there are no other snake family members visiting, I have reflected on my snake experience and been amazed at the length you can go to as a mother to protect your kids.


No way would I ever think I could take on a snake to protect my kids, but I did!


I love being a mum and like most other mum's, fly into action to help my kids. But I was reminded that I really, really can do hard things and can take on my fears, one prayer and one tear at a time!

The magical fairy library bag that saved the day! Go the fairies!!!

After calming down a bit and being able to look at some snake pictures I think it was just a tree snake that was in the house. It was not a green snake which was what was freaking me out! It is hard to work out what type of snake it was even though I spent a lot of time looking at it. I wasn't looking to determine what type it was, I was looking to make sure I was not going to get bitten.


Well, I am sticking with the tree snake plan because thinking about a real venomous snake in our house freaks me out way too much! Oh! well, back to stripping back all the beds, and looking at the floor all day!