one ice storm later...

I think when I titled the post before last "land of the living" I was foreshadowing. For 57 hours, from Wednesday morning until Friday evening, we were without power. That's a long time without power. With two small children.

It's winter, it's cold outside. No heat means it's cold inside, too. It's dark. No hot showers...and even if you could take one, you'd freeze when you got out. Food spoiled in the refrigerator and freezer. No modern conveniences. Do you realize how much you actually flip light switches and plug things in? I do now: all day long.

Wednesday morning the rain came. We saw transformers blow from inside the house. The temperature stayed below freezing and ice was accumulating on the trees quickly. Ice is heavy. The constant sound of tree limbs cracking and hitting the ground (or roof) is scary. Ice covered everything. Power lines were down everywhere. Tons of trees were uprooted, many falling on houses and cars. "War zone" was used to describe our small town.

But let's focus on the good.

We have great friends. Those with power invited us to spend the night, take hot showers, charge phones, or just simply take a break from the cold. We spent the first night with Deana and Ken and their two girls. We enjoyed a delicious supper, a smorgasbord Deana put together from her fridge. Ironically, their power went out just as we were getting into bed. We stayed anyway. The next morning, Joe and Ken waited 45 minutes at McDonalds to brings us hot coffee and biscuits.

After breakfast, we drove home.

As bad as the damage was around town, other than some big limbs down, our house was fine.

We witnessed a community come together, reaching out through Facebook, people helping each other in any way they could. Electric crews came from out of town. They worked tirelessly.

We hunkered down. And we learned some things.


You can paint just fine with a little natural light...

...The same can be said for doing puzzles...

It can be fun and exciting (and slightly dangerous) to watch ice-covered limbs fall from the trees.

...Apparently little boys nap really long in cold bedrooms with lots of blankets.

He also likes flashlights and lanterns. Really, really, really likes flashlights and lanterns. At least one was always in hand.

You have every reason to not do a thing but sit on the sofa and read (or play cake pops) by the window.

...or pretend to give Mollie a bath and then tuck her inside a blanket.

It's not too bad cooking on the gas grill by lantern-light, using up whatever you can from the fridge (sautéed spinach anyone?).

Camping out in the playroom and cuddling in front of the fire are memories that will last a lifetime. {And though not very comfortably, I realized Joseph can fit in a pack-n-play if absolutely necessary.}

Valentine breakfast by candlelight is fun...and just might become a family tradition.

A completely cleaned-out refrigerator can make you very happy.

You can still look stylish.

Can you see Mollie, her BFF, above?

Our sweet valentine...

...And she made quick work of her box of chocolates.

Eventually, you come home, drive around the neighborhood....get to your house, and see - yes! - there is electricity.

And, in case you ever wondered what was going on, Joseph was always willing to tell you: "the uhyeckchipidy" went off. Thanks for the newsflash Joseph. Electricity...what a wonderful thing.

Throughout this whole process, we stayed positive. Concerned about the children, and a little antsy after 48 hours without power, but generally optimistic. {The one time we lost our positivity was when the alarm system kept going off during the night. After waiting to hear from a technician, Joe disconnected the battery.}

And Hannah and Joseph were fantastic. Kids are resilient like that, you know. They never complained about the dark or the cold. Obviously it's not something we want to do again, but the three days provided us with a lot of time together, and blessings to realize. We are thankful for our safety and the safety of our friends and church family. There are still some we know still without power, so we continue to pray for them and for the crews that have worked so hard to get our little city up and going again.

Ice Storm Pax is in our past, thankfully, but it's not likely to be forgotten.