Skip to main content

A Windy Day

What does a family do when they wake up on the living room floor to a stormy morning? (We were having a sleepover in front of the fireplace because Stuart is out of town.)


7:30 Lay under the covers and watch the wind bend the trees vigorously in every direction. Enjoy being cozy together.


7:52 The wind blows the power lines down somewhere and the clock stops.


8:00 Send a kid to the front windows to see if the broken branch in the tulip maple has finally blown down.


8:01 Pray that the wind will be strong enough to blow the branch down when the report comes back that it is still trapped out of reach in the tree.


9:00 Have milk and cereal for breakfast because the power is not yet back on.


9:00 Instruct the children on the importance of keeping the fridge door shut.


9:30 Read the last two chapters of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Wish that it were a little longer. It's such a good book!


9:45 Have a longer Bible time than normal because there are no distractions. Thank God during prayer time that the giant limb that blew down from the top of the tulip maple (not the one that we prayed to blow down) did not hit the car. It missed by one inch.

10:30 Work on Christmas project. (Can't tell you about it yet.)


12:00-12:30. Go outside in the pouring rain and fill the garden wagon seven or eight times with fallen sticks and monster branches. Explain to the neighbors that being outside in the rain with the children is better than being trapped inside without power.


12:30 Drip out of wet clothes in the garage. Yell loudly at Charlie and John for dripping into the living room. Change into dry clothing and corral the renegade wet stuff.


1:00 Eat cheese and crackers for lunch.


1:01 Repeat the importance of keeping the fridge door shut.


1:15 Move puzzle table close to the window so we can see to put a Christmas puzzle together.


1:30 Give a gift wrapping lesson to the three little ones. Shout instructions loudly over the squabbling about what paper to use and who gets to cut the paper.


1:45 Send the beaming children to the walk-in-closet with their wrapped gifts.

2:00 (exactly) Cheer loudly because the power comes back on.

2:01 Groan because it goes back out again.

2:20 Cheer again.

2:21 Groan.

2:21 1/2 Yell at Charlie for unplugging the Christmas tree which fooled us all into thinking that the power was out again.

2:30 Turn on Adventures in Odyssey and sit down at the computer to post this. Type quickly because the power is still spotty.

Comments

tammi said…
Sounds like a full day! I love how you share your family situations with us ~ especially the not-so-stellar parenting moments! Keepin' it real. My kinda gal!!
Jennifer Jo said…
I totally freak out when the power goes out. And then I curl up in the fetal position and suck my thump.

-JJ
Kate said…
Mama JJ,

I think of you as such a do it yourselfer that the thought of you not being able to bear facing life without electricity is unfathomable.

Kate
God's girl said…
What a day! It has been raining like crazy here as well but our power stayed on. Big difference! :)
Much love,
Angela
LOL! It sounds like you live in Louisiana! It just needs to look like it might rain or be windy, and the power goes out.

I wonder where Charlie gets his smaty-pants from?? Hmmm....

Xandra
Mary@notbefore7 said…
Actually sounds like a cozy day, other than the dripping clothes in the living room :)

Popular posts from this blog

4-H Exhibits-Updated

Update: Blue ribbons all around! 4 of our projects will go onto the state fair. John's headboard exceeds size limitations and so we will lug it home tomorrow. We are relieved. That thing is heavy! ************* For the past few weeks we have been busy sewing, sawing, quilling and painting 4-H projects. The kids have been in 4-H for about a month and they started with a bang. The annual 4-H fair is tomorrow. So this morning we loaded these projects and four kids wearing slippers into the car. The fifth one had sense enough to wear flip-flops. (The other four complained as we pulled out of the driveway that their feet were sweating.) John reclining against the headboard that he built with Stuart. He wrote the 10 Commandments of Table Saw Safety to accompany this project. Claire's quilling project. Lauren modeling the apron that she sewed. Lauren and the dog painting she has been working on in art class for the past few months. Faith and her quilling project. So now...

Finding Rest: Part Two (Scroll down three posts to read this story from the beginning)

Why share such a personal story ? I share it because I have talked to enough women to know that underneath the makeup and the matching outfits and the small talk that make up our exteriors, we are a broken people. To pretend otherwise creates isolation. Thoughtful honesty creates closer relationships and greater understanding. When we share the way God works in the difficult things of life it encourages first oneself and then others. For some of us, the pieces have been patched and restored and there is wholeness where there was none before. But some of us are walking wounded, barely hanging on and wondering if there is hope. We have a choice. We can either be completely shattered by bitterness, depression and anger or we can lay the fragments before the One who can take the sharp slivers and jagged pieces and create a beautiful, productive life. Here is the conclusion to John's story. When John was ten, he was sullen and moody and difficult and so was I. But I was no longer proud....

Aviary Amphitheater (Wordless? Wednesday)

We're slow starters in the morning. The children lie on the sofas and read. Charlie sits and eats a graham cracker and a bowl of yogurt at the table before breakfast. Lauren and I take turn cooking oatmeal, or muffins, or scones... We eat somewhere between ten and eleven. Today, in the midst of all this leisure, the house became exceptionally quiet and I went to figure out why because "too quiet" is never a good thing. Except that it was today. I peeked out the living room window into the backyard and found five chairs and five children lined up on the patio. I opened the door and everybody shushed me. "Hush, Mama. We're watching the birds. Come sit with us" Six or seven hummingbirds were zipping around the feeder, frantic to fill their little gas tanks before they migrate. The children were silent, heads tipped up, eyes squinting against the morning light. I went in to get the camera. I took a few pictures of the children but could not capture the hyperacti...