When I turned the corner with Sir Winston last Thursday, walking him for the first time in a while, I met my neighbor as she drove up to the stop sign.  I hadn’t seen her in over a year because the last time I was in her presence, it was her mother’s funeral.  I’d promised to help her when that day came and man oh man, it was a very challenging, frustrating, and cold day when she buried her.  But I digress. That’s another story for another time…

Let me attempt to recap an entire week…

What I recall from seeing my neighbor as I chatted on the phone and ran into her at the same time was how she said she was preparing for the bad weather we were going to get.  I dismissed it because I find this woman extremely difficult to deal with.  She shared what she’d bought from the particular store she’d gone to.  I’m guessing she felt it was important to tell me.  We parted and I walked on, continued my conversation, and never gave another thought to what my neighbor said.

My Love had off the next day due to the temps dropping (the company was painting pumpkins and the temps couldn’t be below a certain temperature for the paint to stick so there wasn’t any need for them to go in.) Rachael came to help me clean out Gpa’s room and bathroom.  That was a gift of immense proportion! We had a great visit and she was such a gift to me. Have I mentioned my father-in-law moved out?  Well, there’s another post!

After she left, some very sweet friends of ours came over to help up with the kitchen. Jill learned how to smash tile and giggle~!  Her man, Christian, went with Jef to buy the butcher block (at the second Habitat store they had to go to) and they even took us to dinner!  What a blessing that day was!  The evening ended in great conversation.  Always great convo with them.

Saturday came and even with all my great longing to help Jef, I wound up helping our kids in different ways. Our daughter around the block wanted to shop before the weather got bad so I went over to their place to play with the little boys for a couple of hours.  Before that, I helped Caleb give his car a jump, sadly in vain, so I brought him back here and he used Jef’s car to take his battery to Autozone.  They said the battery was good but he’s still having trouble so it may be his alternator. Then I headed to Josh and Carrissa’s.

Jef, on the other hand, tackled so many things…in one day!  He replaced the section of flooring that had rotted by the sink, took out the sink, began the process of putting two sections of butcher block together, and on Sunday he began the waxing process.  Later, after I got back and took a nap, I painted and polyurethaned the spice cabinet he built, covered my plants outside, and brought in all my herbs and seedlings because there was a storm of some kind coming…Jef and I agreed we should shop on Sunday because the “S” word was on its way!

A REAL STORM

We shopped Sunday at noonish and because it was Valentine’s Day we only did a ‘little work’ and then watched one of our favorite movies, ‘The Notebook’, to celebrate.

Sidenote about Sunday morning: our daughter and hubby are from NY and they planned to head to their church despite the snow and ice they had…it’s just what NY’ers do!  But, after they started, they quickly turned around and went back home! Texas roads are NOT made for ice and there are no salt trucks out either!!!  I was so relieved.

Monday morning I got a text from said daughter that their HEAT was out and they only had intermittent power.  Their entire town shut down, including gas stations and grocery stores (they made the trek that took forty-five minutes and got no gas or food!).

Fortunately for us, we had food and weren’t headed anywhere.  By this time, the highways were closed down, and getting anywhere was extremely hazardous.  I can’t remember exactly when we started using the fireplace.  It was either Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

We still had power and water on Monday night so our grandsons stayed overnight.  When they climbed in bed at 8:04 Tuesday morning to hug me, our power went out!  WE HAD NOT GOTTEN THE COFFEE MADE.  THAT was a huge pain.  First-world problems, right?

Tuesday:  Our twin sons showed up Tuesday for warmth and didn’t completely leave until last night.  There were too many (one is too many) apartment buildings burning down and no water to put out fires.

(If this post bores you, I apologize.   I’m writing it more for my sake to have the details down.)

Our son and his wife spent the night in their living room on the mattress they dragged in and closed all the other doors to stay warm.  They’d been boiling water to make steam and warm things up.  Creative!!! (They’re other two kids were at their other grammas in the country!)  When she called me and said she had gas, I realized I could capitalize on that!  So, the Twins drove me over to their place to make bacon and eggs for everyone and COFFEE! I finally got my coffee around eleven~whew.

Wednesday:  Twin Boys spent the night Tuesday and thankfully, the power would be on for four hours and then off for four. By this time we had three inches of snow that did not melt in a half-day like it always has.  I just remembered that when I awoke on Wednesday, I walked in the kitchen, flipped on the light switch to make the coffee and THE POWER WENT OUT at that moment…NO COFFEE AGAIN!!!  But I was not to be deterred.  I made it on the fireplace wood.  Jef had taken Isaac to get clothes and their apartment had electricity in certain rooms…so they brought back better coffee.  Point is, we HAD COFFEE!!!

The temps were frigid but the fireplace was a beautiful gift.  Isaac spent time cutting wood and stacking it inside and out.

When I woke up on Wed., I had a song in my head about being in the eye of the storm and God being our protector.  That song carried me that day.  I made a large pot of Tortilla soup for everyone because Carrissa had worked and Jef had spent several hours that day helping Josh repair a leaky pipe that burst as he was trying to tighten it.  They’d gone to Home D. and there was a line from the front of the store to the back for the plumbing aisle.  They left and went to another one that was fine.  They picked up Carrissa from work, came here to eat, finished fixing the pipe close to 8:30 that night and I stayed here keeping the fire going, cleaning, and praying for so many people we know who had no heat for days…like five straight days.

On Thursday, when I awoke to giant flakes falling from the sky and temps down to twelve, I knew we were in the Twilight Zone~!  Fortunately, the power came back on Wed. night and has stayed on since.  So we had coffee.  No work yet for anyone because the roads were so bad and the temps were so low.  Jef began working on the backsplash, I got the idea of putting up shutters in the window above the sink that I had stashed in the laundry room and I have no idea where they came from!  I sanded and painted them and before Jef left for work on Friday around noon, he put them up, and I polyurethaned them.  It would have been much easier to polyurethane them when they weren’t up, but I got the job done and then made a valance for the top.

Friday:  I had the little boys all afternoon Friday cuz mom and dad had to work.  They were a delight and we spent time watching two movies and sorting Legos.  My job was to find Lego heads, arms, legs, and whatever other cool things were at the bottom of all the bins I brought out and then revel in the joy they felt when I showed them what I’d found…things like skateboards, shields, funny hair and helmets.  Life was slow that day and I needed it to be.  I was sad to see Jef leave for work but so grateful he was able to go in and access the situation out in Boerne.  It was NOT GOOD.

It snowed ALL DAY into the evening and was mesmerizing to watch.  Fortunately, it didn’t accumulate much and by the afternoon the snow in the sun had melted.

Saturday (today):  The birdbath in the shade was still frozen this morning and even now, later in the afternoon, there is still ice and snow in the shade!  (I should probably be outside, but I am determined to get this out so I have a record.  I’m alone today…first time in days and it’s exhilarating.)

Here are just a few things I’ve pondered about this past week and the weather. It is NOT an exhaustive list.

• We have no control over things out of our control.  That may sound funny, but it’s pointless to get upset about things that we can’t do anything about.  Things like no power, no water, having to make do without, feeling alone in a house full of people or with no one around.
• God tells us to do things that seem strange at the moment, but in the long run, it’s smart to pay attention.  We felt it necessary to buy a gallon of water whenever we would shop and have stored enough for us and to share.  That came in very handy this past week.
• Being available and living the moment is a great way to serve those who need help.
• Thinking proactively saves much anguish when things are out of control.  For example, I made it a point to think ahead about what we all would need to eat.  Not being caught off guard goes a long way in keeping one’s sanity.
• Texas needs to learn to be more prepared. Wind power and solar have their limitations and this was a very costly experiment in trying to do things ‘naturally’.  Just my opinion.
• One can be extremely resourceful when it becomes necessary.  Our daughter (and I’m sure many people thought this way) put a cooler under icicles as they melted so she’d have water.  She also melted snow for water.  There are several other things she did to keep busy, use the electricity when it came on, and stay warm.
• One’s mindset determines one’s level of courage, strength, and hope in the midst of a trying situation.
• We wouldn’t have had the conversations and time together if this hadn’t happened.  That one lesson has taught me to see hard things as valuable.

I’ve had this one Proverb rolling around in my head all week:  “If you fail under pressure,  your strength is too small.”  Proverbs 24:10

That verse really used to bug me. but it doesn’t as much now that I’ve gone through a lot of STUFF.  

I can say I appreciate the value of being inside and completing things as well as the time we spent together with our twins and grandsons.  For us, it wasn’t that bad.  It was more of an inconvenience.  For others, though, it was disastrous.  I am greatly saddened for them.  Jef did lose a week of work so next month it’ll be exciting to see what God does in our finances~

There are some other things I wanna share but for another post.

Until I sit again,

Daune