When the lights went out

Today is our first full day back "on the grid" after four days of no power. We had crazy storms here over the weekend and lost our power very early Friday morning. It didn't come back on until late Monday afternoon, so we had an interesting few days. The picture above was taken after I showered early Saturday morning, before we used up all the hot water. Doing everything by candlelight was kind of romantic and a bit of a novelty at first, but it quickly got frustrating. The hardest part was having no heat, and a couple of nights the three of us snuggled up in bed together to keep warm.

We had some interesting adventures over the four days. The first night was fun, sitting around my parents kitchen table, eating food we had heated over a little camp stove and drinking hot tea by candlelight. My brother and his lovely wife didn't lose their power, so we had dinner with them a couple of nights and they let us charge our phones and wash some nappies. We put Peachfuzz in disposables for those few days, and it was quite amusing to watch her running around with her pants falling down, now that she had no cloth nappy bum to hold them all up. Unfortunately she has a bit of a cold now, in part because we kept going back and forth between really warm places (my brother's house, the shops) and our really cold house. We all dressed as warm as we could, but it was still very cold, especially at night.

I was amazed, and honestly a little scared, by how much we rely on electricity. I don't think you fully comprehend just how much you use until you lose it for such a long time. It has certainly made me a lot more mindful of our usage now, and prompted me to be more prepared should this ever happen again. I'd like to think we could learn how to survive without it for days at a time, and do all those things "by hand" that we rely on technology for. I didn't miss the TV, started to get a little anxious about not being able to email, and definitely missed being able to cook hot food or throw a load of washing on. I was quite disturbed by how bored we felt at times, that we rely so much on TV/the radio/the internet to entertain us. Not being able to go outside until the rain stopped made things a little more difficult, but we definitely should have been able to find plenty to do during the (very short) hours of daylight. So though the power is back now, I think we've learned a thing or two and we are certainly a lot more grateful for life's little blessings, like clean clothes and hot food in the middle of winter!

One of the wonderful things about the past weekend was getting to spend some time with good friends. I often remember back to my childhood, when I was six and my sweetheart at the time was seven. We were destined to be together, or so I thought, but of course life had other plans. And I'm glad that it worked out the way it did. Besides the fact I wouldn't now be married to my Papa Bear whom I love and adore, if D and I had have ended up together, I would have never met his lovely wife. She has become one of my dearest friends, and I am so thrilled to get to spend time with her and D over the next two months while they visit us back at home. Love you "Ranranda"!

The photo of the two of us above was taken by my gorgeous Peachfuzz. A budding photographer at 20 months old.