At the mercy of power

Grabbing a moment while I still have electricity . . . this has been our lives for the past week.   At any given moment - poof our power goes out and thus far without warning!   We are signed up for notifications, but we have not received any notifications to the power outages that have happened so far.

I'll be the frist to admist my love for candles, but I'm so happy to have power again.  It's been eye opening to learn how ill prepared we are in these events and how reliant we are on internet and power.  

Our little town was literally stripped of access to money,  gasoline, and other needs.  We were blessed in being somewhat prepared, but nonetheless, we would have been suffering if power had not been restored when it did.  We still lost 4 trash bags full of groceries that spoiled.  I haven't bought "packaged" foods in years, and thus our healthier choices left us with food that went bad quickly without proper refrigeration.  I immediately went out and shopped for just those items to fill the pantry.  

This is our new normal.  We live in a windy city and have been essentially warned to be prepared at any given moment to have power pulled.  It's a game changer and even changes our homeschooling as we use the internet, audio books, and printing.  Reading by candlelight is delightfully romantic in thought, but it's terribly straining on the eyes.  

Battery operated lighting is wonderful, but greatly lacks in comparison to regular lights.  Flushing toilets had to be done manually with a pitcher of water.  While we thought of getting a pellet stove at one time, we are now ever grateful for wood burning - it was a source of heat and kept us somewhat comfortable.  Although led to little sleep as we stayed up all night to keep adding wood during the hours where temperatures dropped below freezing.

I learned to heat up heat packs on the tops of boiled water pots - laid them on the lids after turning off the flame - they felt so good!  And again, just so grateful that I have a propane gas stove and could use matches to light the burners, but the oven would not work because the thermostat is digital and needs electricity.  

Scented candles are lovely, but mixing the scents when you light several throughout your home, will result in an overpowering smell and headaches.  We are still learning, and I'm in big preparation mode.  Every time, I hear the wind blow, I'm whispering prayers that lights stay on and that those medically fragile have their needs met.