The storm started on Friday morning with some light snow that increased during the day with gusting winds and heavy snow all.night.long! We lost power Friday night around 9pm. Last night around 7, we finally got our power back after losing it for almost 48 hours! (We had just finished a (most of the) family rosary with the specific intention of regaining power, too! Maybe we should have prayed a rosary last night!lol)
Thankfully, Jay had decided it was a good idea for us to purchase a generator after we were without power for over a day when Hurricane Sandy visited us this fall. I'm so glad he did! Without power, and heat, we would have had to relocate! Not easy for a family of 10!
Even with the generator, the last 48 hours had its challenging moments! I was grateful that the 10 of us were home and safe together. But....the 10 of us were home and safe together. In a confined place...all together!
I can honestly say that, except for a couple of minor moments, everyone got along really well together. There were lots of board games played. Bezzerwizzer was the favorite of the weekend. Luke twisted Jon and Andrew's arms to play legos with him...haha. Not really:) The older boys actually came up with a lego game on their own and had to keep Luke from destroying their creations!(Love it!)
Kate enjoyed all the extra attention from everyone being home and oohing and aahing over every cute thing she did. She does lots of cute things! They also got to hear her say a new word for the first time..'baby'. She pointed to the baby on the diaper box turned block storage box in our family room and said 'baby' which sounded more like 'bay beeeee'. Then she said it another 2 dozen times because everyone smiled and cheered when she said it:)
We had to be inventive so that we didn't over stress the generator. For instance, we could run the sump pump(a necessity), the heat, the fridge and a light/tv in the family room and the microwave. That mostly got us by.
We got a nice break on Saturday night when my parents found an open Chinese Restaurant and ordered some takeout. We went over to their house, which had only their family room running with a generator, to eat dinner and watch some family movies from 2006 and 2008. Then, we ended the night watching 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox'. It is one of the kids favorite movies.
Sunday morning after church when the power was still not on, we got adventurous and shut off the heat in order to try the stove. The generator was working hard so we shut off the refrigerator for a while, too. After pancakes, sausage and bacon were made and I cooked hamburger and onions to throw in the crockpot to make a spaghetti sauce, we put on the dishwasher! Oh, happy day! After the dishwasher ran, we put the heat and the fridge back on.
I'm thinking I will send the Gorilla Tape Company a pic with the door taped on...maybe they will pay me to promote their product:)
We shut off the generator while we were sleeping at night. After cranking up the heat to 72, we would head to bed around 11:30. Jay would wake up at 5 to restart the generator to get heat in the house. The temperatures dipped to a very chilly 52 degrees each night! Then, he spent half and hour sweeping up the water down cellar from the sump pump being off all night:(...we live in an area with a very high water table!
I feel like I did really well through Saturday with the power situation. On Sunday, I felt a little testy. I had to work really hard at moments not to become unglued. I was definitely feeling the extra stress.
I got out of the house with the older kids on Sunday afternoon. We went out to eat with my parents for a late lunch/early supper. It was funny how there would be power and restaurants open on one block but not on the next.
I swung by the grocery store on the way home. It was eerie inside. Lots of things picked over. Absolutely no bread. The freezer sections were completely blocked off. People looked really tired.
Here are some outside pics I took on Sunday morning....
Above is a pic of our empty mail box post...below is our mailbox:( A plowing casualty!
Thankfully, Jay was able to fix it!
Our trusty generator! I think it needs a name!
So...that's the story of how we weathered the blizzard of 2013!
For all you snow lovers....I hope that satisfied you!
As for me......I'm more than ready for spring!
