For my hubby

Last night, Nelson mentioned that it was time for me to write another post because he was needing one to uplift him.  "You manage to put a positive spin on negative things" he said so sweetly.  It was going on day 4 of no electricity, so you can understand his pain (and mine).

Four days and 108 hours of no electricity.  Makes you wonder how people in the "old days" did without it.

I could bore you with all the things you should have on hand if a hurricane ever comes your way, but I won't.  The only thing I'm going to tell you is this : get a generator.  If you do nothing else, buy one.

We could have had it WAAAAYYYYY worse, trust me.  All around us, rivers were flooding, roads collapsing and people evacuated.  My home and family were in tact, which we can only attribute to God's grace.

It would be easy to tell you all the awful things about going through this.  Truthfully, there weren't that many- they were inconveniences if anything.  There were so many positives that came about thanks to Irene, and I'd like to share them with you:

- Our home is situated on the top of a hill (albeit a small one), which protected it from much of the basement flooding fears we had.  Our neighbors across the street had the town firetruck in on Sunday, and they spent over 7 hours pumping out their basement.

- Two large branches/trees fell in our yard.  Neither hit the house or garages.  Can you say LUCKY?!!

- A co-worker loaned Nelson a chainsaw to chop the tree, and all four of us bonded while stacking the wood.  Charlie, ever the optimist mentions "one good thing about this hurricane- free firewood!"  Love this kid.

- The same day, our neighbor loaned us a generator.  <cue the Hallelujah chorus> Now the frig could be hooked up to keep our food safe, and so could the coffee maker for morning survival.  The neighbors are owed big time (gift idea suggestions?).

- The kids were supposed to begin school on Monday.  Two days of postponements and they finally made the call to start next Tuesday.  Secretly, I was thrilled to have a bit more of summer, even though I was mentally geared for getting back to routine.

- School being cancelled meant the kids had to come with me to a Dr. appointment.  It was a mere ten minutes away, but we saw the congestion on the opposite side of the road, en route, and knew we wouldn't be coming home that way.  Charlie is a phenomenal map reader, and thanks to his skills, he was able to navigate us home with no less than 5 detours.  Over two hours of trying to get home and we did.  On a normal school day, I'd have had to navigate that treacherous experience alone- I'm so thankful I didn't have to!

- Running water.  We had it.  It was cold, but I'll take it.

- My tendency to save stuff, saved me.  For some reason, I held onto a portable propane burner.  This wonderful little contraption allowed us to have food and hot water, when needed.

- Dishes by candlelight.  This is by no means something I would choose to do nightly, but in this case, it was soothing, in a weird, mindless, kind of way.

- Not having to cook.  I mean really cook, as in needing a recipe.  It was simply enough to look in the cupboard and try to be creative.  No one complained.  Now that it's over, does this mean I can't cry foul?

- All of the emails, calls and messages from friends and family, wondering how we are in this circumstance.  We are so blessed to have so many praying and pulling for us.

We move on from here, forever remembering our first week in this house- what a memory!