Frozen pumpkins in ice:)

Well, lovely readers (whoever you might be:)...

I had grand plans of blogging like crazy tonight because three of the five lil Shoes were going to be enjoying the evening with various friends BUT we now have three, yes three, feverish little guys who are feeling very out of sorts tonight. The girls still got to attend their lovely soires (yes, I do believe the "e" is supposed to have a fancy accent thingy above it), but I had a very disappointed six year old that had to stay home and watch movies with Mom and Dad instead. I'm so proud of him though cause he handled it like a champ. He had a few quiet tears and a few moments of mad...but then he realized that being mad doesn't ever change a thing, so he found enough happiness in his heart to laugh at all the burping parts in the movie we watched and even told me before bed that even though he was really excited about having fun with his friends, he still has fun being home with his family. That little guy can be a challenge but he sure knows how to melt his mom's heart.

We try to live simply but the Shoe Seven does enjoy the benefits of electricity, such as heat and kitchen appliances, just to name a few. Anyway, we had a whopper of a storm here this week and the ice storm relocated us to my parents house for a few days because we had no electricity. We made it through the initial storm night when we lost power on Tuesday at 10:30pm but it didn't take long before the Shoe Seven was high-tailing it over to a warmer location. My parents didn't have power either but they had a generator that runs many of their household necessities, heat being one of the most important, in my opinion. Praise God for the blessing of a warm place to sleep. On nights like that, I am reminded to pray for families that are homeless (and for those who cannot afford to pay to heat when they do have homes).

So we spent one night with my parents and the next day, the electricity was back on at our place. Mid-morning I packed up all the kiddos and headed home, after my dear husband had already headed to work. We got home, unpacked the loads of things that we had lugged over with us for our overnight stay (or stays, we had no idea how many nights our electric would be out), started tidying up a bit, the kids were bouncing off the walls (as usual after having a few snow days off of school) and just as I'm about to put a few of the lil Shoes in the bathtub...

"What in the world, why is the water stopping...It was just running warm water!" I was puzzled. Bathtime postponed and a frenzied check of all faucets ensued. Nothing. Did I mention that when I was checking if the water was working anywhere, I flushed one of the toilets? "Okay, crisis mode...we only get one flush when the water is off...I used that toilet's ONE flush! Okay, note to self, we have another toilet...just don't let anyone else flush." Let's do the math. 7 people (5 of them being children) and one potty that has only one flush available...No, not going to be able to make this work on any level. And oops, one of the kiddos forgot my instructions and flushed the other potty.

NO. MORE. FLUSHES.

Well, we decided to pack up and relocate back to my parents until the water situation was figured out AND fixed, of course, because, well, as simple as we are, are not really outhouse type people:) Not to mention we don't have an outhouse and if we did, someone's tushy would have surely frozen to it:) Anyway, AGAIN I packed up everything but the kitchen sink (cause it wasn't working anyhow) and we travelled the treacherous roads back to where we had just been that same morning. We were able to return home later that evening cause my dear hubby figured out the problem. No plumber necessary:)

I'm totally not complaining about the previous situation, just relaying the events that have filled the last few days to give you an idea of how grateful we are to be here in our warm, comfy, water-working home, even with sick children. We are so grateful to have family so close by and thankful that we are welcome to "camp out" in situations like these. But Dorothy said it best, when she said, "There's no place like home." As simple and as in need of a bit of fixing up as it, it's still HOME. It's where the Seven Shoes do their thing best. And as for the pumpkins I mentioned a few posts back, well, they welcomed us home with a new glaze of shimmering solid ice covering them. Looks like they won't be goin' anywhere until Spring arrives... Home Sweet Home, frozen pumpkins and all:)