WE HAVE POWER!!!

And it only took six days.

After much rejoicing, our boys ran down to the basement to watch "Empire Strikes Back".  And I came to check in on the cyber world.

But now I'm done.  I should go do something resposible, like run the dishwasher.

First I'd like to highlight things I've learned this week:

-We were very popular thanks to our gas stove and outdoor firepit.

-We were not as popular as the people with generators.

-glow sticks are the best nightlights.

-In future, I will make less freezer jam and tomato sauce, and can more so we're not quite so reliant on our big freezer.

-I really need to buy a car charger for my cell phone.  

-We may live in the best neighborhood ever. 

Thanks to everyone who helped out during this fun experience.

Benjamin and the Apple Tree

On Sunday we arrived home to inspect the damage to our trees in the middle of the windstorm. We ran to the back of the house when Benjamin wondered aloud why there was suddenly a hill of dirt at the base of our apple tree. Every time the wind blew, the tree would lean so far over that the roots were starting to come out of the ground. Only bad things would happen from this tree falling. It has power lines on one side and the neighbor's fence on the other.

I quickly thought about how we could cut off a limb or two to make it fall in a better way. But I realized that there was no way to do it. I sighed and said, "Ahg! What can we do?!"

And Benjamin said, "Pray." As if it was the only obvious answer.

Dang, I love that kid.

So, we knelt down and prayed. And the tree held.

It totally should have fallen.

And so we call it "The Apple Tree Miracle."

Jam

What does one do on one's fifth day without power?

One makes jam and jelly with the berries that were defrosting in the currently useless freezer.

Lots of it.

By flashlight.

(Special thanks go to Ellen for sterilizing my jars in her working dishwasher. And Benjamin for holding the flashlight. I couldn't have done it without you.)

No Power

I realize it's ironic to talk about power outages on a blog which clearly requires power. But I'm at the library not close to our neighborhood, claiming back a few of my tax dollars by charging my cell phone here.

We had a windstorm on Sunday thanks to our friend Ike. When I say windstorm, I mean a hurricane without the rain. Friends in downtown Columbus live in a building that can withstand winds up to 90 mph. Apparently, they only got up to 86mph. And where, you ask, were we during that excitement?

Why, out on the sidewalk in front of our house with the rest of the neighborhood, of course. In our neighborhood, natural disasters are like block parties without the chips and dip. (Though the beer was present.) We stood around for hours listening to the horrible cracking sounds and watching the tops of our trees fall off. We lost the one in front of our house and an apple tree in the back was saved from falling by Benjamin's hearfelt prayers. (Story on the next post.)

The power went out on Sunday afternoon. It's Tuesday and it's still not on. They told us not to expect it until Thursday. Ugh. It's been fun in a lot of ways, though. All the neighbors hung out together yesterday helping to clean up one another's lawns from all the debris. And last night I invited people over for a bonfire (to burn the debris) and a feast to cook everything in our fridges that was going bad. It was wonderful. We sat around the fire while the kids ran around playing together. It made me unspeakable amounts of happy to have time with the people I love and to enjoy a campfire and good food, too. Lack of power seems like a tiny price to pay for such happy memories.