Black Out

Our power went out for 4 1/2 hours last night. As we adapted to life as a pioneer, it made me wonder about winters back in the day when there weren't lights blazing.

We lit candles, the boys (My Youngest had a friend sleep over) had fun playing with flashlights and I had work to do that didn't need power. I did my work by candle and flash light. The boys eventually settled in and watched a movie on the portable DVD player (operated by a battery pack). All in all, I thought we took the black out in stride.

We ended up going to sleep much earlier than we normally would have - out of the lack of options to keep us awake (plus, after 3 1/2 hours it was getting mighty cool in here).

It made me wonder about life without power in the 1930's. Winters must have been dreadfully long. When my mom's family talked about winter when they grew up, they dwelled on it being cold, really cold. All of the time! They never warmed up until spring. Water froze in the house and the kids stood on the oven door (with a fire going inside of the wood stove) just to keep warm.

What I never thought of when I listened to their stories, were the short winter days. Spending hours on end, in a cold and dimly lit house with a radio (that was used sparingly, to make the battery last longer) as their connection to the outside world, it must have made for some long evenings. As I eagerly crawled under my covers last night (and rounded up spare blankets in case it got too cool), my mind went back in time. All I could think was, "Back in the old days, they must have got a lot of sleep in the winter!"

As our power outage lasted from one hour onto the next, I started thinking of how much we take power for granted. What if there was some catastrophic power outage that lasted for days? How would one get through it? I must admit, that my first thought would be to head to a city with power and find a hotel! But what if it wasn't that simple? What if there was no where to go?

At the very least, I know that I will restock my battery supply. But I admit, it would be nice to install a back up heat source in case of emergency.

I woke up at one point in the night, looked up and my clock smiled out in pride and showed me the correct time. The air outside of my blankets was warm, the hum of the furnace running was in the background. Relief!

There wasn't a crisis of epidemic proportions this time. But what if we weren't so lucky???

What a Marvelous Day!!

I don't know where to start! It was (simply put), a day where one good thing ran into the next.

A perfect day!

Divine Intervention?

It is as if forces beyond my control are beckoning to me. They are telling me that I need a job that provides the flexibility and stability I need, so that I can tend to life matters.

The emergency surgery which stopped me in my tracks a few months ago, appears to have changed the tides for me.

I had barely returned to my full work load when I got notification of an appointment (for a test that I had been waiting for, for over 2 years) on December 1st. This is a test that requires me to take a full day off of work, but this time they scheduled it in a hospital in a town an hour away from here. I am not allowed to drive after this test so it would mean an overnight stay, or else inconveniencing someone to tag along with me and wait so they could drive me home afterwards. Not an option. So I called and asked if it could be rescheduled during my summer holidays - they said they would try.

I received a 'Juror Summons' in the mail today - to be available from February 9th to March 13 for jury duty. I have applied for relief from jury service and I can't even imagine it not being granted. In my line of work, if I don't work ... I don't get paid. How could they make me attend?

It was just over a month ago that I resumed my full kid-load. I have spent the better part of that month trying to readjust to the demands of my days. And in that month, I have had 2 excuses to ask for more time off.

It feels like there is a force bigger than myself, creating some slow-down time in my life. Maybe it would be wise to heed that call?

I Let Myself Off the Hook ...

I wrote my feelings, about the pending Christmas season this morning and basically let myself off the hook. I thought if I live with the spirit of Christmas within me all year, what's the big deal about another festive season on the horizon? Just go with the flow ...

Well, I got caught up in the flow today and I believe I have put together my 'family' portion of the preparations.

I get so excited about what I'm working on and My Youngest is my willing audience. As I showed him the outline of what I was working on this afternoon, it didn't hold his interest and he wandered off. Tonight I put on the polishing touches and he stroked my ego with the comment, "You're so good at those remakes!" (I take a song or poem and intersperse the original verse with my own story - an idea that I blatantly stole from my brother). As My Youngest went off to bed, he was asking about some details for a 'remake' of his own. He's got his own ideas now.

Next, is my daycare family. I have lots of thoughts and I have an idea where I want to go with them. But if it's anything like today, the original plan could escalate in new and improved ways.

I have been so overwhelmed this year, I just didn't know where to start. Today, I made some headway. I'm eager to get caught up in this season once again. Even though I've lived with a piece of the spirit within me all year, I'm ready for a booster shot.

I'm back on the hook again. And looking forward to it!

So Much to Do ...

Christmas preparations seem to be falling by the wayside for me this year. This is a season that I usually use to my benefit, to catapult me out of feeling lackadaisical about my life. For some reason, I just can't get myself into Christmas mode. Is it because I've been in that mode for most of the year?

I started this blog in an effort to stay connected to family and friends all year. And I have. I got a Flip Video with the intent of making little movies of life to share with family and friends. I've done that. I started a blog for my daycare families to share the small stories of our day to day life, pictures and movies. I add to that almost daily. I have been searching for family history and memories, to write them down and share them. And I'm continuing to do that. I've started a family blog to try to enhance the family connection in between momentous occasions that we use as an excuse to gather.

I have been using all of my 'Christmas' tools for the entirety of the year. I've made connections with family without the excuse of Christmas. I've gifted my 'movies' to family and friends, without an occasion attached to that. I've brought my daycare families into our day to day world in a way that I used to do with my annual yearbook that I gave to them each Christmas. It honestly feels that anything I do for Christmas will simply be an echo of what I've been doing all year long.

I do believe that I have succeeded with my goal that I set for myself at the end of last year's Christmas season. To keep the season alive all year.

That said, I still see the tasks of Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas baking and Christmas chores that lie before me. I just want to coast through this season now. I've celebrated all year long. And it is a much better way to live the rest of the 11 months that precede this much celebrated season that lies ahead.

So much to do ... but maybe I won't do it all this year?

Creating Busy

I have a knack of making everything a chore! I used to tape 2 weekly TV shows that I would watch at some time before the next week's episode came on. That was a fun and simple life ...

Lately, I have added 4 more weekly favorites to my weekly TV diet, I'm addicted to Dancing With the Stars and I tape Oprah every day. Whew. That is a lot of TV watching to squeeze into my evenings.

I am overwhelmed with relief this week. Tonight is the last episode of Dancing With the Stars (so that saves me almost 2 hours of TV time per week) and all but one of my favorite evening shows isn't showing a new episode this week (due to Thanksgiving in the U.S. perhaps?). That will save me oodles of time!! Hooray!

Any guess how I'll probably fill those hours? Probably watching the DVD set of Gilmore Girls that I just picked up on the weekend.

I honestly believe that I am deranged.

A Family Day

There are many ironies in some of the choices that I have made to 'focus on family'.

Running a daycare from home has meant that I have been an at-home mom, but unavailable for any school activities where kids would love to have a parent come along. Not working Saturdays should have allowed more time for family activities. But instead of working 6 hours a week outside of my house, I seem to be working an average of 15 hours or more per week at home. It seems that I spend less and less time being a 'present-parent figure', the more I focus on working from home.

Today wasn't like that. In fact, we've spent several 'family moments' together these past several days. A stay-at-home movie night a few evenings. And today, we left the house at 11:30 were gone for 5 hours. We saw a movie, did some Christmas shopping, splurged on a few items for ourselves, had lunch ... then came home and wrapped presents together to wind up the day.

It was a perfect day. With Kurt's growing independence, he doesn't have to come with me, every single place that I go anymore. He's developing his own circle of friends so he doesn't need me as much either. Our interests in movies and TV shows are growing wider apart, so there just isn't as much to bond us lately. Then again, I am often busy working at one project or another so I think he has given up on me a lot too.

Our intent to see an early movie was thwarted (they wouldn't accept our coupon for that particular movie), but it resulted in a much longer lasting occasion. We went to another theatre (that accepted my coupon), saw a later show and enjoyed filling the time in between.

The day turned out to be quite a gift. I like when a day unfolds as this one did. It was a perfect Sunday.