Chilling Out Not What It's Cracked Up To Be

No April Foolin', the darn weather dudes were right. We were in the heart of a wicked ice storm. I took this picture at 8 a.m. and realized it doesn't matter how little ice it seems to be, most of us were not driving to the office.

Especially since it just kept accumulating all day.

I fired up the laptop and was able to work for 3 hours. The lights had flickered a few times and then, at 10:44 a.m., they went out. Without electricity, our wi-fi router wouldn't work, so not more work for me. I shut down my laptop to conserve power. Our lovely cellphone provider wasn't providing great signals all day either. Add to that, no running water or use of indoor plumbing.

I forgot what it was like to live like Laura Ingalls!

Most of the day I kept an eye on our bunny ear trees, which normally stand pretty straight up. This was early in the morning before even more ice accumulated.

At their lowest point, this was how close it looked like at least the right one would break.

But then the ice stopped coming and it warmed up just enough for us to witness an ice rain as the ice broke up and fell from all the trees. At the end of the day, the trees hadn't parted ways but they put some distant between themselves like fighting siblings.

Throughout the day we could just hear the snap, crackle, pop as tree branches (mostly pines) were falling everywhere – in the woods around us, in the neighbor's yard, a few in our yard, and all the way down the street.

This is typical of the destruction everywhere in that darn targeted purple area. No surprise about the power outages. In the early evening, many of us on our street were notified that power was restored. We're all like, "No, it's not." So we all had to resubmit our outage reports. And think that put us to the back of the line – of thousands of customers without power.

When we went to bed in our dark, chilly houses last night, the last we heard was that our power would be restored by SATURDAY afternoon. Ugh! 

Somehow managed to get a little sleep – even without my electric mattress pad. First World problems, I know. But dang. We do take a lot for granted! This morning, I went to the office to be warm and productive since yesterday was a lost cause.

Suddenly I was getting texts that there were Alliant trucks in the neighborhood. Would I dare get up my hopes?? Jim texted my a picture of our dining room lights on at 11:50 a.m. (25 hours without power). So I raced home and showered and made it on time to church for 1 p.m. Good Friday service. I guess God really does answer our prayers on His time.

Here a few "cool" shots from yesterday...

Poor birds falling victim to fake spring and looking for anything to eat. Icicles weren't doing it!

I hope this didn't kill off any of our budding trees!

And how safe our these power lines in our yard?

I was happy to learn, though, that there are things you can do when it's a daytime power outage.

Mind out of the gutter! I meant practically completing a whole baby blanket! 💗

Want to send a special shout out to all those offering up generators, water for our toilets, and a place to stay. We have the best people in our lives. Take care of your friends and loved ones, too! 

And we've potentially got more of that freezing rain coming tonight. Be smart and be careful out there, friends!

OK Friday

The thing about Good Friday is that we don't have a lot of good thoughts and feels associated with it. 

I worked today but was able to take a long lunch in order to sing with our choir at our 1 p.m. service. I had to rush home for a 2:30 p.m. work meeting so I didn't have a lot of time to reflect on the service. But of course, per usual, it was enough time to make me feel like a terrible and judgmental human being.

Seriously, any time I'm judging someone – based on appearance, education, anything – I might as well be in that crowd yelling "Crucify him!" 

And even though my mantra is to just BE KIND to everyone, I know I fall short. Good Friday just reminds us that we're forgiven for that. But hopefully prompts us all to do better.

My sunset photo was taken somewhere along Highway 13 tonight because I was trying to be kind – but not enabling. Obviously, parent point of view here. Ha. Carter and I went down to Baraboo, which we determined was about halfway between Blue Jay Drive and Platteville-ish area, so we could meet up with his girlfriend and she could take custody of him for the weekend.

I made him drive us down (my tough-love stance) so I only had to drive back. I survived the setting sun and deer "frolicking on the highway" hour just fine, thankfully.

Got home just in time to see Marquette lose to North Carolina State – located in Carter's most recent address, Raleigh, N.C.! Since the Wolfpack was a surprise, I didn't even have them playing in my bracket. But did have Marquette losing to Kentucky (who didn't make it past the first round) so my bracket should be good, right? Er, no?

Definitely, no.

Obviously, today is not the day to think that college basketball holds any significance in the scheme of things in our lives. 

I have friends and loved ones who today are grieving – not just Christ's death – but deaths of family members and pets, challenges of debilitating illnesses and long-road-ahead injuries, and un-necessary stress levels due to job, family, or unforeseen circumstances.

Sometimes it's OK just to have an OK Friday. We want Good Fridays and good days every day of the week.

Thanks, God, for keeping our stress levels and expectations at an even keel. Or, if not, at a level we can handle with Your help!

Super Group-er of Friends

On this Good Friday we were solemn and sad during our afternoon church services, then uplifted by an evening with Good People.

Our friends who own TriCity Golf Course had a unique fish fry tonight featuring blacked pan-seared grouper. Uniquely delicious! So very yummy! A super grouper with what turned out to be a super group-er of friends. 

We met our friends Mark and Lisa there since we haven't taken time to get together with them in months and months. Then we pretty much knew people at every other table and had a nice evening catching up with all kinds of people. Good People on Good Friday.

What a nice start to the weekend. 

May you be blessed with the Good People in your life for the Easter holiday! Once we're past the sorrow of today, it's a great reason to celebrate! 

Doing Good

May the darkest night end and may the sun shine on all of us today.

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that allowed me a long lunch today to attend Good Friday service at my church. Plus, I kind of needed to be there since there were only 3 of us sopranos available to sing with the choir. 

It was a somber song but also was a positive one for us because it was the first time we (the choir) could sing in church since winter of early 2020. We're looking forward to Sunday when we can really express our joy as we sing "Christ is risen!"

Always a somber message on Good Friday but also a good reminder about how much God loves us – and if we look around, how many of our friends and family love us, too. Feeling very blessed!

Had to go back to work for the rest of the day but tonight Jim and I went out to eat to get a fish fry. For you locals, we tried the Junkyard Bar and Grill (formerly Octane), which came highly recommended. Place was full but we did get a table – and did have to wait an hour for our food. But it was very delicious!

We had similar waiting situations elsewhere last week at a different venue. Everyone's short-staffed these days so it's best we aren't short-tempered about it. Pretty sure there are more pressing things going on in the world right now than how quickly we get our deep-fried food!

As we witness God's love again this season, let's see if we can keep paying it forward. In patience and kindness to start. 

Wishing you blessings and joy this Easter weekend!

A Pretty Good Friday

After being physically closed for over a year, it was a blessing to reopen church today, on Good Friday. With real live people. 

Sure we still televised the service and streamed it online as we do every week, but today we had about 50 people in the pews to lend their voices, their presence, their prayers to the service. So nice!

Obviously, there's a still a pandemic going on. So we decided to open in baby steps. For now, parishioners must sign up ahead of time to be included in the maximum crowd size of 50 per service. I got to serve as "greeter" today. It usually involves welcoming everyone at the door and exchanging hand shakes and hugs. But today I greeted them with digital thermometer and, if they were fine, I checked them in on the list. 

The ushers then sat them in a socially distanced pattern in the pews. Everyone I welcomed today was 100 percent willing to follow any protocol – just happy to be there and worship in person, even for the most solemn service of the church year. 

In the quote above, it talks about painful things. For a lot of people, the situation of not being able to attend church in person wasn't exactly painless. It's a challenge to not see your church family in person, really feel God's presence, or experience the same tangible spirit and joy while worshiping, too.

That's why it's so good to be back! 

Our reopening really is perfectly timed to take place on a holiday the both reminds us of pain and how love heals that pain. 

Not convinced? Wait 'til Sunday. You'll know what I mean.

Good (bye) Friday

I took today off so I could get out of the house. And make a special delivery. And attend Good Friday services (online, of course).

It just happens that my oldest sister and her husband are about to move from Hudson to the Phoenix area in the next few weeks. It just happens that during my recent decluttering stint, I found a plethora of bubble wrap they could use for packing.

So today we met at a somewhat halfway point in Osseo to make a trade. I'd give them the bubble wrap and some Easter cookies – and they'd give me hugs goodbye.

I know. We are guilty of bending the rules. Don't worry. We played it 100% safe and did not let our guard (or masks) down. I felt like we were meeting up for a Wild West duel of some kind! But we both walked away alive.

I had tears in my eyes, but I'm happy Rayna and Paul are moving (again) to someplace warm (again) where they don't have to deal with Mother Nature's mood swings! Believe me, come Monday when I have a snow shovel in hand, I'll be reminded (again) why she's the oldest and wisest sister!

Side note: It was so nice to get out and take a road trip! Even by myself. Just to not be in the house or in my office. I'll never take freedom for granted again.

Tale of Two Kitties

It was my last day to peek in on my grand-niece Mischief and feed her on the way home from work. Today she was so content with my scratchin's and lovin's that she again ALMOST sat still for a picture.

In fact, since was hovering behind right behind on the back of the couch, I thought I'd get a selfie with her...

And just like that she's crawling across my face! And that is why she is appropriately named Mischief. God bless my nephew Tony as he tries to keep us with her when he gets home!

Meanwhile, when I got home later after Good Friday church and Easter shopping, Sylvester decided to sit on my lap. Well, I was accidentally the only human home. But she sat so still, I had to take a comparison shot...

Definitely a mature, poised princess, right? I guess I should appreciate her more!

I'll tell ya who I do appreciate...

A teenager who delivers a Shamrock Shake to his mama! As Julie Andrews sings: These are a few of my favorite things!

He definitely but the good in my Good Friday. And I guess I can give a little credit to my furry friends, too. Who knew the day would come when Carter would be the most cooperative for a photo??

Easter miracles, folks! They're out there.

Lower My Egg-spectations

I had so many things on my To Do List today, I started taking shortcuts. Case in point, coloring Easter eggs. I managed to find a way to color the eggs without having to boil them!

Major time saver. Brown is the new pink, right?

There were a lot of things to try to squeeze into a day "off." And I did not do them all. Got some freelance work done. Went to 1 p.m. church. Very good Good Friday service. Then went to the office. Got home after 6 p.m. like it was a normal work day.

Finally got to see College Boy at that point. Yup, it takes awhile to get home to the actual house when you spend time with friends en route and sleep elsewhere! He's got some 6 or 10 friends over for a campfire tonight so I took my 30 seconds and ran with it.

I'm honestly OK. I have learned to lower my egg-spectations at Easter time and, well, anytime. Just be happy for small moments with loved ones because they are better than no moments.

I wouldn't have had much time for Carter today anyway. Tomorrow, though, there may be a kidnapping.

Since Carter was going to be busy with friends, hubby and I went out for a fish fry and ran into quite a few people we knew. Ended up having dinner with two other couples we know so that was unexpected fun.

See, when you lower your egg-spectations, surprises can happen!

Like me just finding out I do have kickboxing class at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. I figured we wouldn't because of Easter weekend, but I was wrong. So I better hit the hay. I am using the time I saved egg dying and eggs-changing it for sleep.

Eggs-cellent plan, eh?