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!

Little House

If your childhood bully was a fictional character named Nellie Oleson, we can be friends. And if you looked forward to 7 p.m. on Mondays to see your crush Michael Landon play "Pa Ingalls," we can be BFFs!

This blast from the past was brought to you by the South Wood County Historical Museum, which is currently presenting the traveling Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit!

Knowing I wasn't going to be around the next two Sundays, I was glad I could squeeze it in after BINGO yesterday. 

Every picture of her and her family made me automatically compare those to the TV cast.

But having read every book from Little House in the Big Woods to These Happy Golden Years, there were parts of the exhibit that drew my mind right back to the written pages. The photo above – about the grasshoppers – I remember reading that and wanting to gag. Thanks to the Kansas State Historical Society, we can see an image are realize once again that these were true-life stories for this girl.

So, of course, now I'm inspired to re-read them all again. And we had them all! Not sure if my twin sister has them or they got old and moldy at the homestead. LOL. Talking old-time now! But the local library may have them.

If you were a fan, check it out. It's interesting reading/viewing and doesn't take too long to get through. Plus, there are some "period costumes" to accompany it. 

As for the real "Pa" Ingalls, I'm not going to let reality ruin my clean-shaven memory! If you know, you know.

Bookworms

Besides the obvious charm and good looks, Carter and I have something else in common: We both like to read.

Oh, I'm a bookworm from way back. I can't remember a time when I wasn't curled up with a good story. Could I have been as young as Carter when I was snatching up every Judy Blume book and sprinting through the Laura Ingalls Wilder saga? I'm not sure, but I know I was young.

Why do I like to read? There's a couple reasons. When I was growing up, it was a good option when I was tired of watching the black-and-white TV (or grounded from it) or sick of playing with my twin (imagine!). I loved to escape to the stories and live within them while I was reading.

I've always had this affection for the English language. I love to learn new words and see how they play out at the hands of different writers. It's no surprise "words is my business" in real life. I still love to lose myself in the stories -- most kinds -- and I read about 1-2 books a week. It keeps my mind sharp (no comment), and keeps this dream of writing a book top of mind. Many times when I close the book after that last page, I say, "I can do this!" and I will!

Carter surprised me yesterday. He had his head stuck in a book from the moment we got home until after supper time. He said he and his classmates each have a goal of reading 400 minutes per month. Carter did 100 minutes yesterday alone and wants to see how far he can take it.

I thought, wow, this is great. The kid loves to read. Then I see this little note from the teacher that each child who reads 400 minutes gets a free personal-size pizza at Pizza Hut. You know, that's OK. If it can get children to open a book and seek a new adventure, then I'm all for it.

When I called Carter on his game, he insisted he does love to read. He just wants to be sure their class reads the most minutes so they get a pizza party in December. Go for it, Carter!

I don't consider The Adventures of Captain Underpants in the same league with Little House in the Big Woods. But who am I to judge? They might say that about my book some day!