Aftermath of the Storm

The Texas freeze spared our home for the most part. The worst damage was to our mantel. It got a little singed from the fireplace heat. I'll sand it down and repaint it. I'm hopeful our plants survive. They seem to be okay.

We only lost power the one time, for about 20 hours. We boiled water for several more days until they said it was safe again. Our neighborhood seemed to fare well. A few broken pipes but nothing major.

The kids and I enjoyed more at home activities. It's really nice that we're used to being home so much. School closed for the Monday after the week of the storm. We had some chill days. Joseph went back to turnaround so was gone again. It was refreshing to not have a schedule to keep up with.

Now I need to remember to restock our supplies before hurricane season. But all the stores have limits on water and other non-perishables so I'll wait a little bit. It was a nice dry-run of hunkering down for a hurricane.

I never really loved the tile on the fireplace. So this provides an opportunity to paint it all and do a stencil design on the tile. I'm excited for the finished product. We are also upgrading the materials to be more heat-resistant. We also learned to open the flue when we use it. Whoops!

100th day of school

Ashton finally had her first "100 day of school" event. Last year's was cancelled as it was later in March I believe. She was thrilled to dress up for it.

The Prayer of a Young Boy

Texas was hit with a bad storm this week. Very frigid temps and then the power grid failed. Politics aside, it's a disaster. We've been fortunate so far. We lost power for about 20 hours. And we have a boil water notice. That means we can't drink the tap water or do much with it. Basically flush toilets. But then the water pressure bottomed out for all of Houston so we had no water. It was/is a mess.

Thankfully, our prophet and Church leaders have encouraged us to be prepared. We prepare for hurricanes and we've learned this is pretty much a hurricane except no wind damage and no 100 degree weather. We also couldn't really leave if we wanted to because roads were icy everywhere.

We have plenty of water storage. We have a gas fireplace. We have batteries, flashlights, camping lanterns, propane grill, etc. It was nice to feel validation in our preparations.

We had two families stay with us the first night of the ordeal. One family is still here. We expect power to still go on and off over the next several days. Hopefully shorter increments. And it will be cold the next couple days but nothing like Sunday-Tuesday. We've had so many blessings through it all it is almost too long to list. But I don't want to forget:

- I'm glad I stopped pumping Lydia a few weeks ago and weaned her from breastmilk. Trying to keep all that refrigerated and finding time to pump with the chaos would have been challenging.

- I'm glad we have a slew of kid activities that I save for "rainy days." It's been a great few days with the kids to do some fun things.

- I'm grateful for good neighbors. This morning, our neighbors across the street knocked on our door asking if we needed anything. We needed some pool water to flush our toilets. That way, we didn't have to use our precious drinking water. The husband helped fill up a big bucket and carry it over to the house.

- that the power went out after the kids went to bed. The first 10 hours of no power were during the night. Not such a bad time.

- I'm glad we listen and prepare for natural disasters. It's been nice to focus on serving others rather than being worried about our own livlihood. 

Tanner reminded me tonight of the purity of a child's prayer. He said our dinner prayer and so plainly asked Heavenly Father to give us power again. I started crying. To hear my son ask and more importantly, to know God would hear his prayer meant so much. The power came back about an hour later and Tanner was thrilled. It was better than Christmas morning.

Ashton's Valentine

Ashton brought home this card from her friend at school. It made me smile to know that others see her in such a positive way.

To translate, "you are the bestest friend. You are there when I need you." 

Turnaround

It's that time of year again... Turnaround season. It's a love/hate relationship with it. Joseph either gets extra pay or extra vacation time. But he works 12+ hour shifts 7-9 days straight, one day off and then back at it. He leaves before the kids are up and comes home around 6 or 6:30pm.

We finished week 1 today. The ice storm coming to Houston is a welcomed reprieve. He'll work my tomorrow but then stay home for at least 2 days. However, that ends up tacking on more days at the end in March.

We've survived so far. The hardest part of the day is the morning. Getting all the kids up, in the van by 7:45 to take Ashton to school. But after that, it calms down. I have a friend picking up Ashton everyday from school. That's a tremendous help. Her school pick up time falls right in the middle of nap time for everyone at home.

The kids and I are staying sane by birdwatching and feeding. We've done some fun crafts and lots of playdough time. Ashton and Tanner have a school holiday on Monday. And then with the storm, school is already cancelled for Tuesday. I'm guessing it will close Wednesday and Thursday as well or go to virtual learning. Ugh.

Lydia fell down a few stairs and got a pretty good goose egg on her head.

Gemma's annual heart check

Today was the day. Gemma saw our favorite cardiologist, Dr. Gospin! We love her! It was the first time Gma didn't scream for the appointment. It's quite the ordeal for a little kid. Blood pressure, pulse oximeter, EKG with lots of sticky stickers and pokey things. Then the full echo with the ultrasound wand and gel.

Good news is Gemma's numbers didn't change from last year. She still (and always will) has pulmonary stenosis, moderate level. We'll continue annual checks because every now and then, the child can have a sudden growth spurt and the valve can have issues.

It was a little odd as our doctor called Gemma one of her CHD patients. That stands for Congenital heart disease. I know her defect is congenital but I never see it affect her. I'm grateful for that. But it felt odd to think that I have a child under that umbrella. I'm grateful to be lucky and get one that hasn't required much intervention or additional testing. But I always keep a little extra eye on Gemma.

Permanent marker meets table

Once, as a kid, I used a permanent marker to color something on a piece of paper. I failed to realize that the marker bled through the paper onto my mom's dining room table. Thankfully, it left just a small mark here and there. And it blended in with the grain and stain of the wood. 

This morning, we spent time making lots of Valentine's day gifts/cards. Ashton was using the permanent marker and I was cleaning things up. I failed to grab the marker quick enough. Tanner came inside and decided impulsively to write on the table. He wrote some great letters. And he felt really bad after he paused and realized what happened.

I'm grateful for rubbing alcohol. As I cleaned it off our table, I thought how often Heavenly Father rubs a little rubbing alcohol on my mistakes.