Well, most of you have heard about the big storm that blew through here a week and a half ago that knocked out our power for 4 days.  When you live in the country and your power goes out....you can't do ANYTHING.  You have no running water on top of no electricity.  It got to be a tad bit smelly in my house...and you know how I feel about how my house smells.  But ya know, there were some unexpected blessings that were realized in those 4 days without TV, Video Games, Computer.  Ok, I kind of had a computer on my smartphone and a battery pack to charge it....but we were definitely not prepared.  And me the Queen of burning yummy scented candles had ONE candle in my house that barely lit up the small bathroom.  (Thanks to that awesome pod warmer that uses no flame I ran a little low on candles.).  But, I looked at the experience as time built in to our already busy lives to just be.  To just relax.  We did a 500 piece puzzle in those four days, I knitted with a book light stuck down my shirt and into my bra and we laughed at all the silly crazy things Lane always does and we went to bed early every night.  Because really, in the country, once it gets dark IT IS DARK.  And while I was trying really hard to look for the blessings, there also was no distractions to keep me from thinking about my baby Lane going off to 4K in 3 days and wondering how the first day of high school went for my 14 year old son.  It was time to reflect, time to dwell, and time to suck it up and be a tough country girl.  Besides, I can't tell you how lucky my family was.  You could walk down to the end of my driveway and see how much worse so many other people had it.  Trees blocked the road, we couldn't drive through.  Electrical lines laying in the middle of roads, and dear friends who lost more trees than I have in my whole yard and the lot next to us.  It really makes one realize that we are not in control, not even a little. 

It was the first time in my adult life I went to the basement during a storm.  I brought Lane down with me and we were watching out the back patio doors (Yes I know, they say stay away from windows in a bad storm, but I WAS in the basement!).  I could not believe my eyes.  Things were swirling around my yard, I watched my rabbit hutch flip over and the doors to the chicken coop flap in the wind.  I watched the trees in the woods behind my house bend and twist and snap.  It was, for lack of a better word, amazing.  Amazing at the power weather really has.  When it was all done, I looked at Lane and said "Now THAT is the power of God my friend".  And then we went out to assess the damage in our yard and of course look for Theo my turkey.   I really was a little worried about Theo out there in the weather.  But, he was fine, along with the other 15 chickens who were oddly, set free during the storm and roaming around the yard eating grasshoppers to their hearts content. 

Initially I wanted to just cry.  Not that we had that much damage but it was a stressful fifteen minutes that I just started to process what I just witnessed.  And I should have known it was coming because the day before I was sick all day and very dizzy. (My ears are a great radar for pressure changes in the air).  But I started to look at the situation as something we will get through and we will help anyone else who has real damage get through as well. 

We often find who we really are in times of adversity.  How we handle them.  But again, I heard things during these four days I never thought I would hear.  Like "We need to swap generators, this one won't run the chicken plucker".  Yes, when you hear that it is definitely a "what happened to my life" kind of moment. And it reminded me of the notes I used to keep titled "What I learned this Week" and so I thought, what will I learn through this experience.....look for the blessings Rebecca.  And oddly, I wasn't feeling very blessed that week even though I should have.  I felt blessed we had minimal storm damage of course, but it was a week where I felt oddly disconnected from my friends, my life, and God. 

The first day of school had come and gone and I was missing my friends.  It was the first year in the last four that I would not be the bookkeeper at my oldest son's old school.  And I realized, my default time to get together with my girlfriends as they dropped off their children, no longer was there.  I wondered if they missed me as much as I missed them. 

I knew it was a new chapter starting in my life.  Sending Lane to a new school and being the "new mom" once again.  And wondering if it would resemble the show "The New Adventures of Old Christine" like my life did when I was the mom of a kid at the Private School for five years.  Yes, yes...I'm that girl.  I'm always "THAT GIRL".  I am always doing something to make people turn heads, lift their eye brows....especially at the private school where some of the moms can be a little.....well let's just be honest...they are meanie moms.

There was the day, Lane REFUSED to put on two boots and I had to get to a soccer meeting at the school. FINE...wear one boot....and of course someone came up to me and said "Lane is missing a boot".  Yep, I know, it's all he wanted to wear today and quite frankly, I'm just glad it's not the middle of January....but if you check his diaper...you will find he has a princess right on his ass as well".  (I was in a hurry that morning on my errands run and needed to change a diaper...adn of COURSE did not have the diaper bag with me, so I rushed into Walgreens, grabbed the first package I saw and if they weren't freakin CINDERELLA diapers). Good gravy.  Luckily I think everything is funny so as I was telling this particular mom that, and watching her "you're so pathetic" look come across her face, I burst into an uncontrollable laugh and couldn't quit.  It was a great story to share with Dave as we were standing in the hardware store later that evening.  And then all of a sudden he looked at me and said...."so did you go to the soccer meeting with your shirt on inside out and backwards? "  I looked at him, looked down at my shirt and BY GOLLY YES I DID.  Yes...it happens to the best of us, but only the  most awesome can pull it off. 

So anyway, I was looking through some of my old "What I have learned this week and found one entry that I just thought man....I must have felt so overwhelmed that week but yet could really find the humor in almost everything.  And it made me feel a little extra nostalgic because my son was still at home with me and had not moved in with his father yet.  I thought I have to share this with my blog buddies....because it just really shows how much we moms go through in a day and it's really a miracle we, or at least our kids survive.  Well, ok, I'm sorry to lump you all with me...it's a miracle MY KIDS survive.  But man, my kids and husband will never say they had a boring life.....

From February 2009: What I have learned this week: 
1. Dumping the entire contents of a large container of fish food into the fish tank does not mean you get to feed them less. It means you have a LOT OF WORK ahead of you to try and save those fish from over eating and being able to see the fish in the cloudy water again. Compliments to my dear boy Lane for teaching me this lesson. :)
2. Even if your dogs live in a fenced in yard, they still can eat something that will make them very sick and throw up ALOT. ALOT ALOT ALOT. And if it's a Lab, she will feel very bad about this. If it's a Newf...she won't care she will find the next gross thing to eat because it was worth it. OK I didn't learn that about a newf this week but I know that to be a fact.
3. If your kids hate you....it must mean you are actually parenting them.
4. During a TWO MINUTE phone call, a two year old will have time to try and flush a box of baby wipes down the toilet and flood the entire bathroom before you are off the phone.
5. When the toilet floods enough...it leaks down to the lower level of the house. :(
6. Your two year old, like a newf, won't care that he made such a huge mess for you to clean up...he thought it was fun and worth it.
7. While you are cleaning up a flooded toilet...your two year old will then raid the marshmallow bag in the cupboard and dump them all over another floor and then say HI MOM when you walk in the room like ... hey whats up. Again, he won't care...it was worth it.
8. If you have not cried in MONTHS AND MONTHS but you start ... it takes a long time to stop. Once you do...you feel refreshed.
9. Husbands will agree to a cat if you catch them at just the right time to approach the subject...but that doesn't mean they will actually like the cat when you get it home and will remind you that he has no desire to sleep with that cat at anytime during his lifetime.
10. Some fish die when you give them too much food, but some actually do survive.
11. The not so sociable cat at the humane society just may become very sociable when you get them away from other cats and show them enough attention.
12. Once you have had one newfoundland .... it is not likely you will ever convince your husband that you can have another newfoundland, even if that newfie is an adorable six month old homeless sad newfie living at the animal shelter. He will say NO before you even have the thought formed in your head. He will see it coming.
13. After a night of listening to your teenager scream he hates you and you are ruining his life and the next morning still won't look at you....if his girlfriend breaks up with him that day, he will come to you and confide in you and hope that you will show him some sympathy.
14. And after the I hate you's and your ruining his life....and you don't think you could be angrier at him, and he tells you his girlfriend broke up with him that day...your heart still breaks for him because you love him more than your own life.
See...even when you think you are having a bad week....there are a LOT of valuable lessons that are being learned in the trials. And bringing home a new little Maica who needed a home makes it feel like less of a crappy week when you go to see her and she rubs up against your leg and purrs for the very first time since you saw her and it makes you feel loved all over again. And if you can laugh when all this stuff happens to you .... you are doing even better. I laughed a lot this week...not over all of it and some...not right away and some not at all but I laughed this week and that's a good thing. Bring on the rest of the adventures!!!

So my friends:  when things just seem to go wrong wrong wrong....stop, breathe and laugh and think to yourself......well, it could always be worse...because if I have learned one thing in life....when you say it can't get any worse...the fates, oh the fates will show you it can. :)   And no matter what happens, I LOVE MY LIFE.  What more could I ask for? 

OK, no more sap, did you hear the one about the........  Good night my friends!