Early Wednesday morning I awakened to silence and darkness.  Ugh...the power is out!  Next thing I remember is hearing the wind try to tear up our house.  Ugh...a wind storm!  Here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't get snowstorms, or tornados, or hurricanes.  We get rain and windstorms (and an occasional earthquake--but that's another story).

The things that we have to worry about with windstorms are trees falling on power lines, across roads, and on our house.  We have been lucky in the past few years to only lose power once or twice per year and for not very long.  The problem with loss of power used to be no heat and it was typically in the middle of winter.  I remember when my first son was a baby or a toddler, we had a very inefficient wood stove and I would spend all my time trying to get a fire going and watch the temperature in the house slowing increase to about 55 degrees.  Burrr...  A few years ago we replaced the wood stove with a free standing gas stove.  The stove has no electric components, so works all the time.  The other problem with power outages has been no water.  Our community well wouldn't pump water during an outage.  Recently our community dug a new well and installed a large storage tank.

So, here I am faced with a day without power and the wind blowing and not only do I have a warm stove to heat up our downstairs, but I actually have water (and hot water to boot!).  The only thing I don't have is light!  So, believe me, I had no right to complain.  We went through the morning doing school, the kids taking breaks to play with flashlights, of course.  But, I couldn't shake the depressed feeling that darkness brings. 

In the afternoon doing school, I kept sneaking glances at my computer just wishing I could check my e-mail or blog or something (I typically do this after school each day before dinner).  Since I couldn't use my computer, I decided to make a big pot of chicken soup for dinner (we have a gas cooking stove) as I was afraid the chicken would spoil in the refrigerator.  While it was cooking, I sat in front of our free standing stove with a camping lantern and catalogs thinking about Christmas gifts (mostly educational stuff).  By this time apparently the gravity fed water system had run down and we had no water at all.

I was dreading the darkness coming and having to use the camping lanterns and flashlights, but it wasn't so bad.  I cleaned the chicken off the bones and chopped carrots by lantern light.  Actually it amazed me how easy dinner was to make.  My husband came home to a wonderful bowl of chicken soup and buttered bread.  After dinner we found all the candles in the house and lit them all, took turns listening to the radio on the walkman,  and  the kids danced and sang a few songs.

The kids went to bed and so did we.  I don't know exactly why lack of power caused so much anxiety in me.  Is it that we rely so heavily on electricity?  Was I missing my computer?  Was it my concern over our fish who seemed to be struggling with the lack of oxygen in their water?  I awoke at 11:30 and prayed that God would bring back the power and, to my relief, shortly thereafter power was restored.  Aahh...a sigh of relief.  Thank You Lord!!

A hundred years ago most people didn't have electricity, or indoor plumbing for that matter.  We are so blessed and spoiled!!  I need to be thankful for everything we do have and be thankful when we are without, as well.