Winter of my discontent...

~"There's one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbors."~

Clyde Moore

So..we came to the end of our Christmas holiday. Well we were supposed to yesterday..but things didn't work out as planned..Let me back up a little.  Two weeks ago, I wrote a post about wanting "Mike Holmes" for Christmas. It was mostly in jest. I mean, we certainly have had many many...*sigh* many contracting adventures..but,we are a lot better off than most.  Although I do believe that our very special stories of contractor hi-jinx and full off the wall shenanigans coupled with Omar's use of a steak knife as a multi-purpose tool would make for excellent television! Regardless-Mike Holmes was not waiting under our tree when we awoke on Christmas morning. Which was o.k.-as there were more important things to be had. 

  Heat and electricity. Two days before Christmas, we had a major ice storm.  Major. Most of my town, much of my state,  had lost their electricity for days...Everything was coated in ice...causing tree limbs to break and knock power lines down.  The trees were so bent over by ice that they looked as if they were swooning...or throwing up-depending on your perspective. We got through it...until the next storm..

   

Yes, just a day or so later (I've been stuck inside with four kids-so my sense of time is skewed) we had a major snow storm...again knocking out peoples power. (although not as bad as the ice storm) Leaving two feet of now over the already ice and snow covered ground. But we had a little bit of a warm spell right after-I think that it was 12 degrees..and I was able to have the boys shovel off the deck. Too much snow can make it collapse. I was also able to quickly run to the market and stock up on some much needed supplies.( Goldfish, milk and pizza.)

The kids were supposed to start back to school yesterday...*sigh* but I knew better.  I kept them home because..ANOTHER storm was coming! Yup-we got blasted with a HUGE blizzard like storm yesterday through this morning. I was smart in not waking the kids in order to bundle them into layers (it was -4) and send them into school because they would have turned around and come back home again.  School let out early..and was closed today.  So...because of the weather...I have spent the most part of two weeks INSIDE  the house...with four kids...three geriatric dogs..a couple of cats..and my anxiety.

 Normally, I'm a pretty happy go lucky kind of mom. I don't sweat the small stuff. I have lived and survived a major power outage (14 hours, Omar out of town, dog almost eating my chicken) But this time? I don't know...maybe it is the fact that the power line going into the house is encased in an icy pine branch-so that every time the wind blows-the power flickers. I swear it's taunting me!...(maybe I'll go off..yes, that's a good idea-long flicker-changed my mind! hahahahahaha)  Or that my furnace is very old...and it is having a terribly tough time keeping the house warm? Or that there is actual wind blowing in through all of  the electrical outlets...and every other crack (of which there are many) that it can find? That if the power goes out-we also lose heat and it is going to be -15 tonight?  I am pacing and anxious-just waiting for the worst to happen. I would have been an awful pioneer!  Do you remember that t.v. show- Little House on the Prairie? I can just imagine myself..."Pa?  do we have enough wood?" "Pa? are you sure that buffalo is cooked?"  "Pa? Those wolves look hungry-should we feed them Mary?" "Pa?  Why are you aiming your rifle at me?"  I never would have survived.

  It's supposed to be a balmy 18 degrees tomorrow. I am hoping that this heat wave will take away some of my anxiety...Not to give the wrong impression!  I do like Winter! I love snow and sledding..and enjoying the beauty of it all.  I wouldn't live here if I didn't. But I am growing weary of the abnormal cold and the never ending storm systems..of being stuck inside the house..and of THAT particular pine branch. I am very much looking forward to getting back into our routine of things...and to the kids getting back to school...or Spring.  whichever comes first.