Life without power

We have had a few interesting days this week where we have been able to see how very much we, as a culture, rely on electricity and entertainment. Last Friday night, the power went out right after dinner and didn't return for about 4 hours. It was neat to see neighbors start trickling out of their houses and we were able to see people we had never seen before... our mysterious neighbors that stay hidden away in their houses or away at work, but never out and about in the neighborhood where they live. We started talking with the Cecils and then a couple that we had met previously but didn't really know very well, came out to join us. They are from Pakistan and have 2 kids, the younger of their two is Kaylie's age and went to school with her. We stayed outside talking for a few hours then finally decided we might as well make ourselves comfortable. It started getting dark, so our neighbor, Dallas Cecil, got out his lantern and we all got our camp chairs and sat in a circle and just talked. Luckily, Lily and Abigail were both in bed before the power went out and Kaylie and Carter were overjoyed to be able to spend the evening outside with their friends. I got out some of our popsicles from the freezer, hoping to enjoy them before we potentially lost them, and we all enjoyed eating and talking in our makeshift camp. The power came on shortly after we made ourselves comfortable and we all went in to go to bed. I was overjoyed to know that all our freezer food would not be lost!

Two days later we had planned to have Ta (one of Nathan's hometeachees) over for dinner. I had prepared a turkey dinner and had the turkey in the oven and ready to cook while we were at church. The power went out again and I was worried once again that I would be losing a nice meal and that we'd have to think of something else to eat after church. I prayed with all the faith that I could muster and sure enough the power came back on shortly before we had to leave for church. The turkey and all the food to accompany it turned out very nicely. Unfortunately, our guest and family were unable to come and enjoy the food with us, and we found ourselves trying to find someone to share the food with, but to no avail. This wasn't the first time we'd prepared a really nice meal for someone only to have them cancel. I was a bit frustrated, but we will just have to keep trying to have people over, even if no one seems to want it.

Back to the power outage stories: a day or two later, the electricity stopped working during nap time and came back on again after about 15 minutes.

Last night takes the cake, however. We had a nice morning and it was nice to have Nate home early. Shortly after Kaylie came home from her Bible vacation camp (the Cecils took her in return for me watching their toddler, Joseph, all week), we went to go to nap and the power went out again. It was about 1:20 in the afternoon. By 5pm when I was supposed to teach a piano lesson, the power was still not on. Phoebe, my student, was a no show, but since we had no phone line, there was no way of finding out why. We went outside to play and then tried to decide on what to do about dinner. The consensus was to either eat cereal and milk, or else go out to eat. I was more keen on the second idea, but Nate had to hometeach and voted to eat cereal. Then, the Cecils came out and asked us if we'd like to go out to dinner with them as a way of thanking us for watching Joseph all week. It was way more payment than what I probably deserved, (he is such an easy kid to watch) but we went anyhow, just to get out of the house with no power and to keep our minds off of it and our kids entertained. We ended up eating at Red Robin and had a great time with our neighbors. It has been nice to have the challenge of having no electricity in order to bring some of the neighbors out and make it more accessible to get to know them. We have really grown quite fond of the Cecils and feel badly that we haven't done more for them. They have paid for us to go to a sports bounce place, to the movie UP, and now out to dinner. What a kind family. We hope that we can make them feel as good as they make us feel. They are very strong and needed in their Lutheran church, and we hope that we can show them through our actions and demeanors that we are just as Christian and eager to serve them as they are to serve us. It is refreshing to find people that are just as religious as us, whether if they are of our faith or not, it is a common bond, and seems rare here in VA.

We came home after our burger, fries, and ice cream, to find that our power was still off. Dallas let us borrow a battery lantern that was very nice and helped the kids feel a little less scared than with our candles. We tried to get them to all sleep in Lilys' room because they were all scared, but soon found that that was a bad idea. Lily was on one and seemed to get more and more hyper the longer we were in there. We finally had to lock her door and let her scream to sleep (it was past 10pm that she finally conked out). Kaylie and Carter slept downstairs with Nate and I on the couch and the floor. We were trying to keep as cool as possible, not knowing when or if we'd regain power through the night. It seemed that is took an eternity to fall asleep, but Nate came and got me up around 2:30 am to tell me the power was back on. What a relief! I was mostly worried about all the food in our 2 freezers and our refrigerator. I thank Heavenly Father for saving us that financial loss!

It has been amazing to me to see how much we rely on power to exist! There are so many things that we take for granted in life and electricity is definitely one of them. I can't believe that it wasn't that long ago that people didn't even know what electricity was. They lived on candle light and had never even imagined computers or television. They were so social and spent a lot more time interacting with other people rather than machines. I wish our culture leant itself to more social gathering and the developing our of talents (like live music and dancing, etc.). Things were so much more simple and different back then. So many people live in front of the internet, cell phones, video games, movies and television now that they don't know how and don't want to communicate with other people. It was quite delightful to be without power and to be forced to get out in the community and neighborhood and interact with others, with no care of what show we were missing, or what way we could be wasting our time away with drivel. I wish more days could be like that; but, I am also really really glad that we now have our power back and can sleep comfortably with air conditioning and fans. We are so very blessed to live in this time and age. I need to stop taking so many things for granted!