There's No Place Like Home

Except when your home has no electricity for an unknown amount of time and you feel like you're living in a cold dark cave, then home isn't so great. Seattle was hit with a couple serious snow storms* this week which meant no school for the boys, even Randy.  By the third snow day I was tired of our laziness and ready to put the boys to work but shortly after breakfast the power went out and my plans for deep cleaning the entire house were ruined.  Luckily we have two fireplaces so we could maintain a sixty-degree temp on the lower level of the house.  Randy put chains on the tires and went in search of firewood and some last-minute supplies when he heard over the radio to expect the power outage to last four days.  Four days cooped up inside with no power sounded like the perfect scenario for losing my mind.  We couldn't even get our cell phones to work unless we walked down the street and stood on our tiptoes facing east whispering a silent plea for some reception.
But my boys pulled through in my moment of need.  Their imaginations reached new heights as they thought of things to do in the dark house, and when things got dull we had some awesome Star Wars battles by the glow of blue and green light sabers.  Randy cooked up some soup using the burner on the BBQ grill and we ate dinner by candle light.  Finally, it was almost bedtime so we warmed up our bellies with s'mores roasted in the fireplace and then bundled up for a long, cold night.  Luckily the power came on in the middle of the night, about the same time Randy found out his classes were canceled again.  Hooray!  I spent the morning cleaning and using every electrical appliance I could get my hands on, just because I could.

*It doesn't take a lot of snow to cause massive amounts of damage when you live in a place surrounded by towering pine trees.  Many of our surrounding streets were barricaded due to giant trees falling across the road as they snapped from the weight of heavy snow and ice.