My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

Just when I start to wonder how they will treat each other in the years to come, I look over and see this:

And I thank God once again for giving my girls a best friend from birth. 

How can you spot a child who’s really excited for Christmas to come?

That’s easy.  Just look for anyone decorating the shrubbery with leaf “ornaments.”

This is also the girl whose first words out of her mouth this morning were, “Is it Christmas yet?”

I gotta get that kid a calendar!   

Thanks to his increased mobility (have I mentioned he’s fully crawling now?), I knew it was only a matter of time before Jimmy started to get bumps and bruises. 

Well, a few days ago, he decided to investigate something and inadvertently smacked his little face into a sharp edge.

I hate to think of him getting hurt, but I know this is just the first of many injuries to come.  He’s already setting a faster pace than the girls (I documented Becky’s first minor facial injury here, which didn’t occur until she was 1 1/2 years old).  My little man is already quite the bruiser!    

Losing power for eight days due to a freak October snowstorm changes how you think. 

One minute you’re sitting in your warm, well-lit house watching the snow fall onto the leaf-covered trees and thinking, “Oh, how pretty!”…

(See?  Isn’t it pretty?)

But then the snow keeps falling (we ended up getting around 15 inches) and becomes this:

…And soon you’re sitting in the dark, listening to trees creaking and cracking all around you, and you’re thinking, “Oh, how awful.”

To be honest, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.  We didn’t sustain any tree damage to our house, and the trees that did fall on our property were easily cleaned up.  We were fortunate enough to have a generator that we would run for a few hours at a time to heat up the house, power the well pump, and turn on a light or two.  People in the towns all around us were shivering in their 40-ish-degree houses and running out of bottled water, so we were extremely thankful that we were heated and hydrated.  For me, the most disconcerting aspect was the lack of communication.  For four days, we had no phone service, so we initially didn’t know what was going on around us and had difficulty checking on our loved ones.  I was almost as excited when we regained cell phone service on Wednesday as I was when our power was finally restored Saturday evening. 

So, in the meantime, we entertained ourselves as best as we could.  We bundled up: 

We watched DVDs on my computer:

We drew lots and lots of pictures:

We sang songs in the firelight:

We played in the snow:

And we ate out.  A lot. 

So, as you can see, we certainly didn’t suffer very much (although Jim might disagree with me, since it was his early-morning job to sprint across the yard in the freezing air to turn on the generator so we could heat up the house before we had to get up).  I am humbled by the fact that many people all over the world don’t have electricity, heat, running water, or ample food, and here we felt that eight days was unbearably long. 

So, we’re thankful.  Very thankful. 

And I may just go soak in a hot bath to prove it.    

For those wondering why there have been no updates in almost a week, it’s because we have been without power and internet access since Saturday.  We are hoping power will be restored in the next day or two.  We’ll resume blogging then, Lord willing!