The Things You Learn in an Ice Storm

1) Electricity is NOT overrated.
2) It doesn’t matter if the power has been out for over 12 hours, I will still keep trying to turn the lights on.
3) I’m no Ma Ingalls. Sure, I built a fire, err, turned on the gas fireplace. And yes, I hunkered down with the kids in an old fashioned electricity-free way for an entire day. Except that we were at the mall by 9:30 a.m. in search of Starbucks and warmth, in that order.
4) When your internet isn’t working, you can just call your mom and ask her to read you the news and weather and power company updates. And she will do it, because she loves you for who you are, even if you don’t have a prairie woman’s bone in your body.
5) Being forced to relax in a stimulant free environment (no coffee, no TV, no treadmill, no internet) is a wonderful thing. It makes you stop and “just be” with your kids. But it is just as wonderful when the mandatory olden-days simulation comes to an end.
6) Whether it is glistening over a thousand blades of grass or crackling in a tumbler underneath a splash of Baileys, ice is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
7) Power outages will make you do crazy things. Like letting the kids skip a nap to do crafty Christmas projects. Especially when you are as crafty as you are pioneer woman. That is, not at all.
8) The minute the power comes back on, so does Blues Clues. Because, really, we hadn’t watched any TV all day!
9) I love this family o’ mine. I actually knew that before two inches of ice coated the trees, but getting back to the electricity-free basics reminded me afresh of how precious they are to me!