If you've been following the news, you may have seen reports of the ice storms that passed through Northeastern Kentucky over the last two weeks. These storms caused major power outages; some families in my county are still without power. My family, thankfully, has power now. We went out twice, the first time for more than 3 days and the second time for about 4 days, with a break of a day and a half of having power.
The recent emergency, coming as it does so close to the first anniversary of the pandemic lockdown, has really given me pause. Lent has started again and it began with a kerosene heater warming the house and grandkids rediscovering actual games that didn't involve electronics. Ice prevented us from receiving our ashes but did not prevent us from being reminded of our mortality as two people in our county died from hypothermia and another emergency in Texas brought many more deaths.
So I will begin by counting my blessings during the latest storm:
1. My first blessing is my wonderful husband who remembered that we have a kerosene heater, who retrieved it from an ice encased storage building and managed to get it started. He then managed to dig out his car and drove all the way into town to find kerosene because the power outage took out all the sources closer to us.
2. My second blessing is that we never lost water! Many in our county did lose their water supply when pumping stations lost power.
3. My third blessing is my dear friends who texted and called to check on us daily. We were offered places to stay and to shower, but we actually coped very well and since I had two daughters and two grandchildren staying with me (one daughter and one grandchild live here, the others came because they had no heat source) we felt it was better to just stay here.
4. My fourth blessing is that the food in my refrigerator and freezer stayed cold enough not to spoil! We drank fresh milk the whole time and had lunchmeat and cheese for sandwiches. I had to throw out some steaks because we couldn't cook them until they passed their date, some ground beef for the same reason, and some leftovers. The chest freezer stayed as well. Maybe this was because the kitchen and laundry room stayed cold. We had the heater in the living room.
5. My fifth blessing is that my teenage grandchildren actually talked to me and to each other! That in itself was a miracle!
6. My sixth blessing was that my daughters learned to appreciate their morning coffee when we had to heat water on the kerosene heater and then wait for the one cup pourover to produce it. One of my daughters said she liked the pourover coffee better than our regular drip machine brew. Miracles never cease.
7. My seventh blessing was that I got to teach my granddaughter how to take a granny bath. If you don't know what that is, ask someone who grew up in the boonies with no running water in the house like my mother did.
8. My eighth blessing was the day and a half of power that we got between the two outages. I got to shower and wash my hair and I know everyone in the house appreciated that :-)
9. My ninth blessing was that I went through technology withdrawal so choosing to forego online games for Lent was much easier. Giving up online games (which had become a very bad habit during the COVID lockdowns) has released so much more time for prayer.
10. My tenth blessing was that I was able to keep my phone charged (in a variety of ways) so that I could get weather updates and communicate with friends and family.
I'm sure I could go on, but suffice to say that we remained warm and well fed during the crisis, we checked on our neighbors, we were checked on by my dear friends, and we learned some new skills :-) My husband and I will be receiving our first COVID 19 vaccinations this week and we are looking forward to the time we will be fully vaccinated and can resume more normal activities.
I am praying for all those still without power and/or water in both my area and in Texas, and I have never stopped praying for all those suffering from COVID 19. People are still dying from COVID, and it feels even sadder now that the vaccines are available.
Wishing all of you a fruitful Lent and a joyous Easter.
