176 – 2021 Texas Snowmaggedon is over!

Today is Saturday. The temp is currently 28 here, with a projected high of 57 today. i am thankful for this week to be O-V-E-R and may it never return to my part of the world ever again!

There were a lot of little things that went wrong this week that added up to a lot of anxiety and stress for me. But in all honesty, overall my family faired well in the end.

Of course in the midst of any situation, good or bad, you don’t know how the story ends and you can get a lot more anxious than you need to be. And like everything, the more times you do something the more routine it becomes and the less stress you have from it.

Texans just don’t have experience with this much…… cold, snow, ice, busted pipes, cars that won’t start, clothes that aren’t thick enough, ability to drive in this weather, snow plows, plane de-icing machines, antifreeze, fireplaces, firewood………. the list could go on. So we reacted awful in the moment.

i have heard so many people, myself included, who have said, “i would rather have a hurricane than this,” just shows that practice does make perfect. In my lifetime, i can remember living through 3 very significant hurricane experiences, plus 3 more tropical storm-bad rain experiences. That amounts to one event about every 10-years. And this is the first time i have ever had this much cold-snow-ice events to live through.

But i realized somewhere in the middle of it all, that being grateful for what you have….. not yearning for what isn’t yours, can’t be right now, or is simply unattainable [all the way down to a cup of hot coffee] …… is a better way to live.

People talk about “when i have time” or “when i can afford it” all the time. And while there is an element of truth in that, for many of us that’s not really anything more than an excuse.

Soooo…… why am i rambling??? And what is the point of all this???

All to say, “normal” is good. My normal is a (Christian based) Domestic Discipline lifestyle. Yes, it includes a lot of discipline, including being spanked. i welcome authority and the consequences thereafter if the rules (that we both freely agreed to) are not followed.

Thankfully, i was not disciplined this week.

i did as i was instructed when it came to wrapping the pipes at the start, turning the water off, opening the spigots, waiting for the electricity to return, calling the natural gas company when we smelled it, getting the dog back inside when she escaped the front door and ran down the street like an escaped convict, getting the frozen poor dead bird out of the driveway, changing the battery in the fire alarm, getting the new battery in the car after it froze up and having to go to 4-places before finding one that was open and had batteries in stock, ensuring the phones were powered up, being understanding when food options were limited to what was not frozen and could be cooked solely on the stove, and (doing my very best) to keep a positive attitude about it all as much as possible.

So we even skipped maintenance yesterday too.

i am grateful. And thankful. And survived the Great Texas Snowmaggedon 2021! And may it never return!

Electricity… and my life…. are going back to normal…. starting now! And i couldn’t be more grateful!

Won’t deny… one of the best things about this week was i heard NO discussion about COVID, masks, or anything of this stupid pandemic! i got a break from that conversation for a few days at least.

(i told you… i’d be MUCH happier when the power came back on…. and the Texas heat is restored to its natural state! 😉)

Hugs,

Marie