Christmas
was great! No, I did not get the end of
year letters out this year, but after all, it is still before Valentine’s Day
right?
Not too long before Christmas I overheard
my kids talking. Oldest was explaining
to the younger ones, ““It’s better to not have so much. That way we can appreciate what we have more.” My heart melted as I realized he is fully
aware of the lack of funds in our home and I recognized another tidbit of how
gratitude works. I have to count my
blessings. I have been given some great
kids.
The lesson went over well. “This is the best Christmas ever!” could be
heard for days while they played with their “best gifts ever” that cost a
whopping $10-$15 each from Wal-mart on Black Friday. Proof we don’t have to spend a ton of money
to make the kids happy.
I was glad for the effort made in keeping
to the budget when I short time after Christmas our furnace stopped putting out
heat. We all camped out in the front
room with several space heaters surrounding us.
Though it snowed that night, it was not as cold then as it is now.
We spent four days doing this just
before school started up again from the winter break. By the time the furnace
was repaired, the kids were saying, “This is great! Even on a school night!” While hubby was saying, “This can’t go on
much longer!” and trying not to pull his hair out.
I guess we covered our tempers well
enough. One child reported he liked it
better when the furnace was broken better than when the pipes were. I agreed!
Our pipes did not actually break but they didn’t work right.
The kitchen sink is in an
overhanging window area. The pipes
freeze here every year. The rest of the
house has working water so I thought little of it other than, “This is
annoying.”
It made for the most exciting dish
washing. Even though we had tried to stick
to dish-less meals like sandwiches, dry cereal, and pizza, after nine days we
had run out of paper plates. I could
hardly stand the pile of pans in the sink.
The time had come to do the dishes.
We filled the sink with water from
the bathroom and set up an assembly line. I washed and the kids took the dishes to the
bathroom where Daddy helped rinse and then the kids took the dishes back to the
dishwashers to dry. When their dish as
safely in the drying area, they got back in line for their next run around. It was the most cooperation in our history of
house cleaning.
I shared my rather brilliant
experience with a friend who’s eyes got wide with worry and she said, “Your
pipes are frozen?!? You better get home
for when they break! It will flood your
house! I can’t believe your pipes haven’t
broken yet! Everyone’s pipes break when
they freeze.”
When I opened the door I was
greeted with the sound of rushing water. Oh no!
They broke! Grateful once again
for sticking to the budget I ran to find… Oh, nope. Never mind.
That’s just the sound of rushing water from pipes that are no longer
frozen. Hooray!
Our kitchen pipes are a flexi-type
pipe, not like normal pipes. Sigh of relief,
followed by sigh of frustration. I wish
we had left the water turned on more so they would have stayed unfrozen. The constant dripping in the back ground is
driving me crazy. I definitely liked it
better when the heater was broken instead of the pipes.
I expect my lesson in patience to
be ending soon. A storm is expected to
blow through tomorrow bringing a heat wave with it. Temps should finally get about 25 degrees.
In other news, my baby is growing
up. I know, not a big surprise, but my
oldest is now 11 years old and has been invited to an open house for the up
coming junior high kids. No turning back
now. Kids will grow. I am debating
whether or not to let my hair go gray or continue coloring it. Do we have to get older just because they do?
We have been sledding only once
with all the cold weather it is too cold to make the trek to the hill and back
home again. I am looking for a fabulous
hot cocoa recipe. I think when I find it
there will be cause to brave the cold again.
Keep making your challenges your
blessings! Have a marvelous day!
