Being Prepared

We weathered Hurricane Sandy just fine!  It was windy and rainy, but the only neighborhood casualty I could see on my walk yesterday was a street sign.  The boys were disappointed that our power never went out.  We were definitely prepared for an outage this time, after our big outage in June!  We had tons of flashlights at the ready, I did loads and loads of laundry, the dishwasher was run, as was the garbage disposal, I made muffins, we finished and printed out everything we needed for Rivendell . . . but the power stayed on.  Oh well!  We went ahead and slept down in the basement Monday night.  Our house is surrounded by big trees, and we didn't want to take any chances.  It was much more pleasant sleeping down there now than back in June--the temperature was pleasant, the air was circulating, and we could run our noisemakers, so everyone slept well!

We ended up moving Rivendell to today (Wednesday) instead of Tuesday anyway, which turned out to be a God-thing.  The McC's basement flooded again, which they discovered at 3:30 AM, so they spent the rest of the night bailing water and trying to clean up.  They could not have done a day at Rivendell--they were exhausted!

For us, it was really nice to have an unplanned day off.  We still did a short day of school for Caleb and Jonathan mainly, but then in the afternoon we were able to get all that laundry folded and put away, so I am feeling on top of laundry for the first time in, oh, I don't know, months probably. 

Also, we have had the bright idea to switch the girls room and Caleb and Jonathan's room around.  Caleb and Jonathan's room has a bunk bed with a double bed on bottom and a twin bed on top, while the girls have single bunk beds with a pull-out trundle underneath.  We had been thinking about where Micah could go, once the new baby (still nameless if you are wondering) needs the crib.  We have other cribs, but we are running out of room space to put a second crib!  So if Caleb and Jonathan move into the girls room, then Micah could sleep on the trundle bed.  I don't think he would do very well, sleeping with someone on a double bed!

But changing rooms involves a lot of logistics, and I simply haven't had time to even start.  Yesterday I was able to get a little bit more organized in both rooms, giving me hope that this move may actually get accomplished in the near future, as opposed to months away, LOL.  All 5 affected kids are very excited about the impending changes, and they don't understand why I haven't just dropped everything else to make it happen!

Speaking of being prepared, on Sunday Pastor Mike talked about how everyone was so concerned about buying batteries and being prepared for the coming storm, but we really need to be prepared for death and judgment, since that will happen for everyone.  That point was driven home late Sunday night.  I have followed the blog mommylife for several years now.  The author, Barbara Curtis, was a mother of 12, 4 of them with Down's syndrome (3 adopted).  She got political around election times, but she posted frequently and always had interesting perspectives in many different areas.  Well, Sunday night I got an email from my homeschool loop that said she had suffered a massive stroke and was not expected to regain consciousness.  Indeed, she died Tuesday.  What a complete shock!  However, she was prepared for this event--I know she placed her confidance in the blood of Christ to cover her sins, and I will see her in heaven.  I am so sad for her family right now, though, and I will really miss reading her posts.