Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene

Almost a week without power and I'm finally back. Everyone here is fine,( although a huge tree fell on my brother's house). It is so good to be back in the blogosphere among the living!

I won't talk (much) about what a total, royal pain in the ass it is to have 3 kids 5 and under without running water. Or refrigeration. Or television, microwave, and electric light. I'm sure you can imagine. After a couple of days the bathrooms smell like latrines, even though we had plenty of water in the tub to 'flush' the toilets it just doesn't take care of everything. After three days almost all the food is eaten or no good, and much of the day is spent in lengthy searches for places that still have ice. After four days you stop reaching for the handle on the toilet because you know it won't work and start reaching for the cooler to get the milk instead of the fridge. You start running out of clean clothes to wear, will go anywhere to take a shower, including your MIL's house (that is a WHOLE other post in itself), and you don't want to step into a restaurant again for a good long time.

What I will talk about is how beautiful the stars are when no one in a 50 mile radius has electric light, they look so close you could hold them in your hand. Or that the air for days after the storm had the most beautiful smell of leaves, flowers, fresh cut grass and pure oxygen. And how my house, my wonderful house, didn't even rattle during the storm...it just stood there grinning and said "That's all you got?"

During the day, life was a grind. But the nights were magical. Our house was made for candlelight. The kids were hypnotized by their glow and never wanted us to stop reading to them. My husband and I walked under the stars and talked. He cooked delicious meals for us on the gas grill (while we still had food) and we ate by candlelight. Afterwords we snuggled on the loveseat and read and talked some more, just enjoying each others company. It was like staying at a romantic B&B that we didn't have to pay for. (one without flushing toilets or decent coffee...but you get the picture. Now I know what I'm going to do with all these rooms after we retire and the kids are gone). And the kids? Wow! They were amazing. Especially our little Nate, who doesn't exactly roll with the punches or handle changes in routine very well (he has been diagnosed with a mild form of autism) He dealt with all the challenges thrown at him with aplomb.

And, the icing on the cake. I gained a lot of perspective. It would have really sucked to be in the early stages of pregnancy this past week. Everything smelled bad, and made me gag. Bending over and washing the kids in the little tin tub was hard enough without worrying about what it might be doing to a fetus. Mind you, I would still be happier if I was pregnant right now, but there are worse things in life than not being pregnant, that's for certain.

All in all, life is good. The boys will be starting first grade on Tuesday. And as soon as I walk in the door after getting them on the bus, I'm going to have the phone in my hand calling the clinic about IVF #I've lost count. Weeee....... Sad and happy, happy and sad. It's a roller coaster, and it's all good :)