Ben, Philip and Becca competed in the county 4-H Communications Day competition on Friday night, and John Mark was a room host. We are all so glad that is over! The storm really threw off speech preparations, so everyone was stressed out. This was Ben's very first time competing, and he did so well! I am particularly proud of him because he is my quiet child, and the one least willing to take risks. The three of them will all compete in the regional competition at the end of March.
Becca's best bud, Lauren, spent the night with us on Friday night, and on Saturday, I took the gals to a new ceramic place for Becca's 14th birthday. They painted tiles and ate cake, and were very silly!
Before we left yesterday afternoon, Nathanael came up to me and asked, "Mom, what's an inferno?"
So on January 25, the weatherman said we had some ice coming our way- big deal, right? John was in the middle of a huge tile project in our kitchen (remember the broken tiles smack dab in the middle of the kitchen floor?) and because these tiles were in the main thru-way from the upstairs leading to the downstairs, we had been going through the yard to the back door whenever we needed to go downstairs. That was all fine and good (in a going-to-the-outhouse kind of way) until the sleet began late Monday afternoon and it became unsafe to walk down the front steps and around to the back door. Then we all had to make flying leaps across the kitchen floor- lots of fun- but little did we know that was the least of the problems to come.
On Tuesday morning, we had a bit of ice which still seemed to be no big deal, but the trees, they did not agree. Our subdivision lost power at 11:22 Tuesday morning, and the ice continued. The tree limbs grew so heavy that they began falling, and many trees split right in half. All night long and throughout the next day, we listened to the loud cracks, pops, and crashes of trees falling all around us. The kids watched out the windows, oohing and aahing over the spectacle, and also mourning their favorite climbing branches.
Turns out we were one of the lucky ones: we had heat from two large kerosene heaters, ample food, a gas grill, vans full of gas, a gas hot water heater, and a neighbor willing to share a line from his generator to run our refrigerators and some lights for a few hours each day. Others weren't so lucky. For several days, gas stations had no electricity to pump gas; stores had no electricity to serve customers; banks had no electricity to dispense cash; driveways, streets, and even main roads were blocked by huge limbs, trapping people in their homes and subdivisions; and to complicate matters for everyone, AT&T was completely down, which made communication next to impossible. There was a run on gas and kerosene, causing shortages across the region for several days; John eventually had to drive an hour east for kerosene. People stood in lines for hours to buy food, heating supplies, and generators because stores were allowing only 15-25 customers in at a time. The National Guard was called in, and emergency workers from across the country began arriving.
Literally thousands of utility poles were snapped by the ice, dragging main power transmission lines into roads, ravines, rivers and lakes. Some of the emergency workers that worked Hurricane Katrina said that although home loss was much worse with Katrina due to the flooding, the damage to the power grid here was unlike anything they'd ever seen. A number of people in our region have died from carbon monoxide poisoning or hypothermia. There have been over 125 house fires, and several families have stood by helplessly and watched their houses burn because rescue workers could not reach them in time.
Our family was very fortunate to regain power after only six days; hundreds in our region- and many of our friends- are still without, two weeks later. Our city looks like a hurricane has swept through! Virtually every tree in the city sustained major damage. John and the boys have been out with the chainsaw every day for the past week, and the job is still not done. Every yard has a huge pile of limbs and logs waiting to eventually be picked up, and some streets are still barely passable. What. A. Mess. But even so, we are very thankful: thankful for friends and strangers who have helped in so many different ways, thankful for workers who come from all over to serve our community, thankful that throughout this ordeal, God is in control and his mercies never fail.
This is my tree now:
The kids managed to have fun in spite of it all- it's been quite an adventure!
-This would be the adorable chocolate lab that showed up on our doorstep yesterday and seems inclined to stay. We've called the vets, took him in to be scanned for a microchip, put up flyers, and when the Animal Shelter and the newspaper office open again on Monday, we will continue the search for his owner. In the meantime, we are all enjoying his visit because he's such a sweetheart. But I must talk to Copper about not bringing boys home.
I believe dad had more "help" than he wanted, and notice Nathanael's inside-out and backwards shirt. We're all about priorities here, and I guess right-side out clothes just isn't one of them. It's possible I told him to go put on a clean shirt and this was his idea of a "clean shirt." Boys! Anyway, after it was all said and done, John got 10 summer sausages out of it, plus a bunch of deer burgers, and I have no idea what he's going to do with those. These are the sausages before they went into the oven. After they're cooked, they really look like summer sausage, and they taste pretty good too, if you like summer sausage.
John is quite proud of his efforts, but he says he will never do this again- way too much work! (What a relief!)
John Mark had a great time working on the campaign in Nashville this past week. His candidate lost to a better-funded incumbent, but the kids got to stay in a very ritzy area, and that was plenty of excitement in itself. The lady whose husband invented foam pool noodles opened her very large, very plush mansion to these kids. The girls all stayed in the rooms upstairs, but the boys all brought sleeping bags and stayed in the fantasy game room downstairs (it's a wonder any of them got any sleep). Apparently, Carrie Underwood lives next door, and the kids got to deliver campaign literature to Carrie's butler- such excitement! The campaign was smart and offered incentives to its teen volunteers, so John Mark came home with gift certificates from Walmart and Starbucks for making the most calls in a certain period of time, etc. He was full of stories to tell when he finally got home last Tuesday night. And that's all we'll say about election night.
In other news: Nathanael has been laid out this week with a double ear infection, but after a round of amoxicillin, he's all better. Just two weeks left in co-op: woo-hoo! We are busy preparing for the medieval feast, and can I just say, that against all expectations, my 4th and 5th graders all learned their lines for their play about St. George and the Dragon, and it's going to be a riot! And finally, I have read The Scarlet Pimpernel, and I just want to know why teachers forced us to read The Scarlet Letter when we could have been reading The Scarlet Pimpernel? Oh, I know, The Scarlet Letter has lots of important themes about sin and guilt and human nature, blah, blah, blah, but The Scarlet Pimpernel? Cloak and dagger and romance- love it! I had the book with me when I took Nathanael to the doctor, and his doctor confessed her high school crush on the Scarlet Pimpernel- too funny!
And I guess that's all for today. I'm off to procrastinate!
Yes, that is a very sorry attempt at poetry... moving on! Here are the mundane and exciting things which have occurred since I last left you (does that make sense? I'm too tired to make it make sense):
--Flag Football season has ended and the Football banquet is over (doing a happy dance)
--Went to the Renaissance festival at the Episcopal church downtown, followed by a lunch at El Chico's (GranMartha's treat!) and a visit to the pumpkin patch. Don't these kids look happy to be at the pumpkin patch?
--Got John Mark a haircut (!) Apparently, his girl friends (as opposed to girlfriends) have convinced him that having short, well-groomed hair makes him look like a homeschooler. Imagine that.
--Cleaned all the upstairs carpets during co-op fall break, and spent the entire next week with icky sinus crud (are those two things related?? Maybe cleaning really does make me sick...)
--Sang with the praise team for the Pregnancy Crisis Center fundraiser banquet, which was a huge source of anxiety for John and which required several extra rehearsals crammed in around fall break and all these other activities
--Lunch with a friend, and a very satisfying trip to the consignment store: a tough brown velveteen jacket, two excellent red sweaters, a pair of black slacks, and cool black suede shoes! My joy would have been made complete if I had been able to find a new pair of jeans too.
--John Mark took the PSAT, as practice for the big tests coming up over the next couple of years. The public school counselor who worked with us was really nice and helpful.
--Got all my stuff together for another kids' clothing consignment sale- yea me!
--John Mark helped the 4-H Extension staff with "A Taste of Extension" at the local fairgrounds, and ended up doing two interviews on the radio. He was very pleased with himself. It's probably just as well I wasn't listening to the radio that day so I didn't have to worry about what might come out of his mouth during an impromptu interview (I can only imagine what might come out of my mouth during an impromptu interview...)
--Oktoberfest!! I have never seen such an odd variety of German food in my entire life, and will you look at all these people crammed into our kitchen? It was an experience, let me tell you, and John was in culinary heaven. But the best thing about Oktoberfest? John fixed all the plumbing problems in the house- hallelujah!
--Our 4-H club held a food drive at Walmart on a beautiful afternoon, and people were so incredibly generous! Becca, the club president, did not help with the food drive because she had been horseback riding and camping with a friend all weekend, and when I asked her, "Are you coming??" she moaned, "Do I have to walk?" So I told her to stay home.
--The four younger kids and I went to a family reunion with Daddy D's family this past weekend while The Hunter Duo went on John Mark's last youth hunt (next year, he'll be too old for the youth hunt). So, I didn't have my camera for the family reunion, but The Hunter Duo captured this Kodak moment: 
I'm pretty sure that bad boy is on ice in my garage at the moment, but I'm not asking any questions. Later, the Hunter Duo became the Fishing Duo- what a catch!
--And that night, we had the annual Trunk or Treat and bonfire at our church. John volunteered to run one of the games this year, "The Eyeball Toss," which consisted of wet spaghetti "worms" and a number of very sticky and extremely icky fake eyeballs. You can see that Nathanael was very worried about this. Hey look, there's Stephanie!
But wait... I think I've seen her somewhere before...
Ah, yes. Oktoberfest. Everyone who is anyone is at Oktoberfest! OK, not really. Our guest list is determined by proof of some type of German descent (no matter how slight), and how much you can suck up to John how many people our house can hold. We have clearly reached maximum capacity, unless we plan this thing earlier in the year and move into the street. But we love Stephanie and let her come even if she is Scottish.
And that is what we've been up to again.
Camping: Three families from our Care group (plus a few "extras" we found along the way :-) camped together. John 
The Birthday Boy: Ben is Ten! Don't let that quiet exterior fool you- he's a ham. He had a big day: breakfast at McDonald's with dad, a big shopping expedition with GranMartha, and then Daddy D grilled for everyone. Mmmmm!
This is a large section that broke off one of our maple trees. At first we figured a new roof was in our future, but thankfully, the heaviest part of the tree missed the roof and hit the side of the house. Ironically, the tree we had been most worried about, an insect-eaten pine, is one of the only trees in our yard without major damage.
We lost our power and cable lines, and things did not look good for the fully dressed turkey we had sitting in our fridge. We were very thankful that we had taken the pool down a few weeks ago, thus avoiding having 5000 gallons of water flood our yard, because all these branches? They're right where the pool sits.
A crew from church came and helped haul the limbs to the back of the yard- a project for another day. Afterward, John went with them to work on some other yards that needed help, and I went in search of an oven for the poor turkey. My friend Lynn across town still had electricity and agreed to take my turkey in for the afternoon. That night for dinner, we had an impromptu turkey-and-dressing dinner with Ted and Christina and Lynn and Tommy, since CARE group was canceled while everyone dealt with their storm problems.
Friends at church helped us find an electrician who came out first thing Monday morning to make repairs so the electric company could run the lines again. In the meantime, John worked out a deal with our neighbor to provide gas for his generator if he would hook us up too. So the past three days have been kind of like a glorified camping trip... or maybe like living in a third world country.
The generator ran for maybe three hours at a time during the day and again before bedtime, so we were able to hook up our refrigerator and freezer long enough to keep things cold. The weather has been absolutely fabulous- low 70's- and perfect for having the windows open. Since our water heater is gas, we still had hot water. All in all, this hasn't been such a terribly difficult experience, especially since I got out of cooking dinner for a few nights! Daddy D cooked for us after they got power back, the kids got to spend all afternoon at the library with GranMartha, and I got to read The Shack in almost one sitting!
John hooked my computer up to the generator on Monday night, and a queue was formed for school work. The older kids have assignments they have to send in throughout the week, and I do all my class prep on the computer too, so that was somewhat frantic, but we made it without too great a hardship. Even so, when the electric company showed up at 3:30 this morning (when they said they were working around the clock, they weren't kidding!) we were very happy to see them.
Tonight, the house is still covered in electrical cords and the debris of three days of "camping", but we feel very blessed by our wonderful family, friends and neighbors, and by the good Lord who kept our family and our home safe in the storm.
Daddy D and John Mark drew the plans for this bird feeder, based on an old feeder we had hanging in our back yard. John Mark went to carpentry camp last summer, so he was able to do most of it himself, with Daddy D watching over his shoulder to make sure he did everything properly. It came out really nice, and won grand prize at the fair.
Daddy D also helped Philip and Ben build these blue-ribbon birdhouses from a kit:
Santa brought Becca a digital camera for Christmas, and she entered some of the photos she took last spring into the 4-H photography exhibit. The raindrop photo was her dad's favorite, but the Dogwoods won champion:
On a whim, my mom and I signed up for a day-long oil painting class at Michael's. My mom has been painting forever, but I've never painted anything besides a wall, and I probably never would have had the guts to sign up without her encouragement. But the good news about oil painting is that about anyone can do it, and here's proof:
Ok, so it's not a Rembrandt, but it's good enough to hang in some corner of the house. I also signed up for my very first quilting class. It took all day to learn the technique to do the four-square pattern, and you fold the edges over and finish them as you complete each row. I didn't intend to end up with a pink quilt, but I didn't have enough of the yellow I needed. I do like the old-fashioned look of the floral patterns though. I had big plans to continue working on my squares, but it appears that this will be next summer's project too.
And this is what a finished project looks like. It's the lap quilt Becca made at Quilt Camp:
My mom and I signed up for a basket class together, but she had to go to Alabama on a family emergency, leaving me to fend for myself at the basket class. The technique is actually a lot of fun and I should have left the class with a completed basket, but my thread kept breaking, causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Here is my half-finished basket:
My mom has already finished two, plus a lid. Sigh.
And here's my final project, completed this weekend:
I purchased a ratty old lapboard at a garage sale, sanded, painted, and decoupaged it with pictures from an old calendar- very easy. But as you can see, very easy is apparently right up my alley, because it's the only project that I've completed!
John Mark, Becca and I have also been working on new piano pieces all summer. John Mark has nearly driven the entire family insane with "Saber Dance," (no, that link's not John Mark, but listen to it a few times and you'll be ready to start banging your head against the wall out of sheer frustration :-) but I can't complain because I've been working on Gershwin's Prelude #1, which is almost as bad. He's also been playing "Memory" from Cats and the theme from Phantom of the Opera, and considering that my poor family had to endure endless repetitions of "Ice Castles," "Endless Love," and "Nadia's Theme" from The Young and the Restless when I was his age, I figure I can endure just a little too much Andrew Lloyd Webber.
I finished Bach's Invention #8 last month and I'll be done with Beethoven's Sonata "Pathetique" by the end of this month. Becca has been working on fun stuff- mostly Disney songs- but this is the first summer she's asked to take lessons all summer. I'm just glad she's learned to play for the sheer fun of it.
And that's the end of this year's summer art tour.... (did I hear a sigh of relief from the peanut gallery??)
