Some cheese with my whine?

When I was a kid I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, complete with dark brown braids. I read the tales of her life and thought how much fun it would be to live that pioneer family life. I have since changed my mind. With the ice storm and loss of power, (we are on day 7); I have come to the realization that I quite enjoy being a modern woman who is completely reliant on modern transportation, technology, and electricity! Those frontier women were tough! Thankfully, we still have generator power, but we are dealing with some water issues and our generator kicking off at the well pump. I love living in rural Arkansas; I love being out on the farm away from all the traffic; I don’t love not having electricity.
I am trying to be cheerful about all this, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to remain upbeat about putting a 4-year-old who hates the dark to bed every night and listening to him cry. Last night was one of my insomniac nights. Normally on those nights I get up and quietly slip into the living room to read or write; last night I couldn’t do that. To help conserve diesel for the generator, Chris shuts it down at bedtime, which plunges the house into total quiet and darkness. Last night there was nothing I could do but lie there in the dark and think. Chris works so hard and the storm damage cleanup is adding to his list of things to do. He worries about making sure we have what we need, he worries about keeping the house and well on a generator; will it cause damage to the wiring or breakers? He’s tired; he’s cranky, and I’m losing the battle to remain cheerful and positive. For the first time since the ice storm I lay in the bed and cried. What will we do if we go back to school tomorrow? Chris doesn’t want to leave the generator going while no one is home; do I get coolers and unload the refrigerator contents into those? Do we let the house get cold again? What do we do when the kids and I get home before Chris and I don’t know how to start the big generator (and don’t want to learn).

I know I’m whining, and I really am thankful that we have the generators, and I know the crews from the Rural Electric Co-ops are working very hard to restore our power, but I just needed a minute for a pity party.
Okay, I’m better now, time to move on to more important topics. Please pray for my sister-in-law, Lindsay. She’s a new mom (see my post on my sweet new nephew), and she’s had an infection. Even though she’s been on antibiotics, the infection just wasn’t getting much better. Night before last she was very sick and Lance took her to the ER and the doctor admitted her. She has a staph infection and is being given large doses of IV antibiotics. Mom is at their house taking care of Landon for a few days, or until Lindsay can get back on her feet. She thought she may come home today, but the doctor has decided to keep her another night. I wish there was something I could do to help her, but I don’t know what that would be. We really don’t want to leave home and leave the generator running, so what to do, what to do? Pray! Please pray for Lindsay, and Lance, and Landon.

I had no intentions of turning this post into a novella, but it did, and I offer no apologies. Sometimes a girl just has to be a little long winded!