On Monday (8.15.22) on our way home from gymnastics, a brief but strong thunderstorm rolled through and our power went out. It remained out all night and most of the following morning. While we were at the library on Tuesday, the power company got it back on (praise!) and we went inside to wrap up some adoption training we had started on the day before.
As we wrapped up the training, we noticed the house was getting unbearably muggy, and we realized our AC wasn’t working… great. 🙁 A friend of ours checked it out and a part had broken. They kindly ordered a replacement for us, but we had to wait. We are not the kind of family that can survive a home without AC in summer, so we packed up and went to my mom’s house on the other side of our town.
She is eventually going to offer her house as an Air B’n’B, but it’s currently unfurnished. Unfortunately for us, that basically meant we were camping.
The first night was hard, but the following days surprisingly brought me a lot of peace and allowed space for God to do some work that needed to happen in me.
My mom’s house is literally less than 5min from downtown, so we finally walked the small shops and it was so much fun (we had only been wanting to do that since we moved here 1.5 years ago ;P ).
Due to our situation, I decided it was healthier for me to not stress about baking for the farmer’s market that weekend, so I didn’t participate. But that freed up time for us to connect with two special families that bring me a lot of peace and fill my cup – which was exactly what I needed!
One thing I really needed was simplicity, and “camping” definitely brought that. One medium size bucket of toys, a few art supplies and sticker books turned out to be an amazing gift to me and the kids.
The girls loved putting some of their drawings in our elderly neighbor’s mailbox and then watching him get it through the window.
Our nighttime routine shifted slightly and now included sharing a big bed together and sticker books – which was really fun.
Mornings were that way too.
When we got our AC fixed (8.21.22), we were so excited to go home. We were so thankful for the opportunity to be at my mom’s place and have that time to stay cool but also refresh in a weird way. 🙂