We're OK, but the Longest Week of My Life

I never expected that it would be this long between my last post and this post, but Irene really packed a punch in our area of Connecticut. We lost power at 7:30 am last Sunday, just as Irene made landfall here. Our power was restored around 1:30 this afternoon. Yes, that is six and a half days without power. Hence, the longest week of my life. I am so thankful that we are all OK and were not harmed during the storm. I am also thankful that our house wasn't damaged at all. The extent of our damage was some broken off tree tops and lots of leaves, sticks, and limbs in the yard... nothing that a little yard clean up won't fix. Others were not so lucky. There were 132 homes destroyed by Irene in Connecticut, and that number could rise as rivers clogged with storm debris continue to swell in other areas of the state. We were very lucky to come out of this unscathed.

My husband was able to get his hands on a generator after our third day without power so that we could run our refrigerator and well pump. You don't realize how important running water is until you aren't able to use it anymore. That definitely made things more manageable for the second half of the week. And now we are prepared should this ever happen again (but hopefully it won't!)

Vermont has been dealing with some terrible flooding, and some of you know that all of my family and my in-laws live up there. Their area of the state was hit pretty hard, but luckily everyone is OK, and their homes were not damaged. My father-in-law's feed store was flooded, but thankfully it was only a few inches of water and the damage was minimal.

There are a lot of things to be thankful for this week, and I've learned a lot... about myself, my family, and people in general, but I need some time to collect my thoughts and decide what I want to share. It was weird to get on the computer tonight and see some of the things I've missed (like my pencil pouch being featured on Craft Zine!) I have a lot of catching up to do, but right now I have a mountain of laundry staring me down, and I need to try to get my family's life back to normal after a crazy, mixed up week. Thanks to everyone who sent good vibes our way as the storm approached last weekend. I'll be back soon.