A Very Amish Anniversary

Yesterday the hubs and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. (Read that post here.) We have been together for 11.5 years and tend to put far more emphasis on that anniversary, so we didn't have much planned. We were having our weekly family dinner with my in-laws and then maybe a movie after the kiddo fell asleep.

The day before I had come down with a pretty awful cold. Call it fate's way of reminiscing. (I got terribly sick on our honeymoon.) I refused to let that get in the way of our anniversary. While the hubs was at work I pulled myself together and made his favorite beef stew. While that simmered in the slow cooker I scrubbed our house.

We live with two large dogs and a three year old, so a thorough house cleaning IS a gift.

While I was cleaning and fighting off the fever induced delirium I noticed the rain and wind had picked up. Switching the channel from Keeping Up With The Kardashians PBS to the local news station I saw that our area was under a tornado and a severe thunderstorm watch.

Yikes!

We have lived in our house for nearly two years and my family lived here for 50 before that. In that time we have never lost electricity and they had only lost it a handful of times. Due to that I never was concerned with losing power. I thought the hubs would arrive home to a warm, delicious smelling, sparkling house with a few sandbox toys blown across the yard.

I was wrong.

The view of my clean house and cooking dinner.

Just as I turned off the special blueberry crumble I had been baking as a surprise our lights flickered. Then I heard a bang. Then, darkness. Actually, it was 4:45pm and wasn't dark at all. It just sounded way more dramatic and closer to how I felt. The stew still had an hour on high until it would be done. So, I did what I do when I panic, I called my husband.


His logical and calm answer was not what I wanted to hear. "There isn't a whole lot we can do until the power comes back on. I will be home shortly."

So, here I was, with a half cooked stew, husband and in-laws on their way, terrible cold, and a kiddo who could not grasp the concept that our electricity didn't work. My day that started with the feeling like I was Super Wife was quickly turning me into Whiny Lady.

Now, I know I am going to sound like a first-world brat here but I can not deal without power. Sure, camping is fun. I love the back-to-nature aspect of it. What I love more is the back-to-modern-civilization aspect when it is over.

I love my television and cell phone. (I was on 17% of battery life and our cell mini tower that makes it so we have reception plugs in.) I love my vacuum and crock pot. I love hot water and lamps. I love my computer and internet. I hate not having it. Sometimes I feel like a jerk for saying it when I know so many people live without, however, this is who I am and I love electricity.

I made a quick phone call and discovered that my grandparents that live a half mile from our house had power. I packed up the crock pot, grabbed my cell charger and fled to their home. I happily basked in the electric glow of their apartment for an hour while my stew finished cooking.

Dinner looked amazing by candlelight.

As I drove into my completely dark, tree-part strewn, post apocalypse neighborhood I silently prayed that the lights would suddenly come back on, welcoming me home with their beacons of modernity. Instead I was met with an eerily silent driveway. I unloaded the car and went to join my in-laws.


"Welcome to our very Amish anniversary," I said to my candle lit family.

"I think it looks romantic," my overly optimistic sister-in-law said.

She was right, in the end. We all ate the delicious dinner I had prepared, filling ourselves to the brim. The conversation was great and the company better. The evening didn't go exactly as I had planned, but nothing in life does. Instead, we had a cozy, candle lit evening.

We snuggled into bed with full tummies. I said my hourly silent prayer for power and we all drifted off to sleep in the darkness. We awoke to electricity and sunshine. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Makes you appreciate what you have. I agree. 8 hours without electricity and I am shopping for generators grateful for what I have.

I am also grateful for the 11 1/2 years, 7 married, that I have had with my husband. May we have a thousand more Amish anniversaries. (Minus the Amish part.....)

With a flash, you can barely tell we are left in the dark.