No School Like the Old School

I am at our church right now, on an office computer. Our home, like so many, is still without power. But I am not complaining. Seriously. Aside from smelly laundry and a clogged disposal that emits a certain unpleasant odor, the whole situation has really not been all too bad. In fact, I would even venture to say Hurricane Ike is probably one of the best things to ever happen to our family, to our community, to so many. The word community has begun to really resonate as families are forced to be away from their precious televisions and venture outside in to the unfamiliar territories that lurk within our neighborhoods. These territories are marked by unfamiliar faces living on 20 feet away. These faces belong to children my kids now call friends.

Who would have thought that only one week ago, my Trinity didn't even know how to ride a bike and now she is on her very own "big girl bike" without training wheels zooming down the street. Who would have thought my once shy daughter would ever make a friend on the street- let alone the near 20 friends that now seem to permanently occupy our driveway? I forgot what it was like to have a life outside of our home and our church. We have been so sheltered, we never even made time to realize there were precious people only feet away from us who could maybe use a little encouragement, a friendly hello, or some extra chicken that we had to grill from our now stale freezer.

I can remember "back in the day" when being outside was what we did. We didn't have the Internet and my mom didn't really allow us to watch much television. So my sister (hold your breath) actually read. She read books (you know, those things with paper and words...) And I was an outdoorsy kind of girl. I played outside until mom was screaming "time to eat!" I missed those days. I didn't even know I missed them until my kids grew in to them and now I was the mom screaming "Time to eat!" Wow. Thank goodness for no power. Thank God for Ike. In the midst of all of the destruction that surrounds us, we can see God's hand and I couldn't feel more blessed.

In the days to come I will post more of what I have been learning. It's been a very eye-opening week for me and I still have about 4 more days without power.