That's the night that the lights went out...

So the other night we got an impromptu emergency preparedness drill.

Ok, actually, the power just went out and our kids panicked and you might have thought it was the end of the world around here for a little while.

But we opted to treat it as an emergency preparedness drill so there you go.

We lit our handy dandy oil lamp (kids thought that thing was just for show...nope...actually I don't much care for how it looks, but it is super helpful in a blackout) and the panic level edged down a notch or two.  Despite what the picture shows, the oil lamp does light a room really well and does NOT need batteries (which is fabulous because we can never find those things when we need them because our kids tend to pilfer them for toys and such).

Round two of emergency preparedness 101 had us concerned about the temperature our kids would face as they tried to sleep.  We piled them all into one bedroom (which conserves body heat and eases tiny dark-terrified minds with the comfort of company) and pulled out our brand new from Christmas propane powered space heater (thanks Mom and Dad).

Um, yeah, I am in love with this baby.

We had it on low and it was pumping out heat like nobody's business.  We didn't even have the fan turned on (mostly because that requires batteries and we couldn't find any...see note above).  The kids were almost too warm (which is a good problem to have in the winter when the power is out).  It was comfortable and cozy and lovely.

Aaaah the glow of a freshly set space heater.

Really, we came through this whole power out for a couple hours thing in pretty good shape.  Our biggest problem was our bed.

You see, Josh and I recently purchased a new bed (since the previous one had supported our aging bodies for 16 years and was tired and sagging and no longer willing to put up with us) and we bought an adjustable bed that can lift the head an feet up and down hoping to help alleviate someone's back pain (and maybe someone's snoring as well).  

The problem comes that during the day I set the bed into almost a sitting position with feet high because as I read or work on the computer while sitting on the bed it is more comfortable.

But that position is not actually great for sleeping, and with no power we couldn't make the bed lie back down.

I love sleeping sitting up...on my bed...in the cold.

It wasn't the most comfortable start to a night of sleep ever.

But, the power fairies smiled down on us and we'd only been in bed about 20 minutes (staring straight ahead because heaven knows you don't roll around much when you're in a bed shaped like a letter "s" that fell over) when the lights all came blazing back on and everything was back to normal.  Just to be on the safe side I didn't put he bed up so high today just in case we had a repeat tonight.  I'm a planner you know.

Sometimes it is good to be reminded that we can manage without the fripperies of life (like power, and wifi) and it was good for our kids (and their parents) to have to think around the problem and see that all was well despite the dark.