Life is Back to "Normal"

Dear Kiddos, 

After 5 days of no running water to the house, I am happy to report that water is back and running. The whole experience was super inconvenient, and irritating, because we didn't know if the water outage would be a few hours, or days, but the water that we had saved up before the shut-down was enough to carry us through the outage and beyond. 

Before we got water, we tried to stay active inside, but not too active...so we revived Cosmic kids yoga

Hailey, you are now able to do more than you were able to do last time we tried it (like a few months ago...maybe it was a year? Who knows, the time is really all just a blur.) 

On the last cold day, we went back out to give one last huzzah with sledding. Hailey, you came along and had a blast for a little...

but then you got intrigued by all the icicles and started to play with those. 

The conditions weren't as good as the first time we went sledding, but it was good enough. 

Then, things started to warm up and we started to collect water from the downspouts. We ended up collecting probably over 100 gallons of water and ended up not using too much of it, but again, we didn't know how long the outage would last and thought that we should be safe. Pro-tip, downspout water is way cleaner than melted snow. Each snowflake forms around a speck of dust, so when we would melt down a pot of snow, we always had a layer of sediment that would settle at the bottom. 

So, with all the collected water, and inspired by a video created by a neighbor who was able to connect the water from his pool into his water heater, Daddy decided to try to engineer a system that would feed the harvested gutter water into our hot water heater. 

He worked on it all afternoon! And in the end, we just got a little trickle of water from the faucets downstairs. Not enough to take a shower by any means, but I guess it was kind of cool that it kinda worked... 

There was a moment when I had a brief feeling of desperation. This happened when I was hand washing a small load of undies and pants for the girls in the sink with harvested and boiled snow. That moment really helped me gain an appreciation for the modern comforts that we have. Just 2 generations ago, dishwashers and washing machines weren't even a thing and people just washed everything by hand! Who has time for that nowadays?!?

Haha, the irony. We did watch a lot of movies during this time. We watched about a movie a day. To conserve electricity, we kept the thermostat low and in the afternoons we would snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. (Well, I snuggled with you guys just 1 day, the other times I was outside harvesting snow.)

As the temperature warmed up, the igloo was still standing strong. As of yesterday, there was still a little bit of snow left over, but today's 76 degree weather melted what was left really quickly. 

Hailey, you must have literally created over 100 pieces of art this week. Seriously, you just make one thing after another and when you are bored, you always run over and ask if you can paint. I have the painting station permanently set up for you right now and you just go to town! You even made your own chef hat, menu, and pretend food! 

Nathan, you are currently working on the push up challenge for martial arts. You have to be able to do 50 push ups and so far you can do 25 good ones before you collapse as shown below. Slowly, day by day, I know you will be able to accomplish this. 

After 5 days of no showering (what broke me was my hair) we finally threw in the towel and asked our friends in Round Rock if we could come over for showers and to visit. It was a while since we have seen them so it was a good to finally be able to actually see their little girl in person. 

Of course, after we were all clean and prepared to go another 5 days without showering, the water came on that evening. That was Sunday. We waited a couple of days for the city water pressure to improve and we did our first small load of laundry in the washing machine today. It was awesome. The agitator never moved so beautifully. 

Today, we went to Barton Creek greenbelt. The weather was perfect. There were a few wet feet and shorts, but after surviving a natural disaster, we didn't let that get us down!  It's so hard to believe that only last week the low was 7 degrees and today it was 76 degrees! 

COVID numbers are looking great as the most vulnerable in the community are now vaccinated. Things are looking up. Hannah and Nathan, you both have belt testing tomorrow, so hopefully you  both will be in shape for it. Keeping fingers crossed. 

Love,

Mommy

 

Semi-survival Challenge: We Got This!

Dear Kiddos, 

This post is a few days late because we've been trying to survive an abnormal weather event in Texas. I'll get into more details later in the post, but let's share a bit about what happened before things became complicated. 

We took a field trip up to Mt. Bonnell. This time it wasn't super hot and we parked right by the trailhead (instead of parking by Mayfield park and having to hike up the steep neighborhood. It was all fun until Hannah, you slipped off of the side of the cliff (by the parking area) and sprained your ankle pretty badly. We ended up taking you to the doctor the next day, got an x-ray, and thankfully it wasn't bad. 

Hailey, you are still quite the budding artist and your pictures (along with made-up words) become more elaborate each day. 

On Chinese New Year, we did a few Chinese activities, ate traditional Chinese New Year foods and met up with a family to do some Chinese crafts. 

I have learned that I need to get outside for a little each day for my sanity, so we even took a walk to deliver some nian gao to some friends. 

Even Chinese school had a Chinese New Year celebration where you guys got a chance to do crafts, listen to stories, and play games...all virtually. The teachers did a really good job with planning this event. Even Hailey got to join in on the fun. 

Valentines Day
Sunday was Valentines Day so you guys (mostly Hannah) planned a date night for us. Hannah single handedly squeezed 10 pounds of oranges worth of juice. It was sooo good. There's really nothing more refreshing than a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. 

The girls spent all afternoon cutting out decorations for the entire house. 

And even created a valentines day scavenger hunt. 

I surprised you guys with the opportunity to make your own chocolate covered strawberries and you all went to town with the sprinkles. 

And that night for dinner, Hannah you and I made a multi-course meal going off of the menu that you also worked super hard on all week. You actually created a multiple paged menu. There were appetizers, drinks, sushi choices and even dessert. 

On Monday morning, we woke up to 4.5 inches of snow. Now, to all of you who are reading from the northern states, where snow plows are waiting by the side of the highway at the first sign of snow, I want you to imagine what things would look like if those plow trucks and salt trucks didn't exist...because they don't here in Texas. So with each evening that reaches sub-freezing temps comes the refreeze, making the whole city a giant ice rink. The temperature is supposed to start warming up soon, so hopefully we will be able to get out for supplies soon. We've been at home for exactly a week now and we should be able to scrape by (food-wise) until Tuesday. 

With the cold temps, we did all the things that kids typically like to do: create giant ice marbles. 

Sled down an icy driveway. 

Read lots of books (you guys have really become interested in the Peanuts comics lately). We also recenly watched My Neighbor, Totoro and Hannah, you have announced that it is your new favorite movie. 

It's all fun and games until you lose electricity. So for 19 hours, we were without electricity. Thankfully the night before it was supposed to be the coldest night (9 degrees as a low), our electricity came back. This was not the case for many people. I have friends who endured 70 hours of no electricity AND water. 

To warm up, we actually went outside. Returning home after moving around outside made the house feel pretty warm. You guys went outside and played for a bit, but the snow was too dry to do anything cool, so after dad was finished with shoveling the driveway, you all came in for some hot cocoa. 

The coldest the house ever got during the day was 51 degrees, so in preparation for literally the coldest night in Austin in recorded history, I had the idea of breaking out the tents to keep you all warm at night. Hailey, you are a blanket kicker, so that first night you woke up and when I came to you, you were an icicle. I immediately snuggled in bed with you to warm you up. That was probably the scariest moment of this whole experience, so I wanted to make sure you guys didn't get too cold at night. 

We tried to avoid turning on the fireplace because it really doesn't heat up the house, but towards the end, we started to get desperate, so we lit it up and parked ourselves in front of the flame. 

Since we have a gas stove, thankfully, we were able to cook dinner. At dinner, we hung headlamps on our chandelier and ate a candlelight dinner of warm pasta that seemed to become cold as soon as it reached the table. 

Luckily 15 minutes before bedtime, we heard the electricity kick back on. We are still keeping it at a cool 62-65 degrees because we need to conserve energy, but you guys are still sleeping in the tent at night. 

The next day, I gathered some muffin tins and shovels for you guys to play with outside. 

I also encouraged you guys to make snow angels. And then our neighbor calls us and invites us to go sledding in the neighborhood. 

I totally forgot about this retention pond and it was the perfect sledding spot. We stayed out for almost 3 hours sledding

Nathan, I taught you how to play scrabble and I was reminded how great a game it is for mental math and spelling. This is the night we lost water. Neighbors started to text to ask if we still had our water. Living at the bottom of the hill in the neighborhood, we were the last ones to lose water, so we had time to fill buckets and pots with water. 

The next day, we spent most of the afternoon outside building an igloo. We used the pile of snow that Daddy created from shoveling the driveway and we piled on snow bricks and started to dig out the inside. 

Hailey, you also lasted outside for a long time. You helped make bricks too. 

Once we got a good flow going, the igloo started to take shape. We dug a hole, but we had to make it bigger so all 3 of you could fit. 

Nathan, you took on the task of digging the hole. 

Slowly getting there... 

So we carved more snow out... 

And finally it was finished. 

Every morning I go outside to harvest some snow to use to wash the dishes, wash hands and to flush the toilet. The best spot has been the trampoline. Another win there. 

Around meal time, I'll melt a pot of snow to use for dishes afterwards and then we reuse that water to flush the toilet. 

After lunch, we went outside for a walk. You guys played in the igloo for a little bit and then we were off. Nathan and Hailey, you guys decided to end the walk early so Hannah and I dropped you guys off at home and we went to explore the woods behind our house. I went on a walk by myself one day and the snowy woods reminded me of Narnia. We had recently read the first 2 books of Narnia so I thought that you guys would like to experience it. Hannah was the only one interested. 

So, we had an impromptu Mommy and Hannah date. 

You were so excited and you came up with scenarios that we could pretend as we explored "Narnia." 

I love how you were constantly reaching out to touch the branches as you walked by. It totally reminds me of how as a toddler, you used to stick your hand out of shopping carts to feel things that looked interesting. (I took you to a fabric store once and you were completely in heaven) 

It was just a beautiful sight. 

I taught you guys how to make fortune tellers this morning and you guys spent 2 hours making them and "telling" each other's fortunes...which was pretty entertaining. 

We still don't have water, and we might not get any for another few days. I am hoping that the weather warms up (not good news for our igloo) and we can maybe get out to the stores for supplies. We are not in dire need of anything right now and this survival challenge has made life interesting to say the least. We are very fortunate. My prayers go out to all the linemen and water company crews who are working around the clock to restore these basic commodities that I have taken for granted. 

Also, wanted to give my oven a quick shout out. We got a new oven last month with an air frying feature and it's been a game changer. It was nice to be able to throw air fried pork chops and roast veggies in a the same time. Most importantly, clean up was easy so that's one less pot of snow that I have to melt. 

Hopefully by my next post, we will have running water again. 

Until then, 

Love, 

Mommy