So it’s 9:00 pm and it’s the night before the first day of school. I’ve finally labeled all of my son’s school supplies and have them bagged up and ready to go for the morning. I’ve set out clothes for both children as well as packed my older son’s lunch. The coffee pot is set to brew at 6:00 am and everything is ready by the door for the morning. Both boys are in bed and actually asleep! I have done everything I needed to do in order to have the morning go as smooth as possible.
Then a huge thunder and lightning storm rolls in and wakes up my younger son who then woke up his brother. Now it’s 9:30 pm and we’re all cuddled in my bed because my little guy is absolutely terrified of thunder. I’m trying to soothe the little guy as each boom of thunder rolls in and each flash of lightning lights up the entire room. Each time the thunder rumbles the little guy cries out and grabs me tighter. I have the window air conditioner unit on trying to help drown out the sound of the thunder but it’s not helping. The rain starts really coming down now and I’m laying there hoping I can get these two boys back to sleep too. I’m also starting to worry about their first days back to school, new classrooms, new teachers, new kids all of this new stuff is being thrown at them at one time.
It’s now 10:00 pm when suddenly the thunder booms, a lightning bolt shoots through the sky hitting our electric pole making the loudest explosion noise. The air conditioner shuts off and it is all of a sudden pitch black in the room. The boys are now panicked and crying, I’m trying to get to the candle and lighter on my dresser and accidentally drop the f bomb out loud! As I light the candle a little voice says “You can’t say that word mommy.” and I can’t help but to giggle. The boys start to calm down now that the room has some light but now I have to go out and grab the flashlights and lanterns so that their dad can get through the house when he gets home. I light another candle (those scented candles really come in handy on nights like this!) and head out of the bedroom. My brain still trying to figure out what is actually going on because it all happened so fast I wasn’t really thinking just reacting. I look at the boys and explain what just happened. I told them it would be alright but the electric company would have to fix it and I didn’t know when that would happen because of how bad the storm was.
The boys follow me into the kitchen to see what I am doing. As I’m getting the flashlights from one of the cupboards my downstairs neighbor comes up to check on us to make sure we had flashlights and to see if we need anything. We check to make sure all the flashlights and lanterns have working batteries and replace the ones that needed them. Just as we’re finishing up the neighbor from the back house comes over to check on us. He saw the lightning strike the pole and the explosion that happened after. The boys decided they wanted their own flashlights so we went into their play room and grabbed one for each of them and their lantern. Supplies in hand we say good night to the neighbors and one of them leaves a flashlight at the bottom of the stairs for the boys dad.
I get the kids and myself back into my bed and am just getting comfortable when their dad gets home. Needless to say they got back out of bed to tell him what happened. It’s now 11:00, I’m completely exhausted. These kids need to get to sleep they have their first day of school and I have to work at 7:00 am so they have got to be up 6:00 am at the latest. I tell them they will have to finish this tomorrow because we need sleep and their dad and I put them back to bed. I also go to bed to try and get some sleep.
As I’m laying there decompressing and listening to the rain I can’t help but think “there’s always something isn’t there?”. However I’ve been trying to remember the good parts of my day before I go to sleep so that I’ll always end the day on a good note. So I think about how I was already prepared in case something like this happened. I always have candles in my room, I keep a lantern and flashlights in the kitchen and always have spare batteries, the kids have their own flashlights and lantern and I had already set out clothes and packed my son’s lunch for the next day. It could have been worse.
So as much as tonight didn’t go the way I planned it didn’t go as bad as it could have if I didn’t already have what I needed. Were the boys tired the next day? Yea, a little. That didn’t stop them from having a great first day of school though. We thankfully were not without power for long and it was back on before we woke up the next morning. The electric company have some amazing employees, they came out in the storm and repaired the wires!
This was just one event of the day and it had many different accomplishments I was proud of. I was prepared in the event of a power outage, my boys learned something new about lightning and electricity and I didn’t get frustrated or flustered, I just rolled with the flow. I’m really proud of that! Trying to remember the positive in my life is really helping me stay positive throughout the day and during different situations I encounter.
