Saturday, February 6, 2016

My Tiny Trails Of Thoughts Make Me Giggle


Yesterday, despite the fallen trees and power lines from the heavy wet snow, our power stayed on. Between work meetings and the daily grind, baking for the 'Smooches For Pooches' Valentine's Day fundraiser began mid-afternoon. After a day and a half of baking, we've got a good amount of heart shaped biscuits baked. Two more days of baking should do it.

This afternoon, while mixing, rolling, cutting and baking, I thought of how screwed we would've been had we been amid the many who are without power until tomorrow. Really screwed. There is very little wiggle room over the next few days. We need two more days of baking in addition to what we've already done. We've set aside Tuesday afternoon and evening to swizzle the biscuits, package, box and seal. Wednesday we're shipping. Thursday and Friday we're delivering.

Two days without power would have would have put me on the edge of a breakdown. I'm sure of it. 

Then, of course, my trail of thought broke into tiny trails. The kids were napping. Lisa was at work. I'm here alone. Rolling dough. Baking. Nothing to halt my brain from diving into the "what ifs."

Two days without power. Unexpectedly. Yesterday's weather wasn't like a hurricane or blizzard where power outages were a consideration. Something we had time to prepare for.

My trail of thoughts led me to thinking about how we would prepare the kid's meals. We make their meals fresh every other day. We had enough left for dinner today. That's it. An entire package of boneless chicken breasts sat in the refrigerator. Sweet potatoes were in the basket. Fresh green beans in the freezer. We had plans on cooking their food for tomorrow and Sunday's breakfast this evening after dinner.

I had visuals of Lisa standing at her gas grill, cooking dinner for the kids. In the snow. We would have cooked their chicken on the grill and the veggies in a foil pack. Whatever it took. While this is something we do in the warm weather months, it never crosses our minds during the winter.

I giggled at the extent we'd have gone through if our gas grill wasn't an option. Lisa would travel to various restaurants to order baked chicken, steak and vegetable sides. She'd question how the sides, like carrots and green beans, were cooked. How fresh? What kind of oil? Salt and pepper free? And she'd let them know this food was for our kids. Trust would be a big issue if we had to rely on outside food sources for our kids.

That's just the way it is. 

The kids, come hell or high waters, would have had a warm, nutritious meal. Whatever it took. They would have eaten with gusto, the power outage not altering their food selection. Lisa and I would have sat at the table, giggling, as we ate our peanut butter and jam sandwiches washed down with room temperature juice. And, that would have been okay.

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