One of the many things I've learned as a Work at Home Dog Mom is that my day can shift from going as planned to not going as planned within seconds. Yesterday was a perfect example of that. The culprit? Mother Nature.
Shortly before falling asleep Wednesday night, I checked the weather for Thursday. I knew we had a fairly large storm system coming in. Lots of rain. Temperatures in the 50's. That was it. Nothing to worry about.
My alarm went off at 4 a.m. I got up. It was raining. A little breezy. I went about my usual morning routine. When Lisa left for work at 5:30, I began my work day.
I had a list of stuff I wanted to get done throughout the day. Work stuff. Housework. Baking. Spending some time in the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Project Workshop. Organizing my notes. Taking photos.
It continued to rain. Hard.
A couple of hours later, the wind picked up. A lot. At 8:15, I posted something on my personal Facebook page about the wind sounding like a hurricane. At times, it sounded as if a freight train was going down our street.
It only got worse. It became a distraction. I got a little worried.
I filled up the recycle bin with water.
By this time, the kids were getting antsy, especially Sophie. She is terrified of the wind.
The kids paced and barked. My attention was now solely focused on them. I sat on the floor and the bed with them for a bit. Played extra games of fetch with Willa. Then, once they settled down, I got up to write a paragraph or do a little housework. Fifteen minutes later, back on the floor or bed.
Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.
My trusty weather site started dishing out high wind warnings. The winds were going to get worse during the afternoon hours. They were predicting 60+ mph gusts.
The lights started flickering around 11 a.m. That's when all hell broke loose with the kids. Coco paced and barked and kept trying to jump on my lap. Sophie hid behind the sofa. Lobo ran around barking. Willa paced and lost interest in playing fetch.
I got on our bed. Laid on my side. All of the kids snuggled up against me. Coco laid across my hip. Sophie alternated between hiding behind the sofa and snuggling up to me. They were scared.
An hour later, we started losing power for very short intervals. The lights would go off for a minute and then return. The longest interval was almost 3 minutes.
At one point, I had to get up to pee. All 4 kids hovered around my feet in the bathroom.
In the world outside of our home, things were bad. A transformer blew up. A tree fell on a powerline. Roads were being closed because of flooding.
When Lisa got out of work, she called me. I told her to postpone stopping at the grocery store and to take the backroad for most of the way home because of several accidents on the highway.
Thankfully, the storm started easing up about an hour after Lisa arrived home from work. The power didn't go out again, but the lights continued to flicker.
After the kids ate, Lisa and I dined on cold sandwich wraps. I didn't prep anything for a hot dinner because I wasn't sure if we were going to lose power for an extended period of time.
I tucked Lisa and the kids into bed at 8:30. We were both exhausted. The kids were exhausted.
I stayed up for another hour or so to begin the process of catching up on work stuff. I felt relaxed. Accomplished. That took me a little by surprise.
A few years ago, I would have been a bundle of nerves because I had gotten very little work and housework done. Or because I didn't make a hot dinner. I would have cursed Mother Nature. I would have stressed over having to catch up on things the following day.
However...
Over the years, I've also learned not to sweat the small stuff. Life happens. The storm that hit us yesterday ended up being a lot worse than anticipated. Mother Nature has a mind of her own. It was out of my control.
Sure, I wasn't able to cross anything off my Daily To-Do List, but what mattered was that our kids were taken care of. They were scared. I also needed to make sure we'd be all set if we lost power.
The work stuff and housework could wait until the following day.
It is what it is.
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