February 2021 - Life With A Happy Heart

Snow week in Texas. Even as I type that it just sounds wrong. Like the beginning of a bad joke. I’ve lived my whole life here and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen snow in the DFW area.

So before I tell you about our snow experience, let me back up and tell you where we were when these single digits & snow hit our area.

We were in a local hotel.

Why?

I’m glad you asked.

So at the end of 2020 we had water damage to our floors due to a cheap shut off valve under our kitchen sink. So naturally we had to get new floors because they could not match the ones we had. The date was set to rip out our floors for Wednesday February 10th. They said it would take a week to get the old floors out and the new floors and baseboards in.

But, alas, snow week in Texas arrived after 2 days of construction. The contractor called and told us they would obviously not resume the work till possibly Friday the 19th. But the good news was that the floors were in! So we had a choice. Stay in a hotel with four kids for another week (at least) or go home to a construction zone.

We did not choose wisely.

We knew we’d have some major cleaning to do. But I had NO idea how much cleaning we would actually do. We came home Valentine’s Day and didn’t go to bed till 12:30 am. Kevin was vacuuming floors & walls while I did at least 10 loads of laundry. There was dust in places that I didn’t even expect (given some areas were taped off!!!).

But I digress.

Thank God we did all the things Sunday night because as of Monday morning (until now) we’ve had minimal power. Apparently with the “rolling blackouts” we get one hour of power around 7:30 am, another hour around lunchtime and an hour before bed. It has been crazy town here. Especially when neighborhoods a mile from us never lost any power!

I don’t understand why it happens like this, but I also know we are lucky. This experience has been both eye opening and humbling as to just how privileged we are in this society.

We had some friends who lost power on Sunday and they came to stay with us because, at that time, we had power. So they’ve been riding this out with us and we’ve learned some interesting insulation hacks from them.

Thankfully we’re sleeping around a fire place, & to keep it extra warm, we’ve taped off a few windows & doors that are super drafty. And the kids have had so much fun sledding down the driveway on boxes, making snow ice cream and playing charades.

This will truly be a snow week in Texas that I will never forget. And I’m thankful I got to do it with my best friend and her family.

Here’s some of our memories.