Slightly Off-Balance

Our power was out for 14 hours starting just before dinner time yesterday.  Yes, my night was filled with fights over flash lights and trying to put my kids to bed without their usual movie and book.  While the candlelight was beautiful, it certainly heightened the normal Sunday night stress. 

I realized that my kids and power outages have a few things in common:

• I have no control when either will be on or off
• Depending on my frame of mind, they can either be enjoyable or a pain in the “flashlight”
• Both are beautiful, but can lead to injuries.  Candlelight = unnoticed suitcase on the floor
• They both throw off my routine and cause chaos
• They make you appreciate the times when things are running smoothly
• Abandoned dinner plans are typical side effects
• Sleepless nights are par for the course
• They both require lots of batteries
• Messes are inevitable (de-frosting freezer…)
• They both have varying degrees of severity: Brown out = cranky, Blackout = temper tantrum
• Things eventually return to “normal”

My life is back to “normal”.  The flashlight wars are over, I have cleaned up the melted popsicles and I have almost re-set all of the one million clocks in our home.  And for my next trick…