Candlelight dinners

Last night we had a candle light dinner. No, it wasn't a romantic meal with hubby, he wasn't even home last night. Nope, our power went out. When we moved in last year we had power outages pretty much all the early spring. Supposedly, AEP fixed all the problems last year, but it looks like they may have not survived the winter. Lord, please help them to find and fix the problem.

The power went out at about 5:30, just in time for me to start dinner. It was pitch-black dark, since it was near dusk and very overcast. (Not actually raining, the power never goes out when it's raining here, it only goes out when it is raining somewhere else.) Since we reenact, we have plenty of candles and lanterns and things. But let me tell you, candle-light is pretty poor light to cook by. Thank the Lord and Hubby (whose idea it was) for oil-lamps. An oil-lamp puts out about as much light as a 40-watt bulb and they are much cleaner than candles.

Having grown up in a small town with frequent power outages, I insisted on a propane stove when we moved in. Unfortunately, the newer gas stoves are so electrical that the oven doesn't work if the power is out. So, there I am trying to figure out what I can make that doesn't require baking or water (since the well is electric, we only have what's sitting in the tank available when the power is out and AEP had no ETR). Then Mary, bless her, reminded me that we had saved the pitcher of water we didn't use at dinner last night. Spaghetti it was.

The kiddos had a good time "dark dancing" (I don't know what it is either, it involved going into the family room, closing their eyes, and dancing around like a nut) and we got two chapters of our read aloud done, by far a world-culloden-house record. By 9:45 the power was back on, which was a good thing, because I had left a lantern burning by the back door, completely not realizing that the garage door opener requires electricity to work and Hubby would have no way to get in that way. Well, my intentions were good anyway.

Today I get to paint the dining room, as Kiddo 1 (the 4yo) decided to "help dad paint" and I now have lovely red blotches on an otherwise light brown wall. We were going to paint that room, but we hadn't intended on starting until Saturday. Fortunately, I got the carpet cleaner out and the paint up off the carpet before the power went out!