Hurricane Florence

Much ado was made about the impending arrival of Florence.... Strider came home 3 days earlier because Campbell cancelled classes, Rayna's school cancelled a few days, all weekend plans were cancelled -- except for one party (more about that in a second).  So we dutifully hunkered down, and because we are good homeschoolers, we purchased a rain gauge so we could measure the storm's impact.

 When all was said and done we got some high winds and about 8 inches of rain in 2 days.  Thankfully we did not lose power or need to dip into our store of water or anything like that.*

We DID enjoy some good quality family time.... The first thing I did was make cinnamon rolls because that just felt like the appropriate thing to do.

The twins wanted to dye their hair with Kool-Aid because apparently THAT felt like the right thing to do as well.

Unfortunately, Jinna's hair didn't change enough to satisfy her so to stop her crying I had to braid it.  That calmed her down.

I also ventured out before the rain got too bad to an impromptu birthday party for Hayley... Fun seeing all the young girls I enjoy.

Later on, outside, the creek in our backyard swelled and rose.... so for once the saying, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise" was relevant and all of the churches cancelled services on Sunday.  We watched Kevin deYoung online instead.

All around us roads were closed... In fact, in our old neighborhood people were actually kayaking on the main street!

By Sunday evening we were getting a little stir-crazy, so we went over the park when the rain dissipated to just a drizzle.

Then, because the kids were actually disappointed that the power never went out, we turned off all the lights and played games in the dark.  The kids said they want to do this every night!

There was beauty all around us -- before, during, and after the storm.



*Ironically, we DID lose water to our house a couple weeks later when a main pipe out at the road burst.  Those extra jugs of water came in handy for those 2 days.  Let's just say not having water for 48 hours is not so fun.  We eventually went to a friend's house to shower, which the girls thought was quite the adventure!  I, however, was thrilled to hear the water finally come back on.