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Give Yourself A Break this Winter

We have had a challenging week. Have you ever been through this type of week? We have been blanketed by beautiful snow and the calm and peace that comes with heavy snowfall. But, with that, we have had one catastrophe after the other. Okay, maybe not true catastrophes, but struggles. Through it all, I was trying to hold it all together, and hold everyone else together, when I finally felt it all start to crumble, the tears started to flow, and I decided it was time. I looked in the mirror through teary eyes and said, “Jennifer, Give Your self a break this winter”!

Give Yourself a Break this Winter!

Next, I gave myself permission to push a few tears out, finish my pity party, and take a deep and cleansing breath. I whispered a prayer to God for strength and peace and started making a plan.

What I wish I were cooking…

I would love to tell you that I am cooking up a batch of White Chocolate Strawberry Munch or Hot Chocolate Munch. Or even that I am preparing meals to give to others in need as I share about in this post on starting a Meal Train, but I am not. I am not making anything so lovely.

You might be wondering about what all of the whining is about. I will tell you. First, with the beautiful heavy snow, which I am so thankful for because it will bring much-needed water to a typically dry California, we lost our electricity for a day. I should not complain because others lost there electric for two or three days. We are on a well, so when the electric is out, we do not have water. Which means…no flushing. Not my favorite part of country living.

Thankfully, the Electric is back on!

Thankfully, our electric came back on, and for the most part has stayed on. As a work at home blogger, having no electric meant that I could write a lot of posts, 5 to be specific, but I could not connect to the internet or post them. When the electric came on, the internet went out. Hhhmm. A little frustrating.

Give Yourself a Break This Winter

The next day I noticed that the Refrigerator was not getting back to temperature. We had filled it with bowls of snow so that it would not gain temperature. But the temperature kept gaining. Then we noticed that all of the ice and ice creams had melted. Urgh, that was a lot of food lost. On a good note, we noticed in time to safely cook the two roasts in the freezer which meant amazing French Dip sandwiches.

And then, it all became too much!

So, I am a little worried about our fridge, we ran out of dry wood, the internet went off again, and that is when I found myself tearing up in the bathroom. It is also when I said, “Give Yourself a Break this Winter!” And, I did just that, and things got better, much better, really fast.

So, what did I do you ask? I let slide a bunch of the family goals I am working on. First, I don’t like buying plastic silverware and paper plates. They are bad for the budget and hard on the environment. But, with another wave of snowstorms planned for the next two weeks. I bought paper plates and plastic forks. In addition, I work really hard to purchase whole foods, trying to cook from scratch, and working to have most of our foods be high protein and low carb. Living out of an ice chest until we can have our fridge fixed, I purchased easy carbs that will be fine on the counter, cans of soup, stew, spaghetti o’s and even, wait for it, spam.

My Mom Loves Spam!

Okay, I won’t be eating spam, My Mom will, and that is why we bought two tomatoes today. She loves Spam with Tomatoes on a sandwich.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I had canned soup. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it is usually less expensive to make a fresh pot of soup for the family. But, when you don’t have anywhere for leftovers, cans of soup make a lot of sense. We also bought bagels and bread and Pop Tarts. Pop Tarts were just for fun. But we don’t usually have bagels and bread, but we are planning on PB&J almost every day for lunch. And bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. I also bought powdered milk.

Give Yourself a Break This Winter

I did not buy anything to bring to the two potlucks I am attending this weekend, but I will work on that later! LOL. But I gave myself a break. Will I be buying plastic forks and canned meat for the rest of my life? Nope. Will I be buying carbs? Nope. But, will I let myself take a breath, take the easy way out on paper plates, and sit down in the quiet of the next storm to pass, read my bible, and color in a few of the beautiful pages. Absolutely.

I sometimes think that as wives and moms we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and that is not always a bad thing. But, in the midst of winter storms, or summer power outages, or whatever else might come our way, we need to give ourselves a break. I will start making good food and using dinner plates next month.

I hope you have enjoyed the beautiful pics of all our winter storm conveniences. And that you give yourself a break, whenever you need it, I give you permission! You deserve it.  So, what is your favorite convenience in difficult times? Share in the comments below.

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