911, A First For Me

It just wouldn't go out!

Ribs were in the oven last Friday night.  I had just put the sauce on to cook a little longer.  I look over and there's a little flame in the bottom of the oven.  I thought, "surely it will burn out in a few seconds."  I kept watching.   It didn't.  It was burning along the heating element and kept going.  I grabbed the extinguisher and sprayed....what a mess.  It still wouldn't go out.  I tried water...apparently not supposed to do that.  Still wouldn't go out.  My only alternative, since I didn't want it getting any bigger or in the walls...call 911.

Fortunately, it did end up going out on it's own, right as the firemen arrived.  Sometime during all that, I turned the oven off, and ended up shutting the oven door, which was probably the best thing to do.  They checked to make sure it hadn't spread through the wires or anywhere else, and gave me the "all clear."  They even offered to help clean-up.  I just told them to go help someone who really needed it!  I felt a little silly.  It was a small fire, but scary none the less.  And I guess they always have the potential to spread.

It took me the better part of 2 days to clean up the powdery residue from the extinguisher, or should I say non-extinguisher?!  The oven wasn't damaged, except for the heating element.  Rick replaced it.  I gave it a good cleaning, and now it's working just fine.  I've very thankful; it could have turned out much worse.

Snow Icing

Well, apparently, 4-5 inches of SNOW, yes, REAL, BEAUTIFUL, POWDERY SNOW, is the icing on our icy cake this week! 

Looks like I need to go clean out the birdfeeder.  I love those snow flocked evergreen trees in the background.  Snow is better than ice!

Icy Cold

It was January in northern New York State, sixty-seven years ago.  Snow lay deep everywhere.  It loaded the bare limbs of oaks and maples and beeches......"  So begins Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Brock and I could not have picked a better day to begin reading this book.  Although, it is February and it's ice here, not snow!  The boys got a good taste of the cold this morning when they tried to recess outside.  That didn't last long.  It made reading about Almanzo keeping warm in "his good woolen clothes" his mother had made hit home.

(Ice, not snow)

I've never read the Little House Series.  I decided, since I have most of the books, Brock and I would read through them to help with his fluency.  We will take turns reading - a paragraph or two at a time.  Thanks to Mary for the idea.  It's a tradition in her home to read through the series with her boys.  And to Jenn, too, for encouragement and also suggesting to begin with Farmer Boy, which is usually considered to be geared more towards boys.  I can't wait to continue tomorrow.           

We are experiencing historic low temps here.  We are expected to spend the next two nights in the single digits, not wind-chills, but actual temps.  That's COLD for us!  DFW airport actually closed down today, the only other time it's been closed was 9/11.  It's that bad.   

(just one of our wood piles)

So happy to have some firewood!  I'm looking forward to our evening fires.  I wish we had an unlimited supply of wood, I'd have a fire all day long!  We actually didn't have any wood and weren't going to be able to get any more, but the Lord blessed us BIG time!  Rick was finishing up a job last week and the guy just gave him a truckload of firewood.  Just in time.  Even when it comes to the little things - God is good!  He knows how much I enjoy the coziness of a fire.