Breaker

The “No Power” Shit Show

At 6:00 this evening, just as I was about to begin my last task of the workday, the power went out. We live in the country where there are no street lights in sight. It was dark as hell and Daddy was just about to make ‘breakfast for dinner for our “starving” 3 year old and “starving” 4 year old. Meanwhile I was asked to wrap up work and feed the crying baby.

I hate being interrupted and I hate how messy our house gets. There are toys everywhere. I trip over everything and bump my shins on toy boxes on the regular. There are piles of clothes, groceries, stacks of mail, drawings and general clutter on all counters and every flat surface.

The one thing I had going for me was I had 80% battery on my cell phone. Yay for the cell phone flash light. I was able to make my way upstairs to grab some candles and find matches to get some light inside the house to try to reduce the whining and crying. Here’s where I notice how much of a fire hazard our living conditions are. The kids run everywhere, fall constantly, wrestle with each other, run into the dog, and play catch with everything they can get their hands on. I’m literally waiting for someone to run into the candle, light a stack of paper crap on fire and oh my god it’s a shit show.

We brainstorm where to go, because we can’t stay there. We consider the Y to burn some energy, the library (yeah right the kids have been bad and whiny all day) or Grandma and Grandpa’s (they just spent their evening with us yesterday). Let’s just try to get out of the house. Oh great it’s raining.

The 3 year old has to pee.  The 3 year old can’t pee because there’s no light. The 3 year old pees but freaks out because she can’t flush the toilet. The 4 year old has to pee. He decides because he can’t see he doesn’t have to aim. Ugh…..

Just in case we have to spend the night elsewhere, let’s let the dog go out. Wait, the dog can’t go out without a leash, the invisible fence won’t work and he could run away. It’s raining the dog won’t go out. It’s so much fun to drag a dog outside while you get rained on while the dog literally won’t pee.

I have to pee, but I can’t flush, so I’ll hold it til we figure out where we’re going to go.

PLUS SIDE! We used this as an opportunity to go out to eat, had great food, but got more annoyed with the kids than usual. Why are they so out of control today? The takeout place was super friendly, had extra candy, offered us some yummy grape Nerds which the 3 year old spilled everywhere. Oh my word.

Wish me luck we’re making the 30 minute drive from Grandma and Grandpa’s back home, since Nipsco said the power’s back on.

 

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Katie Helgesen

Katie Helgesen is the Senior Director of Business Intelligence at Dealer Inspire, a fast-growing and award winning technology company near Chicago. Katie and her husband, Todd, have 4 awesome kids and love living in a small community centered on a lake in northwest Indiana. Baseball, t-ball, and soccer schedules are just a few pieces of Katie’s Mom Hustle. Her daydreams revolve around finding more “me time” and traveling. In real life, Katie keeps herself sane with naps, Netflix and eating out as often as she can.