The Monday Family Night blog post just gets later and later.

A Whole Lotta Water.

Some of you college football fans may have seen the HUGE storm that blew in just before the BYU/Texas game on Saturday night. They way my husband put it when he called me on his cell phone from the road, “You should go outside and see the ‘Wrath of God’ storm that’s blowing in.” We went outside and yikes, he was not kidding. It was very strange to see the clouds roiling to the south of us, while we had blue skies and a light breeze above us. We climbed up on the roof to get a better view and it looked even more like something from an Old Testament movie. The breeze became more of a wind, so we scrambled down – the roof really isn’t where you want to be when the Wrath of God hits – and went to the front driveway to watch it some more. The first drops of rain started to hit and the entire sky was gray by the time we got to the front yard. Most notably, the wind was really whipping things up by then. At that point, I had everyone come in. After you’ve lived in Utah a while, you can feel when conditions are right for microbursts, when the wind suddenly blows in a swirling down draft over random locations and does things like knock down fences, trees, or carports. Minutes after we all came in, the rain hit full force. I haven’t seen that quantity of rain fall all at once since typhoon season in Guanzhou, China. Arctic Boy had to go outside in it and dig trenches to guide water away from the turkey hutch. Miss Electric went outside in it just because she wanted to, crazy girl. She and a neighbor watched as chimney caps blew off, trees broke, and fences blew over. I learned later that we had received 3/4 of an inch of rain (18mm) in 15 minutes and it continued long after that initial 15 minutes. People were wake-boarding behind trucks in the mall parking lots, that’s how deep the water was in places.

What does this have to do with Family Home Evening?

You may wonder how this Saturday storm is relevant to Monday’s FHE. I’m getting there. We live in an area that was once called “Spring Hill” and actually was once the site of a clay pit used for making bricks. As far as I know, the clay extends all the way to the center of the earth, that’s how endless it seems to be here. You may be starting to imagine how this scenario played out. Water-soaked clay + water bucketing from the sky = water in basements.

Clean-up, Clean-up, Everybody Do Your Part.

Over the few days since the storm hit, neighbors have been helping neighbors to cut up fallen trees, pull out fallen fences and rescue furniture from flooded basements. And that is what we did for our Monday Family Home Evening. Arctic Boy went to help remove a fallen tree from one neighbor’s house, but the work was quickly completed. He came home to inform us though, that an elderly lady’s basement had flooded when her sump pump failed during the storm. She hadn’t been downstairs to realize what had happened until Monday afternoon. All the young men in the neighborhood were asked to go with their fathers and other men to help move furniture out of her basement and then pull out the carpet. Mr. Hot Stuff and I thought this would be a much better FHE lesson-activity than bowling, so we made the announcement to the family that was what we were going to do. I could tell this sort of activity wasn’t in Casi’s comfort zone, but we just smiled and told her this is what we do when neighbors need help, even if it’s hard and unpleasant. She came along without complaint and stuck it out.

Valuable “Women’s Work”

It turned out there was plenty of “women’s work,” as some of the men called it, when we entered the room that this lady used for storing beads and making jewelry. In her many years of life, this friend has traveled all over the world, given service, made friends, and collected beads which she has used to create jewelry that she travels to shows and sells. All of her walls of hanging ropes of beads needed to be tied carefully together and boxed up. Many other beads were scattered on a table and a few boxes of beads had spilled on the floor. There were remnants of previous projects and a few projects in progress. It was heartbreaking to follow her instructions and just “dump this stuff into bags that can be boxed up.” Beyond the real value of the beads themselves was the sentimental value that many of them had. The task she faces of sorting and putting all those boxes of beads away after her basement is dried out and repaired is monumental. The smell of mildewing carpet was heavy, but I’m so glad that there were a bunch of us women and others, unable to do heavy lifting, who could do the work of sorting and caring for this dear woman’s large collection of beads. Things like that could easily be undervalued by people in a rush to get the clean-up done. Having enough of us there to do that work as carefully as we could, while still hurrying to get the job done, made a big difference to her peace of mind.

Dinner at Last.

After we got through with the “water project”, we went to Pizza Pie Cafe and had dinner. I’m thankful for restaurants that can accommodate our family when emergencies happen, and that Mr. Hot Stuff has good work that allows us to pay for those times. We would have managed either way, but this was quick and easy. 🙂

Today, I’m thankful for homeowner’s insurance and strong fans. When things are dry, this neighbor may need neighborhood help to put her furniture back. I’m so glad to live in a place where I know that we are there for each other. What a blessing.

The Mildewed Carpet Stank, But Not as Much as it Would Stink to be the (Former) Texas Defensive Coordinator.

Oh, about the BYU game, after battling it out in the rain, BYU trounced Texas. The BYU quarterback almost broke the school record for number of yards run in a game. Unfortunately, I learned while at dinner Monday night, Texas fired their defensive coordinator. Ouch. The consequences of one stormy day can be so painful.

winner-winner, veggie dinner 🙂