Cold Weather Blessings

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

This song has been playing in my mind lately. Temperatures have been hanging out well below freezing lately. We've hit negative temperatures a few nights. Brr! When you live in an old farm house (built over 100 years ago) that lacks insulation in most areas, it is just flat out cold.

My dad (who lived here as a kid) always told us that he would bring a glass of water upstairs to bed at night and wake up to a frozen cup of solid ice. I never really believed him. Figured it was one of those "walk uphill both ways in the snow" type stories. Except now, with temperatures this low, I believe him!

With space heaters running full blast and a roaring fire downstairs, our upstairs temperatures have been in the low 50s. Too cold for us!  I can easily imagine it sinking cold enough to freeze water without heaters--especially if the fire died. So we've decided to have everyone sleep downstairs for now. 

Routines are off.  Quiet time is more difficult (everyone isn't in their own space).  It's been a small challenge.  But, instead of grumbling about it, I decided to make a thankfulness list.  God is very good, even when we are not enjoying the temperatures.

My Cold Weather Blessings

1. We are super thankful for our lovely wood stove.  We were able to purchase a really high quality, efficient one back when we had two incomes.  It keeps the living room toasty and most of the downstairs warm.
2. We are thankful that we live on acerage with timber. And that Bryan is able to cut wood for our needs. And split it. We do not need to worry about running out of wood during the winter.
3. Also thankful that we have a covered area in the barn to store all of the split wood.  We don't have to try and get it out of snow. 
4. We are thankful that The Lord provided us the means to insulate the downstairs of the house prior to temperatures plummeting. The last few years have been fairly mild winters.
5. We were blessed by my parents a few years ago with their hide-a-bed couch when thy upgraded. Bryan and I are now sleeping on this until the temperature gets back up to 20 or so.
6. My parents also blessed us with a beautiful wood bunk-bed set that we have in Owen's room.  (We are planning on making an enclosed bed for Owen eventually).  Now, we have four of our children sleeping in those beds.  Jayme, Jeffrey, Ellie and Sydney are sleeping in that room.
7. Since we are sleeping downstairs, and can listen more closely for Owen opening the stove, we are able to let him sleep in his favorite spot--on the floor right in front of the stove.  He's been sleeping about an hour longer at a stretch than normal! Sleep is always a blessing!!!
8. We're thankful that Simon was already used to sleeping downstairs.  No adjustment for him.
9. We're thankful that the kids love each other and enjoy each others' company.  We're spending lots of time in two rooms.  Altogether.  It could be bad.
10. We don't have a lack of blankets.  That's wonderful!  God is so good!
11. The made out hide-a-bed leaves an awesome fort area underneath.
12. We have a furnace installed in the downstairs that allows us to keep the bathroom and kitchen and playroom from completely freezing.  We don't like to run it because of costs, but we have it in case of emergency.  That's nice to know.
13. We can leave water dripping at night, and our pipes haven't frozen!  No water would be even worse.
14. The butcher was still able to make it out on Monday.  No more big, scary cows with horns around.  A freezer full of meat coming soon!!!
 15. We're able to play all kinds of unique games, like The Story Bowl, and our Nameless Game.  If things were normal, I probably wouldn't be as motivated to think of new game ideas that everyone can play.  We've even turned plastic cups into bowling pins and bowled together.  It's really fun! 

Even when temperatures plummet and it's cold, we are able to thank God and know that He's working everything out.

Is it this cold in your part of the world too?