Clueless

If you had told me a year ago that I would be doing a blog daily, I would have said, "What's a blog?" As a non-tech savy Grandma I was too embarrassed to ask someone what is a blog? There are many high tech things these days and I'm clueless until I Google it! I've often said I study Best Buy's ad on Sunday just to keep up! I had stumbled across Warm Pie Happy Home, now Sugar Pie Farmhouse while searching for a recipe for Snickerdoodles. Not only did Ruth Ann have a great recipe for Snickerdoodles, she had a slice of Americana that I yearned for, that warm feeling of being in a friends' kitchen just setting across the counter visiting over a hot cup of cocoa. Every day, sometimes more than once a day, I would go for a visit. Ruth Ann’s blog made me feel good, bringing back memories of my Ozark upbringing. I was hooked, had to have my Warm Pie, Happy Home slice of pie. Then I started looking at the blogs she had as favorites… oh I like that one too, and that one too! Inspiration and ideas swirled around in this post menopausal head of mine. Great recipes, new ideas on gardening, decorating, improving my spirits and slapping me awake. Hey, this is a Wonderful World we live in…even if there’s a recession going on! I gawked and plundered at the newfound blogs finding more and more.

Then came that cold, icy day in February when GrannyMountain, in fact all of Northwest Arkansas was hit with a terrible winter storm. Our woods were a wonderland of ice, beautiful to look at but so very dangerous. Thick layers of slippery ice covered the roads, trees and power lines. I had stocked up on food, water and other necessities preparing to hunker down when the storm hit. It was that exciting "home from school" feeling that first day, all safe and cozy inside with the fireplace blazing and soup cooking on the stove. Ben slept snuggled on the couch and I kept the TV tuned to the Weather Channel, amusing myself with my favorite blogs. I watched the icy stuff coat each tree making plinking noises as it hit the decks and iced them thick just like a cake. About mid-afternoon the idyllic Little House on the Prairie feeling evaporated when the power and phone went dead. The next morning Northwest Arkansas was paralyzed with the worst ice storm in 100 years. You couldn't drive, stores closed, even emergency vehicles were stopped by all the downed trees and power lines. Life, as we knew and took for granted, was paralyzed. My local radio station took call-ins from people in distress...an 83 year old lady who had a power line across her fence and unable to feed her horses. Later I learned that the radio station sent an employee out to throw the bales of hay over to the horses. Some guy with a great sense of humor called to say he had stocked up for the storm, had dry wood to burn and a pot of beans on the stove...and he hadn't called for a bailout from the government or assistance from FEMA! We are a hardy bunch here, able to figure out our problems and pull together in a crisis. The kindness of neighbors, the hard work of the linemen who braved the bitter cold days and nights on end...we each have a strength in us that we don't know exists until pressed. My Dad used to call it "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps", meaning getting out of a difficult situation by one's own efforts. It took the combined efforts of many to fix what Mother Nature did in just 24 hours.

When power was restored, I wanted to share the pictures of the ice storm with relatives. A light bulb went off in my head (it was a dim light) that maybe I could do it in blog form and write what it was like to go through. I went to Blogger and limped through the process of setting up a blog, adding pictures each day. Going to my favorite blogs, I would see cute widgets, quotes and layouts. Hey this was a great way to share my favorite things! Since venturing into the world of blogging, the "Voices in my Head" have made me do some very strange posts!

Guilt is Good!

Look on the Bright Side!

Baby Steps

Oh, Heavenly Day!

Sticky Note Slave






Shopping Cart Rules




Shopping at Safeway

True Love

Booger Holler, Arkansas

Stilleto School

Lipstick Personality Test

The Post Secret Project

The Cockles of my Heart

America's Best Bathroom Awards

The Frozen Tung

Addictions

I am having fun with the blog and the nice people I am meeting along the way. I hope something I say might bring a smile to your day or jog a memory. I’m just on my journey and trying to learn something new everyday!