Is God Spitting on Us?

Last night, we had a big storm in Austin. It hasn’t rained in what seems like months. And it has been hot, hot, hot. I have lived in Texas all my life, but don’t remember a summer this hot. Although, I think I may say that every summer… but this summer it is the truth! And it’s not just hot, like in Phoenix. It is humid hot. It’s so hot that just looking outside makes you start sweating. And going outside makes you melt. Anyhoo, back to the rain. For days, it has been threatening to rain. The sky would get dark and it would smell like rain. But then it would rain about 5 miles north of Austin and 5 miles south. It felt like perhaps we did something wrong and God was just teasing us. Well, he made up for it last night. It was a gorgeous thunderstorm with rain jut pouring from the sky. And it was in the early evening, so we could still enjoy it. My husband put buckets out to catch the water (so he could water the plants, because this might be the last rain). It was so nice. Then, the lights went out. Oh no! There was a very loud clap of thunder with lightening that I think hit something about 100 feet outside my yard. I even went out to make sure nothing was on fire. Well, nothing was. The lights went out and stayed out, which is actually a bit unusual for us. They were out for about 1 ½ hours. And it was blissful! No TV, no X-box, no static noise… it was so nice. The only sounds were from the kids. And the little ones weren’t even scared (whew!). We just watched the rain. Then put the little girls to bed. It was so quiet in the neighborhood and it was getting so dark as the sun went down. I laughed when I told my husband that it felt like we were the last people on earth and man-eating zombies were approaching. Thank goodness we have that diesel! With nothing else to do, we played games! We attempted to remember how to play Farkle, but couldn’t get the rules straight. (I need my coach, Dawn). Then we played rummy, which I kicked some major butt. Then my son and I were about to start a game of chess… and blip, the lights came back on. Awwwww. But here’s the best thing, he still wanted to play chess with his mom. So I got a little bonding time with my anti-social teenage son. It was wonderful! However, I haven’t been able to beat my son in chess since he was about seven… and he beat me again. I no longer felt like we were being punished. I felt like it was some sort of reward! Thank you for forcing us to spend time as a family!