We had a big snowstorm with wind last weekend and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of living in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. It has been years since we have had that much winter! The snow lasted for four days. This area of Washington just doesn’t have snow, just rain, rain and more rain! I grew up in Northern Minnesota and saw plenty of the white fluffy stuff! When I watched as neighbor kids ran outdoors with their sliding gear I felt sorry for them. They have so little time to enjoy snow. I wanted to join them, but I guess an eighty year old woman sliding down a hill would look kind of silly wouldn’t it? And, let’s not talk about the broken bones I would experience!

Yes, i saw a lot of snow in Minnesota and Wisconsin and I talked about that in my book, He Leadeth Me, A Grandmother’s Story which is out now. It is an e-book and can be purchased at Amazon.com.  My dad was almost a circuit rider in a small town, Holt, in Northern Minnesota. I say almost because he was hired as pastor of three congregations but many could not attend any of these because there were no roads near them. So my dad took his Model T car as far as he could go and then walk to a farm house where neighbors gathered for their worship service. He had two of those “preaching places”.

I wrote about that time in my book. It is still called the great depression and was worse in places like Holt, but I remember it as a great life. People were one big family all going through very little but sharing what we had. It was a time when a doctor was happy to get wood for his stove and a chicken to eat for saving a child’s life. We even had horses drawing our school busses. I liked it when I went out to a farm to spend the night with my girl friend because I went on one of those school busses!

Anyhow, why not buy my book? It would help me get the book out in public especially if you wrote a review after you read it. the book costs only $2.99 at Amazon.

It seems to me that a big hand came down and stopped the cold air from getting into Washington and Oregon. Probably there are a few other states involved, some of them quite warm, but everyone east of these are blanketed with ice and snow and they are very, very cold.

I happen to live in Washington and I still hear complaints around here like, “When will it ever warm up?” or “Where’s the sun?” Instead we should thank God that our temperatures hover around 40 degrees and the liquid that comes down out of the skies is rain rather then snow and ice. We should be praying too for the millions of folks,just like us are suffering because of loss of heat, Many don’t have power and don’t expect any for some time. Millions of people can’t get around to get any groceries either. We don’t even know what 30 below feels like. I do, because I grew up in Northern Minnesota, but we were prepared for such weather,

I  imagine some of the folks experiencing the cold and snow are prepared with oil lamps, wood heat and plenty of quilts and are quite comfortable even to canned food and water. But most of them find out they have nothing. They have no groceries except what they were intending to eat that evening. They have no oil lamps, only a few scented candles They are used to using less blankets preferring to keep their temperature reset to a warmer degree. So they don’t even have the quilts to keep them warm.

I suppose many of us would say, “It serves them right!” But are you prepared? Do you have food and water put aside? Do you have oil lamps or a generator so that you can see at night? Do you have several  quilts that your family can put around themselves? Or, like me, do you have a wood stove and plenty of wood so you can cook or heat your home? I know how easy it is to rely too much on modern conveniences, but it is true that these things can disappear.

Why not settle your family down this evening and decide how best you can be prepared in cases like an earthquake, an  ice storm, or even one of those high wind storms we have sometimes? You will never be sorry even if nothing happens. You will know you are prepared just in case!