It’s been a big week around here!
Last Saturday was a planned KKK rally in downtown Dayton, OH. This rally has been on our radar since February when we first heard about it. As the date approached, our entire city began to prepare for it. There are endless blog posts that could be written about the fact that overt racism like this still happens in our country and how absolutely gross that is. There are also many side posts that could be written about speaking up, about protesting for rights, about first amendment rights in general, and about returning hate with love. My husband was one of almost 700 officers working in Dayton that day, and it was a hard day to kiss him goodbye and send him out the door. The entire city was on edge, and the tension was very high. I honestly wasn’t sure if my husband would come home safe that day.
We kept ourselves occupied on Saturday by heading to the opening of the splash pad.
Sunday came and after going to church and making a quick lunch, the kids and I loaded up to take my parents to the airport. It is over an hour drive, which isn’t too bad, but when it’s all said and done it’s about a 3 hour trip. My kids do really well in the car, but 3 hours is hard on anyone, especially if you are a 6 month old baby! Lol. Also, no matter how old I get, it’s still hard to say goodbye to my parents.
Monday also came and went peacefully, and I was so glad to have Theo home (Monday is our Friday and we had made it to the weekend!). Monday night just as we were getting to bed, a huge storm blew in. Their was so much lightning and thunder and I climbed out of bed to watch out of our large front window. As I watched the INSANE lightning, I thought maybe I should check my phone to see the radar on this storm. As soon as I pulled up my phone I saw TORNADO WATCH. Now, we live in Ohio and while we technically aren’t in tornado alley, we do get tornado watches every so often. So seeing a tornado watch didn’t alarm me too much. But then I saw that there were confirmed reports of a tornado and it was heading our direction.
I woke up Theo and told him and we both agreed it was the to move the kiddos into the hallway (we have no basement in our new house). We dragged their mattresses out and all three of them slept right straight through. Shortly after we got everyone into the hallway, the storm got CRAZY. The hail was hitting the house so hard I thought maybe a tree had fallen. The wind was nuts and the rain was audible even in the hallway. We never lost power, though. In the nearly 6 years we’ve lived in this general area, we have NEVER once lost power. I’m convinced that we are on the same grid as the Air Force Base and therefore will be the last ones to lose power (this is just my theory, I have no idea if it’s true or not). The storm blew over and we kept watching the radar as there was a second potential tornado on its way. After about an hour in the hallway, the storm settled down and we finally got to sleep around 1 am.
In the morning, we assessed the damages to find that we had one trash can on the curb tipped over. Literally that is all. There were leaves everywhere, but we didn’t lose any branches or have anything blown away. So we were shocked when we turned on the news and saw the devastation that had happened just a few miles from us, in areas that are very familiar to us. The damage is extensive in both Dayton and Beavercreek. It’s just crazy to me how our life was almost completely unaffected, but just three miles down the road our Aldi was destroyed and many friends are still without power/water. In a situation like this, it would be real easy to just move on as “normal”. But this is where community comes in, and STEPPING UP as neighbors and friends.
I have been off social media, but just through texts and emails, I know that there are many relief efforts underway. This blog post on the Dayton Moms Blog lists many of the options for water, shelter, and basic electricity needs. Also, don’t forget that most first responder stations (police and fire) are without power and/or water and would be grateful for donations. The police and fire were already extremely overworked after Saturday’s rally, and now adding the devastation of the tornadoes is a lot.
My friend Kelsey has also created these t-shirts to sell and donate the profits to the Red Cross for disaster relief. I love the message on the shirt, especially after Saturdays rally and Monday’s tornadoes. Dayton is making me proud.
I mentioned above that I’ve been off social media. For our anniversary, Theo and I decided to gift each other a social media free summer. I’m really excited to have the chance to just step away and clear my mind. This is what I posted on my Facebook page to describe why I’m stepping away for a few months:
“If you are driving down the road and the tire on your car explodes, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep on driving, or are you going throw all other plans out the window and get that thing fixed?
.
Ok, what if you are driving down the road and you suspect something might be kinda sorta wrong and maybe you could keep on going until the tire blows or maybe you could take some time and stop to get it tuned up and fixed?
.
That second analogy is kind of where our family/marriage is at. We aren’t blown up on the side of the road, but I am feeling some wobbling and some noises that shouldn’t be happening. We need a tune-up, and since we probably won’t be winning an all-inclusive vacation or a live-in nanny anytime soon, we are fully responsible for making that tune-up happen.
.
After looking at our schedules and where we spend our time, we knew we couldn’t cut out work, chores or taking care of the children. But we could cut out media…and that is what we have decided to do for the summer!
.
This is our last summer before our oldest starts school and it just feels like the right time to spend it together.
.
When done right, there is nothing wrong with media, nor does it always need to be 100% taken out of our lives. But for a short period? I can’t imagine regretting it one bit.
.
What is a huge following, a fantastic engagement rate and even a fun blog income if my children and husband are living with an impatient and distracted Mom?
.
If you need to get ahold of me for ANY reason at all- to ask a question, to chat, to ask for prayer, whatever!- please feel free to email me!”
I’ll still be blogging, but remember- if you leave a comment or interact on my social media pages, I won’t be seeing it and therefore will not be able to respond! But if you leave a comment directly on the blog or send me an email, I will be more than happy to respond!
I’m glad to hear you guys are safe after that tornado!