Broken camera and no lights?!

I have recently found that my camera is broken, so I have no pictures taken by me for now. That made me really sad.

I was reading a post from Aspiring Homemaker where she talks about how she and her family were without electricity for three days. Their inability to use this convenience made them 'think outside the box'. She, however, made it seem ideal, a sort of romanticism to it.
 

 

(image source)

I decided that the girls and I try going without electricity for three days to see how we would deal with it. It was hard interesting to say the least! We kept trying to flip that switch every time we went into a room. Nightfall was pitch black and had oil lamps all over the apartment. Cooking became an even bigger chore... I dislike cooking as it is, so I told my boyfriend to barbeque these three days. I am thankful, however, that my water heater runs on gas and not electricity otherwise we'd be taking really cold showers!

I was very surprised at how hard it was not to use my stove, or take showers during the night. It was difficult having to go to bed very early otherwise risk not having enough daylight to get things done. Not being able to use the computer was especially hard for me!

Now, I know the true difficulties of not having electricity. When I was a younger mother, I had my electricity turned off due to the lack of funds. I worked, don't get me wrong, but all of my money was going to either the rent or the babysitter. We went six weeks without electricity. It was very  difficult the first two weeks to say the least, but after that... it became quite normal. I cooked on a rocket stove I made, we used oil lamps and candles, and for refrigeration I bought an old car battery. That's all we really needed. This is why I was surprised at the difficulty this time around, and this time I chose  to do it.

Last time we didn't need  television, or a microwave (I went about three years without one, but my boyfriend brought  one home one day). We had a corded house phone -remember those? I still do, and doing laundry by hand was hard yet satisfying.

Best of all, I was happy, very  happy! Once I got used to it, I didn't feel the need to rush and pay my bill, which meant less stress, with less stress, I wasn't as annoyed by my daughters, with that I had more patience. I remember being able to pay my bill a week earlier, but decided to treat the girls to a new dress instead. They were happy as could be, and seeing my children happy made me happy.

I learned a lot that year. I also learned a lot about us this time we chose  to do it -I didn't like that we struggled so much. We will be doing this again once it gets warm again. Get back to that feeling of being happy, less stress, and having more simplicity in our lives-because it did make things much more simpler. 

Bless you all,