How would you live without running water?

Early last week we went to Utah as a family for Kory to install a job. We spent almost a full week and had a great time spending time with family. We have been home since early Wed. morning. As most people do right before leaving town I didn't buy many groceries the week before we left. Not being able to pay ourselves quite yet we have been living without milk, eggs, and some of those bare essentials. We've done this before so it hasn't been that big of a deal.


Since we've been home I've been babysitting everyday and have had 7 kids running around. Emily has been running a fever since we've been home and it seems she is constantly crying (thanks to her shots last week).When Kory came home this morning to grab some paper work he commented on how quiet our house was. Hunter and Maddie were at a friends and Emily was napping. It was very peaceful. Not having anyone at my feet I was trying to catch up on some buisness work. Kory went into the kitchen and asked me what the hissing noise was. I couldn't hear it in the office and didn't know what he was talking about it. We soon discovered that the hissing noise was coming from under the house. We have a water leak. It's not gushing water but we've got ourselves a pudddle. After calling around and being a friday afternoon afterall the soonest we can get someone to come by is monday morning. Not wanting to waste water and cause any damage we have shut our water off.

Not having any fresh produce, milk, eggs, nearing the end of our laundry detergent and now not having running water has made me think. How would our family do in an emergency situation? I don't know if we'd do very well. Thankfully I have about 20 gallons of water stored. We have been using that today to wash hands and flush toilets. Tommorrow I will heat some water and wash my dishes by hand. I have two sinks full and a dishwasher full. YEAH FOR ME!!!

With the warm weather the kids and I spent the afternoon outside. When Kory got home from work we grabbed some shovels and started moving some dirt around. When we came in it was a real pain to wash everyones hands without running water. I can't bathe anyone tonight.
(If we had just had a natural disaster we would probably have been outside assesing the damage, maybe even starting to clean up. Chances are we would be dusty and sweaty and probably not have any running water.) I was tired and not having any leftovers tonight I let the kids make themselves a jelly sandwich. They've done this many times but tonight I realized how messy these can be when I don't have the convienience of running water. Kory and I had grilled cheese sandwiches.

Tonight feeling my nerves were fried we scrounged up some change and I ran to the store and bought another loaf of bread, milk and eggs to help ease my pain over the next few days. What if we had just survived a natural disaster and I couldn't go buy these things? I feel better tonight knowing for the next few mornings we will have cold cereal in a plastic bowl with plastic spoons. But what if we couldn't? Tommorrow night we'll turn the water on just long enough to bathe everyone for sunday. This is going to be interesting to see what and how we do during the next two days.

I have learned that I need to get a few more water storage containers and some spickets for them so I don't waste as much water as I feel I am doing now. I need to get some hand sanitizer. I need to find some recipies that don't ask for milk or eggs, especially breakfast meals. So far we've had bottled fruit, muffins that I had in the freezer and cinnamon toast. I need to have a good supply of paper goods.

It is going to be an interesting weekend for us. I know we will be O.K. it's only 2-3 more days. There is an end in sight. I'm just thankful I had water stored. I always thought I'd probably never use it and if I did it wouldn't be becuase of a water leak. I will be very thankful to teach my lesson next sunday. The lesson is "I am thankful for water". The things you take for granted.