Today started out with the best of intentions; really, it did! So then how did I wind up with one kid in school with no lunch and another no socks???
When we woke this morning the temperature outside was 20 BELOW zero, without the wind chill factor. Although the upstairs bedrooms were nice and toasty, the living room was an ice box. I decided that before I drag the boys out of bed in this cold that I would start a fire and warm up the house. The fireplace seems to heat the house up significantly. Of course, most other people do use heaters for this, but we make use of the fireplace. However, due to the freezing weather, it might be worth us looking into some sort of heating system. My friend recommended Castle Home Comfort Heating & Cooling, so maybe I’ll look into their services soon. No one likes getting out of bed and tossed out into the freezing cold. So the crazy morning started out with my not wanting to wake the boys up into the cold-well, that backfired!
I don’t know where it went wrong. Granted I am struggling with this living and getting the boys ready in the cold weather thing. Instead of dressing four kids, once I put them all in at least three layers of clothing it is like wrestling a dozen wriggling rabbit monkeys that scream and bit while you are trying to make them warm-not fun! The more I do it the more I think I need to look into a heating system. There is something here that I think could be brought back to life, an old furnace or something. Maybe I’ll get in touch with a company like Service Legends (servicelegends.com/services/furnace-repair/) to help me get it up and running, because this is becoming a joke!
Yesterday, I used the wood-burning stove for the first time. Aspie Teen and I built a fire; we even roasted marshmallows and made Smoores. Everything was fine. This morning, however,I started the fire the same way I did yesterday and instead of a nice warm toasty fire I got a smoke stack.
In seconds the whole house was filled with white smoke and I was running through the house grabbing kids out of bed and putting snowsuits on over their pajamas to take them out of the house. Aspie Teen ran to start the car so it would warm and we would not all freeze to death out there, while Hubby opened doors and windows and put on ceiling fans trying to air out the smoke.
It is a good job that he is a quick thinker, as I was in too much of a panic to even think about opening the windows and doors to let the smoke out. To be honest with you, even thinking back now, I think I was more concerned about the damage the fire would cause to our home. I just kept picturing getting in touch with a company like MWT Windows (https://www.mwtwindows.com/) to replace our windows for us because I didn’t know if they would be affected after the fire. Although, they were definitely functioning as we were able to open them straight away. I think most of the interior will need working on though. But that’s for another day. I’m just still trying to wrap my head around everything.
I still don’t know what went wrong because the fire is now going with no problems. I’m just concerned about how much smoke it caused in such a small amount of time. The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. Although this just makes me want to regularly service my smoke detector, with places similar to Aardvark Electric, (aardvark-electric.com/areas-we-serve/dunwoody/) because I’d hate for the same thing to happen twice, or worse. I’m just glad that we were able to get rid of the smoke as quickly as it started, as I’d hate to think about the worst-case scenario. I’m just glad that we were all able to get out of this unscathed; that’s the main thing.
Unfortunately, in the madness this morning the Tot wind up in school without his lunch (I got a call earlier this morning), and the Little Man wound up in school with no socks! Yes, 20 degrees below zero and I get a call from my son to see if I can bring him socks to school because he isn’t wearing any. And now has blisters on his feet from him boots! How embarrassing; I feel like the worst parent ever!!
