My Grasshopper Ways...

You may remember the story of the “Grasshopper and the Ant.” I remember this story not because I read it in a book, but because I saw the Disney cartoon. In the cartoon, the grasshopper fiddles, sings, and eats the leaves off trees while the queen of the ants warn him that he'd better prepare for winter too. But the grasshopper continues fiddling and singing. When winter finally comes, the grasshopper becomes almost frozen from the cold. He can no longer play his fiddle. In desperation, he knocks at the tree where the ants live and begs them to let him in. The queen ant gives her “I told you so” speech and ends with “Take your fiddle...” and after the long pause she says “and play!” So in the end, the grasshopper earns the warmth and food of the ants by playing his fiddle.

I am reminded of this story because Carl and I are like the grasshopper in the story. We are SO unprepared for this winter!! These last 2 snowstorms have really held challenges for us. I had hoped that the lessons learned from the last snowstorm would get us through this one; they really haven't. Our power went out on Saturday afternoon. With almost 3 feet of snow, no firewood and temps below freezing outside, it was getting chilly inside. The dogs however, were great warmers last night--There's nothing like a Golden Retriever or two (or three) to help you to feel cozy!! But with very little food that didn't need to be cooked, no running water, (everything in our house is electric) I have to confess that I was getting a little concerned and we both were a little hungry too. Carl and I worked today and got my van and part of the driveway all shoveled out. About 2 hours later we were wet and pretty cold. I was trying to warm up and feeling pretty discouraged about it all and was just about at rock-bottom when suddenly the power was restored!!!! An answer to a prayer!! We've now had a hot meal, have warmed up and feel like we can again conquer the elements--Who needs the Ants?