When It Rains, It Doesn’t Always Pour

Life lately has been wet.  About a month ago a week of solid rain was forecasted. Really that’s no big deal because this is Texas, where it’s known for the weather to change on a dime. Sure rain might be forecasted for a solid week but everyone knows that it would never happen. But it happened.  And then the next week rain was forecasted for the entire week and it rained for the entire week. Heavy rains caused minor flooding and shut down some roads but the majority of our area was fine.  Then week three happened and the two days that it sun was forecasted didn’t happen. Once again it rained nonstop.  Now we’re at week four and the rain is nonstop. Every time there’s rain in the forecast our phones blow up with flooding alerts because the ground is so saturated. There’s also trees falling over because the ground is so wet that their roots can’t hold them down any longer. It’s become the norm to check the hourly forecast before leaving the house or trying to take the kids to swim lessons.  Many swim lessons have been cancelled lately. Even their swim meet this week was cancelled after sitting away from the pool for two hours, waiting for the thunder to finally stop.  There was a time last week when I told Mr. Byrd I would go crazy if I was stuck inside from the rain for one more day.  But then I decided to make margaritas with all the extra water (don’t worry, I’m not really drinking Houston flood waters).  Since a minor breakthrough, an effect of the minor caged in house breadown last week, the rain has been more tolerable and we’ve figured out how to work around the rain.  Last week when our street flooded we waited until the flood had gone down to minor curb puddles and the girls played in it.  This week when the swim meet was cancelled we packed up and headed out to join Mr. Byrd’s parents at the lake.   Of course the threat of rain meant that Mr. Byrd had three little girls jumping on him very early in the morning to get up and go tubing with him before the rain arrived.  You’ve never seen bad looks until you’re the boat pulling screaming girls past fishermen trying to get that early morning catch.  We could have let the rain stop us. The dreary forecast could have kept us home.  But since we’re one step away from building an ark, we’ve learned not to let a little rain stomp on our parade.  This week more rain is forecasted. There was a hard hitting tornado in Van, TX and major flooding that resulted in loss of life close to San Antonio. The ground here in Houston is so saturated that once again our road is flooded.  This has been the wettest year that I’ve ever experienced. But we’re not going to wallow in the storm, we’re going to dance in the rain.  Pray for those that have lost loved ones and their belongings. But don’t forget to count your blessings, even when you’ve been trapped in the house with them for weeks.