Fishsticks by Candlelight

My sweet hubby is out of town for the week. When he's gone we adapt our menu a little bit to include some things he's not so fond of. The children and I decided last night would be a great time to have fish stick sandwiches with twirly fries 'cause fish sticks just aren't on the list of Dad's favorites. It was to be a calm night with an easy dinner followed by a movie night.


The oven timer had just gone off to let us know that the fish and fries were done. All that was left was heating the buns. "Beep! Beep!" The power went out, blinked back on and went out again. Hmmm. Well, at least the main part of dinner was done, and the oven was still warm enough for the buns to get finished. We had to make some adjustments on the evening, though.


A mad scramble for flashlights and candles while food is being put on the table. A romantic candlelight dinner... of fish sticks and fries... and my hubby's not even here to enjoy it! Well, it is the stuff of which memories are made, don't you think?





We talked about options for the evening while we enjoyed our dinner. We have a generator, so we could still watch a movie on the TV if we wanted. There's also the option of watching on a laptop. We talked about what people used to do when there was no such thing as electricity. I suggested going to bed early, but no one went for that. After tidying up the kitchen as best we could, we opted for a game. Monopoly? Clue? Dominoes? Nah... we played a game that was new for the little girls. It required no pieces and, therefore, the lack of light wasn't an issue.



I'm sure you've played a similar game. "We're going on a picnic, and I'm taking an A-pple." Next person... "We're going on a picnic. She's taking an apple, and I'm taking B-ananas." We do that all the way through the alphabet. I was amazed at how well the youngest ones remembered everything! It was nothing fancy or detailed or even planned out, but it was fun. After that we played a copycat game where you do what the leader does. That was fun, too. I think my children were actually a little surprised. It's not something we'd want to do all the time, but we were all together, all participating and all smiling.



The power was out for two hours... and we survived! Once the lights were back on we pulled out our Bibles for our evening devotion time. What a good time we had searching the scriptures together. We're reading through the New Testament at the moment. Last night we read about Satan's tempting of Jesus and about the beginning of Jesus' ministry. We had so much to talk about! Jesus told Peter and Andrew He would make them "fishers of men." We discussed the fact that they had been fishermen. "So how do you be a fisher of men? Do you use a net?" Lots of good discussion about how we "catch" men for Jesus. We have much to be working on.



Thank you, Lord, for simple times together. Thank you for fresh insights into your Word. Thank you for the opportunity to see Scripture come alive for my children. Touch their hearts (and mine). May we live our lives in such a way that we, too, are fishers of men... for your glory.