Friday morning was a regular summer morning around these parts.  We head to the lake with the kids, and the “we” is whichever parent is not working.

I had the morning free so I packed up the three kids, complete with snacks, and ventured to the lake.  It was a little cooler than the heat wave we have been accustomed to, due to a haze of smoke blown in from a fire in Washington.

The kids did not care.  They would swim in the winter if we let them.  They spent a bit of time sharing their Goldfish crackers with the ducks until I told them that it was enough.  It was time for the ducks to move on.  They helped me shoo the ducks back to the lake and we watched them swim away.

As we drove back home for lunch we listened to the radio.  They told us of a severe storm warning that was imminent. Apparently.

I did not give it much thought as the weather around here never lives up to the hype.  A “40% chance of showers” means that it might rain.  Might. Though it often doesn’t.

On Friday afternoon I had to drive an hour and a half to pick up the exams I was scheduled to spend the weekend marking.  For the entire drive I heard about this “storm” that was “imminent”.  It was hazy and a little dark, but none of the lightning and thunder that they were talking about.  I hit a five-minute bout of hard rain on the drive home…which cleared up pretty quickly.  Some “severe storm”, I thought.

We spent the evening together as a family and everyone went off to Dreamland with no sign of a Storm.  I had honestly brushed it off at this point.

Just before 5 AM I was dreaming.  It was a wacked-out dream which involved me being in Outer Space (!).  I needed to venture to a small planet to enter a secret code so that it would not explode before the timer counted down to zero (!).  Some random lady was there to help and we were furiously entering the magic code as we raced against the timer.  The timer was counting down.  3, 2, 1…

BOOM!!

I awoke to the craziest thunder.  Our entire house shook from it.  I tried to go back to sleep but we have a lot of windows in our bedroom and my earplugs only block so much noise.  There was a lot of noise and a lot of light.

Miss Emily awoke during the chaos so I stumbled out of bed to cuddle with her in her chair and assure her that all was right in the world.

Come morning, everything was right.  A little cloudy, and a little wet, but nothing to fret about.  It has been unbelievably hot the past few weeks.  I was thankful for the opportunity to wear my yoga pants without melting into a pile of goo.

Matthew kept the kids entertained outside so that I could work in peace.  They spent the bulk of the day picking strawberries from the garden, riding their bikes, swinging on the swings.

In the late afternoon our neighbours called to tell us that they were heading down to the dirt bike track.  I have never been, but it is something that Matthew will take the kids to observe while I am working.  They piled on the quad (ATV) and headed out for the short drive to the course.

I was marking exams as my brother arrived home.  We were chatting when all of a sudden there was rain like I have not seen in years.

He thought that Matthew had driven the 4runner but I was sure that they had taken the quad.  I checked out the window to confirm, and both the van and the truck were here.  My husband and my babies were out in the forest, being pelted by rain and the occasional hail stone.

I jumped down the stairs, pulled on my runners, and grabbed a hoodie as I ran out the door.  The rain was coming down so hard that in the twenty feet I ran to the truck I was already soaked. I witnessed two lightning strikes in the vicinity of where my family was.

I turned on the truck, slammed it into reverse and then into drive.  I raced down our driveway as fast as I could.  I barreled down the road and headed toward the bike track.

The problem was that I had never actually been to the track.  Honey had pointed it out to me from across the creek when we go for walks, but I had never driven there.  I crossed the bridge over the creek and was faced with a fork in the road.  I could either go straight or veer to the right.  I opted to go right and as I came over the crest of the hill I could see the dirt bikes.  I did not see my family and prayed that I did not miss them.

I rounded the bend and there was our quad.  No people though.  I pulled up next to the quad and looked frantically for my family.

They were up to the left huddled under the trees.  Completely drenched, and praying that they did not get hit by lightning.

We piled the kids into the truck and followed Matthew home as he drove the quad.  In the three-minute drive home I saw no less that five lightning strikes in the hills behind our home.  I pulled into the driveway as close to the house as possible.  I helped the boys out and told them to run inside as fast as they could.  I put Miss Emily on my hip and prayed we could make it through the door in one piece.

We stripped off we clothes and made sure everyone was warm and dry. The next ten minutes consisted of all of us watching the show outside and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the light show outside.

Then the rain came.  Harder than it had been.

Matthew shouted something about the rain being too much for the gutters and the drain to bear.  He and my brother spent the next hour sweeping water and using the generator-powered pump to keep our home from flooding.

Every two minutes a lightning bolt would hit the hills around our house and the immediate thunder roll would cause the house to shudder upon its foundation.

With every thunder strike Graham and Nathan would ask if Daddy was alright, if the lightning would hit our house, if he would not die.  Emily would ask, in her sweet toddler voice, “Is Daddy fine?”

I told them that Daddy was fine, that he was just keeping our house safe from the water, that if lightning were to actually hit our house we would be OK.  I also told them that lightning would not actually hit Daddy, though I was not too sure of that fact.  He was outside and operating machinery while the storm raged all around us.

I put on a brave front for the kids, but I was quietly praying for the safety of my husband.  Of the father of our children.

After an hour of chaos the storm finally moved on.  The water did minimal damage, and our house was not hit with lightning.  It could have been so much worse.

The sun then came out and it was like nothing ever happened.

It did happen.  I was frightened.

I am no longer frightened, just even more thankful for all that I have. My husband, our children, our home.  My cup runneth over.

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