Using A Power Outage To Your Developmental Advantage

 So,  today we had a power out almost at 9 o'clock sharp.  So anytime a power out happens for years now,  I try to get into the headspace of how I'm going to care for my family should this be "it" so today I did something I haven't done yet boil water with a candle flame then make hot cocoa with candle warmed milk....and I had more cool ideas as I was doing this.

I re-purposed my cheese grater as the body for a candle stove.

Placed it in a steel bowl for safety purposes....

And started boiling my water on top of it and pointed out to the kids that this set up is actually quite pretty... But then as I was checking the water a few times to estimate how long it would take to actually boil (little over half an hour for about 2 cups)  I spilled it...knocking a lot of the water on the counter and then decided to look for another thing to place grater and candle in.... A plate!

And here is the second version of the grater turned stove set up.  After the water boiled I stored it in a thermos because my older daughter didn't want any tea.  Then I proceeded to make two of my little ones their warmed up chocolate milk over this makeshift stove and it only took 15 minutes!

While I was doing all this though,  I thought,  as this candle shortens,  it'll become less efficient to heat and cook whatever I put on it so what could I do to deal with that problem to get the most usage out of the candle?   That's when I realized,  I could use my drill to make holes in various size cans to make a kind of "nesting can stove" where each can is progressively smaller to accommodate the shortening of the candle.  When I make that kit I'll post it here,  already got the cans picked out too...

I can just see it now, labels cleaned off, both ends removed, then a nice (hopefully) pattern of holes drilled in each can for the candle's air supply and we'll have our 'nesting can stove'.  I still need to get a taller can though, because the candle are a bit taller then the pumpkin purre' can.  I need to find one about the same height or a little shorter then the cheese grater....stay tuned