If you're in Texas and you're trying to stay warm during the power outages, here's some tips from an Illinoisan currently living in Texas. Obviously battery powered heaters or heated blankets can be great, as is a fire in a fireplace. But if those aren't options for you, try:
1. You can use tape around the edges of doors and windows to prevent drafts, or use towels or blankets to stuff around it. We currently have blankets taped up covering our doors and towels taped over most of our windows. Avoid going into rooms with an outside wall or multiple/large windows, they're going to be colder.
2. If you're getting power back every now and then, fill a sock about 2/3 full with rice, lentils, or dry beans, stick it in the microwave for about 30 seconds at a time, checking to see when it's nice and warm. Then put it at your feet under a blanket.
3. If you have a gas stove, boil a pot of water. You can make tea or soup with it, but even just boiling water will help warm and humidify the home a little. Good for avoiding nosebleeds.
4. Set all your faucets to drip. Moving water in the pipes keeps them from freezing, which is good because you don't want them to burst.
5. Got a significant other? Kids? Pets? Cuddle them. Never underestimate how much it helps to have another warm body sharing a blanket with you.
6. Do NOT drink alcohol. Yes, it makes you feel nice and warm. It also causes you to LOSE body heat.
7. Move around! Even just bicycling your legs will get your blood flowing, which will help warm you up. Then you can go right back to bundling up.
