Category: military life

“She had come at last to the bend in the road.”–L.M. Montgomery

books, friends, military life, moving

Our church is cleaning out its library. Each Sunday the library-powers-that-be spread out about 50 books all over four tables, and anyone can come in and pick out which books they’d like to take home. They are all free. We have a large library of our own, here at April’s School for Little Men, so I have not been too tempted. Until today. What do you think I found today? FOUR books from the Anne of Green Gables series. Good […]

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The Summer Moving Cycle, Happy Boys, and Praying for Rain

babies, military life, moving, summer, toddlers

The Summer Moving Cycle Dan keeps asking us when we are going to Germany. Oh….Ummmmm….  It’s so hard to see the boys deal with losing friends, but it’s a thing we all have to go through, over and over again. We live in a neighborhood designated for graduate students. Every time a quarter ends, people move, but the biggest moving cycle of all is the summer cycle. When we came back from Alabama, we found that two new families had […]

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Saying Good-Bye

deployment, friends, military life, xanga

good-bye hugs, as Alan departed for Afghanistan, for 6 months, 2011 from my Xanga series Fall 2011 We had such a good time with Jennings here! That girl cleaned like crazy. She must’ve run about 7 loads of laundry and 3 loads of dishes. She vacuumed, she straightened, and she even babysat. Now you don’t get too many friends like that in life! And I didn’t ask her to do any of it. It wasn’t all work. We also went […]

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Our First Three Weeks in California Photoblog

California, homeschool, military life, moving

Sometimes you meet truly kind people who go over and beyond for you. Thank you so much, Hillary. This made move-in weekend so much easier. I know I already mentioned this. Some things bear repeating!!! Things are coming together. We actually have lots of things hanging on the walls now! One step closer to feeling like home! We all went to Moss Landing yesterday evening, in search of whales. The water was not as cold as I thought it would […]

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The Just-Moved-In Phase

homeschool, military life, moving, parenting

Life kicked me around a little bit this week. A lot of things happened:  not unpacking. Not much of that happened at all. First, there was the whole beginning home-schooling thing–which I did before I even finished unpacking my house. (Maybe that wasn’t my BEST idea.) Then there was the energy problem. As in, I just don’t have enough–especially after 1pm. What is that? Second, we’re in that whole just-moved-in phase. We are still learning our area and even our […]

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What Being a Military Family Means

military life

It’s tempting to think that being a military family means moving a lot, long term separations, being tough, hanging the American flag, and feeling honored on Veteran’s Day. We are the patriots. We make the sacrifices. Go us. But you know what? It’s not about that, not really. It’s really all about freedom and protecting that freedom. It’s about being there when your country needs you. It’s about doing things other people do not want to do–doing things I don’t […]

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The Flight of Four Children

food allergies, funny stories, kid quotes, military life

You know those days where you just feel like…….BLEH. I’m good. I’m even really excited about moving into my new house on Friday, BUT…….bleh. Today I am reminded of the fragility of life, the reality of the military life, and well, my eye itches really badly. I’m allergic to weeds. The West coast grows a lot of weeds. Here’s the super condensed version of what happened on the journey out here. 1. If you have two children under four, you […]

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So they are no longer two, but one.

about, Alan, Bible verses, family, military life, moving

This week marks 12 years that  Alan and I have been married. God blessed the day I married my better half. One of the best decisions I ever made was one of the ones I was most criticized for. I do think people’s opinions can be helpful, and I do listen to the advice of others. But what others? You have to be careful about which group you are listening to. Our closest friends and our parents never doubted us […]

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My goal: Being CALM

attitude, military life, moving, summer

As I’ve mentioned before, I have been a highly stressed and impatient version of myself lately. Last night I made a resolution for myself: Today I am going to be calm. I don’t care what happens. I am going to be calm, cool, and collected. I don’t care what the kids do. I will not freak out, panic, do the eyebrow thing, yell, or act irrationally. This is my goal for today. This morning, when I gathered the boys together […]

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Bad news from the summer that just keeps on giving

about, Bible, Bible verses, big family life, grandparents, hard times, military life, moving

You wouldn’t believe the news I got today. Or if you are military,maybe you would. It’s easy to feel happy and hopeful when life is going pretty well. Sure, life is hectic always with little boys to take care of, but at least you can find some sort of ‘normal’ in that. We are all healthy. Things have been okay. Isn’t it funny how easy it is to shake your head at the whiners when your life looks pretty good? […]

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