We make this trip down south to see our family every single year. Alan had to switch jobs back in June, so this year we pushed the pilgrimage back to August. I kept thinking by August “things” would be better. But alas, August is here, and things still look like a bowl of mush. Alan had to get special permission to even take leave and travel so far during all this mess. With permission secured, we packed our bags and […]
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Once in August, we said, “I do.” Weddings and marriages are funny. How often do you see a celebrity lavishly pour out a million dollars on a wedding, and everyone is oohing and aaahing over it, KNOWING that marriage probably won’t even last. Our wedding was beautiful. Well, I thought so anyway. It was no celebrity affair, but it fit me, with a touch of Alan. Everything was simple and pretty and stuffed to the brim with guests. Before Alan […]
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This retreat was 100% necessary. It is hard for me to even sit here and describe how desperate I was to get away two weeks ago because I returned fully restored, better than before. I am on the other side of that mental wall of misery now. Life is good and happy again, and I fully mean that. When I packed my bags and left Alan with the boys, I did not even fully grasp why I need this so […]
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So now that we have all been home for forty forevers, do you feel like every five minutes it is time to feed your family again? I feel like every household struggles with this same issue. Every day that ask, “Mom, what are we having for dinner?” And everyday, you’re left wondering, “What am I making for dinner tonight?” Or actually, in our house, we usually say “supper.” We are Southern. I have tried about ten different ways to manage […]
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Flying during all this mess is not something I ever planned to do. In fact, we have gone to great pains to make our Alabama trip this summer a ROAD trip rather than a plane trip. However, unexpected things came up, and I ended up flying to Florida, of all places! On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had hit a mental wall. Does that happen to you sometimes? Nothing that you could possibly do sounds like a good idea. There is […]
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Today, no that is not true, this whole year honestly, I have felt SO incredibly homesick. This is not a small pang that comes and goes. It is a longing much deeper than that. I have always said that home can be anywhere, that it is where my people are. That is mostly true, but the thing is that a pandemic year is the worst year ever to be newly moved in. Plus, there is the whole problem of my […]
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Alan pleasantly surprised me a couple of weeks ago when he announced that he had cashed in our hotel points and made reservations for us to spend July 5th in Ocean City. Say what?? Granted, Alan can be very spontaneous, but this was even better than a last minute trip. This was a PLANNED vacation surprise! Wahoo! I had not even suspected that he was planning something like this. We have been basically stuck here. You see, not only is […]
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June is always a dizzyingly busy month. We have two family birthdays, Father’s Day, and the end of school. For 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2014, we were also in the middle of a big move. So you can imagine, that the children are all completely bewildered at spending June stuck in our own house. Not just stuck in the house, but in the SAME house as last year! What??? Haaaa! The military life has been quite chaotic for us the […]
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Do you vow every summer to make sure your kids still read and write over the break? I know I do. Then I am always thoroughly disappointed when no one wants to do anything of the sort. In fact, as a mom of all boys, I feel like all anyone ever wants to do is stare at screens all day. That is our battle as a generation. Every year I enter in with delusions of grandeur, but that is okay. […]
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Have you had to look a little harder for joy over the past few months of pandemic? Do you find the coronavirus and the news to all be a little discouraging? Feeling down and being in a place of seeking joy has happened to me many times over the years, not because I am totally Sadness all the time because I am not. It is just that hard times call for digging a little deeper, and we are definitely in difficult […]
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