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 not even trying to make a place home any longer. I have hardly tried at all.

Maryland is lovely. You could not ask for a better city, better neighborhood, or even better neighbors. Things are perfect here. We even follow pandemic guidelines better than the South, so we are all honestly much safer here. Our COVID numbers are down while at home they are up.

But it is not home, at least not yet.

I have not felt this homesick since the year we moved to California. Alabama is home. Virginia is a second home, so that was extremely comforting last year, but Maryland is still new, and it is just not home. It is not.

Last week Alan’s cousin Alyson, who is our age, was in the hospital for twelve days, fighting for her life after open heart surgery. All week our thoughts and prayers were in Birmingham. I am relieved to tell you she is at home now. Praise the Lord!

This week, as I was cleaning, I came across an old journal from my senior year of high school. One journal led to another, and now I have just read my way through my entire college experience. It was so entertaining because I always had at least one or two little melodramas going on, but it was also so sad because I miss those people, all of them.

I miss running to my parents’ house when I wanted to escape my problems for a weekend. What I would not give to go shopping with Mom, or Katie, or Leigh. How I would love to sneak in a beach trip with Jennings. I want to pick up the phone and call Heather, Nikki, and Ginny right over for a drama analysis of what I should do about this problem or that only to all end up laughing hysterically about who knows what.

I want to run down to Chrisynda’s room to watch movies with the group and eat her Little Debbie cakes. Then I want to jog around the campus of the University of Alabama without my back or feet hurting. I used to think those were the good ol’ days, but after reading these journals, I was reminded that those days were full of worries!

I want to go walking at Westgate Park, see an Alabama football game, and have Dad walk in the door at home to surprise us all with Goldfingers or donuts.

Usually by July fourteenth, we have all gone down to Alabama, visited all the family, and also squeezed in a beach weekend. This year I booked it all for August even before we knew about the ‘rona, but I know it is better this way. It is hard to wait though.

The past is a place best left undisturbed. Obviously, I cannot go back to my college days, but I would love to see my friends. And I do not want Alabama to be my past anymore. I want back in. With school out and all church happening at a distance, I am missing the ties that are needed to make this place feel like home. The boys are in that same boat with me. For Alan, it may not be as bad since he has his job.

The Army thing is a whole other part of it. We are eighteen years in to this Army gig. An escape to civilian life back down South near family and friends could be so close it feels reachable. It teases me constantly. I dream about what kind of house we will have and all the land I would like to live on.

But I don’t know that we are close to that Army retirement.

Alan is currently still on track to stay in. I do not see anything stopping him from getting promoted again. You have to have twenty-two years in to make colonel. Alan is currently a lieutenant colonel. A thousand times I have said it, and I still feel this way, but I cannot be the person who stops him from achieving that, if that is his goal.

My permanent return to Alabama could still be years away, but I try not to think about that. Even returning to the D.C. area would at least be a little closer to home.

Today none of that matters though. At this moment, I am just homesick. I want to go home and see the people I love and miss so much. Being away is suffocating me now, especially seeing that my children are not settled in here either. They think they are happy, and they play their video games with their friends everyday. That is why I let them play video games so much. Minecraft time is friend time in our current environment.

Now I know we will be okay.

I will. The boys will. Eventually, we will all be out and about again. God is still in heaven. The sun still rises every morning. Sky appears to be fully in place, not falling down around us.

In three weeks, I am going home. I do not care what tries to stop me.

Pestilence, disease, tropical storms, whatever. I do not care. We are going home for two weeks. Alan’s leave has been approved, and I cannot wait.

I am even trying to lose a few pounds so I will look more like the April you know and love. The last four years, ever since I began taking beta blockers, I do realize I have steadily been packing on the weight. So far I have lost four whole pounds, but that just means I am about back down to last summer’s weight. I still have a ways to go, but I am working on it.

The boys have quizzed me ever since school finished on when we are going to Alabama and why we have not left yet. We are all very ready to see you all.

Allen and Emily, I will let you know when have our schedule figured out because we want to see you so much. Amy and Greg, you too. Alyson, we will be happy to bubble wrap ourselves before we come see you so we don’t give you any germs. We are just so happy you are back home.

Nonna and Mom, y’all cook or don’t cook whatever you want, we just want to see everyone! We’ll eat or sleep anywhere. I only wish it could be going home to stay, but I will take the two weeks we are given.

The post Indulging the Homesick Feeling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Daniel had his first week of tee-ball. Alan didn’t sign up to coach this year, not even to assistant coach, but he went out there today and helped anyway. And you know what happened? Alan came home so refreshed and happy. It was a beautiful thing to see.

Alan says that Daniel will actually be one of the oldest, most experienced players on his team this year. Yayyyyy, Daniel!!!

Meanwhile, you know what annoys me? Pop culture.

Why? Because it has reached my children, at least one of them, and he has started saying “Dang, Daniel!” all the time. Insert me, looking like an annoyed vulture.

Now some of you have no idea WHAT I’m talking about because you don’t know anything about pop culture. Well, allow me to shrink your brain by catching you up. There was this video that went viral in 2016, originally on Snapchat, of these high school kids saying “D***, Daniel,” over and over again.

And go figure, the video-maker’s name is Josh. So of course, someone told him about it. So now he says, “Dang Daniel” all the time. He’s not allowed to say the original version. Of course, Daniel doesn’t get it at all. Only I get it.

(If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the Ellen clip to explain.)

Speaking of my big boys, I thought this was hilarious. We spent last week hanging out at DaddyO and Nonna’s house r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g. It was wonderful. Check out the amazing amounts of sleep I accomplished, according to my Fitbit. I was so proud. (By the way, I noticed Amazon has the Fibit Charge II $20 off right now.)

Yep! Proud of myself

I wanted to find a funny movie we could enjoy with the boys. I found Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II!!!!!  I talked up how uproariously we would all laugh at this movie.

Father of the Bride Part II

We watched half of the first movie, and then Joshua proclaimed, “You said this was funny! I don’t think this is funny at all!” And then he disappeared upstairs.

What? Not funny? This stuff is HILARIOUS.  I guess there’s an age range for this humor. Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m48QvszEc0o

It has been 7 months now since we moved in, and we are starting to feel settled. We’re using our GPS less and less, and the boys are asking to go back to California far less. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. It takes a year to fully adjust to a move.

I’d say it takes two years to actually get past surface-level relationships and put down roots. That’s the lonely thing about it. No one knows you well enough to relax, and you are still trying to figure out all the new people you’ve met.

I can learn their names easily, but sometimes it takes time to root out the kindred spirits from the high-maintenance ones.

I feel like Alan and I did this ONE particular thing right that’s going to be the thing that makes life fun and frequent moving doable. These 4 boys. I can’t really say we gave them each other because God did that. If I had gotten to decide it myself, there would have been a Gracie and a Josie thrown in, and then our whole family dynamic would be different.

But this is better because this is what God gave us. I can’t imagine our lives without a single one of them. We have two sets of best buddies, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. The younger ones are learning from the bigger ones things, for better and for worse, ha!, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. They fill our hearts with so much joy.

And no matter where we move they all have each other, and Alan and I have each other and these boys.

Best of all, we’ve never grown too comfortable with any one place or house. There’s no confusion about where home is. Home is not a building that can be taken away. Home is right here, wherever we are. Home is us. So we are always home.

And now here they are, all telling me that Lego Batman movie premiered today, and they are just dying to know when I am going to take them to see it. Yeah…I might have promised them to take them to see that because Lego Batman is a serious obsession around here.

Maybe I can make it happen today……

A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”…            –Jesus  (John 13:34-35)

The post It’s been 7 months since we flew south, but we are always home. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Alan brought me my favorite beverage, flowers, and my favorite food for dinner: Clam Chowder in a bread bowl! Thank you, Alan! Love you!

I just have to record this moment.

I was leaving the laundry room, and Joshua was in the kitchen digging around for his mid-morning snack. He hit gold when he found leftover Papa John’s cheese pizza in the refrigerator.

And then he said it:

“This house is like Heaven!”

Yeah, I know. He mostly said this because I was letting him eat pizza at 9:40 am and watch Garfield on t.v.

But still! This filled my heart with joy.

Of course, some of you probably don’t think pizza is nutritional…. That boy moves 90 miles a minute, believe me, he can handle the pizza.

I’m just happy he thinks his home is like Heaven.

When we lived in Washington, DC, we had a wonderful pastor, Pastor Bill, who is also the pastor who married us, and I vividly recall that he used to say, “Your home should be like Heaven on Earth for your children.”

He didn’t mean that we should let our kids do whatever they want all day, every day, anarchy style. He didn’t mean that our home needs to be big or fancy. He meant that our home should be a happy place, a comfortable shelter, a refuge, a place where our children know that they are loved and supported.

Joshua’s words took me right back to that sermon, and encouraged me.

We parents need all the encouragement we can get, don’t you think?

Pastor Bill and our current pastor are my two favorite preachers ever. Their sermons are always full of God’s love, wisdom, and truth. All of Pastor Bill’s sermons are even online, and you can watch or listen anytime: click here.  I wish I had a link to the parenting one specifically, but I don’t. Sorry!

If you’ve never read Growing Kids God’s Way or Preteen Wise, I love the way that this author encourages parents to set boundaries and discipline our children, but also reminds us not to frustrate our children. We should only say ‘no’ when it’s necessary, not as an automatic response.

The boys have all been so happy this summer. It has been such a welcome change from all the emotional hardship of last fall, with the moving and changing schools. Oy!

I’ve always said, and I’ve moved a LOT, that it takes a year to truly settle into a place, to have plenty of local phone numbers in your contact list, and a good sense of belonging. It wasn’t just about Alan and me this time. It took the boys a year too.

The biggest reason that I’m still home schooling this year is that I don’t want the boys to have to transition to a new school now, only to move next summer. With our Classical Conversations tutoring group, they already have security in the familiar, and since our life lends itself to a lot of insecurity, we’re going to stick with CC.

I just hope once the school year starts, the boys will still think that home is like Heaven, and I won’t be back on here whining about being called the ‘worst mom ever.’ Ha! The boys are so classic with their distaste for school work.

I’d love to get more ideas for FUN first-week-of-school activities! We start next week! Please share your ideas in the comments below.

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By the way, this has been a pretty crazy week, between our 13th Anniversary, Alan’s business trip (He’s back now.), and my big opportunity to be on MoneySavingMom.com. That was so fun and unexpected.

I have even better news for next week.

My Mom arrives to help with starting school!

*Cue the confetti!*

To celebrate, we will be hosting another giveaway on the blog. Wahoo!

Fun times, right? Here are a few photos from our last few weeks:

Pizza=Happy

We’ve been making our rounds, going to lots of playgrounds:

dragging his bat to the park to play ball

July and August have been all about baseball.

Yes, we’ve been pretty excited about their sudden interest in playing baseball. They play everyday in our side yard; occasionally, they play it at this park, as in the photos above.

I’d better go. If I don’t cook supper by 2pm, things get crazy, and all hope of a good dinner is lost.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.     Ephesians 6:10-13

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