I am the wife of a soldier, and the mother of two little ones (ages 3 and 1). I am passionate about my God, my family, and my country. I chose the title for my blog because I started it around the time that we found out my husband would be going to Iraq. I am so proud of his service to our country. Also I am constantly striveing to become more like christ. Hence the title "passionate patriot conforming to 'His' image.
I will be ordering some more Thoene books to read
Jun. 22, 2008~ Our homeschool this year. ~
My blogs have been very uninteresting lately. I have not been able to post pictures, because my hubby took the camera with him to Iraq last fall. He actually emailed me and said that he wanted me to send him pictures of the kids. I told him that I have been unable to take pictures of the kids, because he took the camera with him. Yet he still kept begging for pictures. I don't know why it took me all this time to realize that I could just get those disposable cameras and mail him the pictures. Duh!
Anyway, I don't have pictures to show you but I can tell you about our home school this year. Basically it has been nothing exciting. My son is 4 and my daughter is 2. So we do not do a lot of school. We play, clean house, read books, travel a lot to visit family, basically try to stay busy so that we don't miss daddy so much. The only curriculum we are doing, is the book "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons." I am proud to say that my son has made it through lesson 26. He is doing well, however the book is starting to go too fast. He is learning a new sound every other lesson, and he is struggling to remember the last five we have learned. So we have decided to take a break and review those sounds for a while. I still wanted to make it fun, so I made up a game.
I went to walmart and spent $3.00 on a sticker book that has pages and pages of stickers. Then I cut all the stickers out and gave him the book with just the pages to stick the stickers on. I also made up some flash card with the letter sounds that he has learned so far. Out of the 13 letter sounds he has learned so far, he struggles with remembering five of them. So we play a game. We go through the cards, and he gets a sticker for every sound he gets right, but he loses a sticker for every sound he gets wrong. Because there are only five sounds that he is struggling with, I was not worried about him not having stickers when the game is over. We play this for about 10 minutes, (in place of a lesson) and when he is done he gets to put all the stickers he won in his sticker book.
So far it has been really good, and by the time we were done with the first game, he was consistently getting 3 of the 5 he was struggling with right. So I think that we are just going to do two lessons a week for now, and play the review game the rest of the week.
My daughter who is not even t 1/2 yet is now on lesson 7 in the "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons book" I do not push her at all. I kept doing lessons with my son, and she kept trying to do it too. I would teach him a sound and she kept repeating it. Then she would say that she wanted to do a lesson. At first I kept telling her no. I thought she was too young, and she wouldn't be able to do it. Then I thought. Well if she keeps insisting, I will do the first lesson with her. I didn't do the whole first lesson, I just showed her the sounds for "m" and "s". Then a couple of days later, I was doing a lesson with my son and she wanted to do another one. So I thought she wouldn't remember the first lesson so I thought I would just review it again to make her happy. She remembered the sounds, and my mouth about hit the floor. So I took her through the whole lesson, and she was catching on better than my son did when i first tried to do it with him at 3. (I had to back off with him and wait until he was 4) Now we are on lesson 7. We don't do it everyday, and we stop when she wants to stop.
I am so amazed at how smart my daughter is. She also counts, knows all her shapes and colors, and has an amazing vocabulary, and I haven't even done anything with her. I may have worked with her one day on her shapes and colors, and then the next thing I know she knows them.
I think my biggest challenge in the future with schooling these two, is trying to keep my daughter challenged, and trying to keep her older brother from feeling hurt and giving up learning, when his sister passes him up. They are both very smart. She just seems to ketch on much faster.
The other thing that we have been doing in our school is writing letters to daddy. I have my son dictate to me what he wants to say, and then I have been showing him letter by letter how to write it. It takes a couple of weeks to finish a letter, but my husband is so excited that his 4 year old son is writing him letters.
Other than reading and writing, everything else we do is just living life and waiting for daddy to come back home. It is amazing how much math, science, language arts, and geography they learn just through every day living.
Jun. 10, 2008~ Spring is here and it is time for planting. ~
I have been trying my hand at homesteading a little bit at a time. Last year I purchased a Nutrimill grain mill, and have been grinding my own flour. I was making bread for a while, but since my husband left, we just haven't been eating it fast enough before we have to throw the rest of the loaf away. So I have instead been making pita pockets. Then I have been putting them in the freezer, and taking them out a couple at a time when I need to make sandwiches. It has worked really well. I also have been making my own tortillas and freezing them too. The nice thing about the pita pockets is that they are only flour, salt, yeast, and water. Very easy to make.
( I would show you pictures of all this stuff, but my hubby took the camera with him to Iraq.)
Now that it is spring, I am helping my dad so I can learn to garden. (my parents do so many things so well, but they never taught us how to do them. So I have asked my dad to teach me.) We planted tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, and bell peppers. I am also learning how to grow plants from seeds. I am mostly learning this from the internet, and trial and error. My first seeds all died. Then I got online and found out that I am supposed to put plastic rap over the seeds. So I did that, and they germinated wonderfully. But then I didn't know when I was supposed to transplant them. I waited to long and lost all but two seedlings of my Cilantro, and three seedlings of my Parsley. I finally got them transplanted yesterday. I hope they continue to grow. If These grow into full size plants, then I am going to try Rosemary, garlic chives, basil, and green peppers.
I thought about purchasing a book to teach me how to grow vegitables indoors. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good book on this subject? To be honest, I am so new to this that I haven't a clue were to look.
Today, the kids and I are going strawberry picking. Then in a couple of weeks we want to go blackberry picking. I would love to plant my own bushes, but I can only take on so much at one time. I am still learning some of this other stuff. Plus, we don't have a lot of land, so I want to do what I can with what the Lord has given us, then when the Lord blesses us with land I will be ready for it.
I used to make Jelly with my grandma when I was a kid, but it has been a long time. I am going to try to make jam with the strawberries and blackberries that I pick. I also want to start making and canning my own tomato sauce and salsa. I have always done the Ragu sauce, but have recently noticed, that they have started putting high fructose corn syrup in some of it. It seems like everything is getting that stuff in it now. Plus, it would save a lot of money if I make spaghetti sauce out of the tomatoes that I grow.
This has all been a fun learning experience. I cannot wait to master this and move on to something else. Like making my own butter and yogurt. My cousin does that. Hopefully when I am ready for that step she will teach me. Happy homesteading.
My sister in law has been on facebook for a while, but I didn't want to join. I finally broke down and joined it. It has been really cool. I have gotten in touch with friends from college that I had lost track of. It has been really fun. What is nice, is that I don't feel guilty if I haven't blogged for a while. You can just type a sentence every now and then to update your status and keep people informed about what you are doing. I am not sure if there are any homeschool groups on face book yet. It would be cool if there were.
I could really use some prayer. I have been noticing some numbness in my arms and legs for the last couple months. Usually when I am under a lot of stress. I went to the doctor this week, and they are going to run an Echo Cardio Gram on me. Please pray that it is something simple and easily corrected that is causing these symptoms, and not my heart. Also, my son may have to have a painful and traumatic surgery. I am hoping that it can wait another eight months until my husband gets home, and can be here to help me. It is not something that I can handle on my own. We were told that we need to see a pediatric urologist to find out our options. I haven't had a chance to get him in to see one yet. Everyone that I talk to is telling me that the sooner we have it done the better. I just really do not think I can do this alone. It is really causing me a lot of stress. I don't know what to do.
Apr. 13, 2008~ How does one go about copywriting material? ~
I have written some poetry, and a song that I would love to share on my blog, but I am a little afraid to, because I have never had them copyrighted. I don't even know were to begin. I don't want to spend a lot of money to get it done, because I do not plan on publishing any of my work. I mostly write for my own pleasure, and as an outlet for my emotions. I would really appreciate any information that anyone can give me.
I know it has been a while since I have posted. Sorry!
I don't know about anyone else, but I am a planner. I love to make plans, I love to make up organized schedules and lists, and I love to reorganize things. I get so excited about all the things I am going to do. The problem is that I fall so short in the follow through. I am the type of person that likes to jump in with both feet only to get tired of swimming a few feet in. I am trying so hard to change that.
Recently I got the book "Laying down the rails. A Charlotte Mason Habits handbook." by Sonya Shafer. It is a really good book. I have realized all the bad habits that I have let cultivate in my children. The problem is that the habits I am trying to instill in my children, are habits that were never instilled in me. So what do you do when you are trying to instill habits in your children that you need to instill in yourself? It is a long road ahead of me, and as I have already said, I am not known for fallow through.
We have been trying though. I do like what it said about one habit at a time. So I wrote a list of the things I need to train in myself and my children, and picked one. I am so happy to say that we have stuck to it for a whole month now. Woo! Hoo!
I also requested the free gift from "No Greater Joy" Ministries. I just finished the book "To train up a child". I so wish I had heard of this book earlier. I kept reading through this book and thought he could have been talking about me. Man, I saw all my parenting flaws. It was not pretty. I am so thankful for that book as well. See I grew up with discipline, but I don't remember the training. I kept pushing off the discipline, because I thought it wasn't fair to discipline them without a warning first. So I kept giving them chances. After all the chances, they had already developed a habit of bad behavior. When they talked about training the child before they have a chance to exhibit the bad behavior, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Do you ever have "duh!" moments. I also had been letting things slide lately, because I felt so guilty with their daddy not being here for them. Last week I started training them, and using the wonderful wisdom found in that book. This last week has gone so wonderful. I am happier, my kids are happier. It is great.
Now if only I can keep it up. I am taking small baby steps. We have stepped back from our reading lessons, which I can do, since my oldest is only 4, and have been focusing on character and habit training. I started thinking that it is more important than school right now. There are so many flaws to fix in them and in me. The Academic comes second to character and habit formation. I am seeing progress, and it is so exciting. I have a goal, and I have a game plan. I just pray that the Lord will give me the strength to implement the plan and endure till the end.
My last post got me to thinking about how much we need each other, and some other lonely times in my past.
Until my senior year of college, I never had what one would call a close friend. I hung out with other kids, but I never felt like I could really open up to them, or trust them. I never felt like I was unconditionally loved by them to the point that I could let go and be myself.
During those long years of loneliness, I would spend hours pouring my heart out to God. He was the only person in my life that really knew me. Even though God was everything to me, he was my source, I still longed for human companionship.
I remember one day confessing my loneliness to another christian lady, and instead of being embraced and befriended, I was told that I shouldn't be lonely, because God is all I need. I remember thinking, "what is wrong with me?" "I must not be seeking God enough, because if God is all I need, then if I seek him enough I shouldn't feel lonely."
Years later I look back and think how wrong all that was. Yes we need God, and yes he should be our source for everything. He should be the one we always run to, but he made us to need each other.
If he meant us to go through life with no close contacts, then he would not have put all those verses in the bible about fellowship.
verses like the one that says two are better than one for they get a better return. If one falls down the other can pick him up, but pity the one who when he falls has no one to pick him up.
Or all the verses in the bible telling us not to forsake the gathering together of the saints. This doesn't mean come to church hear a sermon and go home. God knew that we need the fellowship of other believers to spur us on. He created us for fellowship.
Or the verses in the bible that say to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Or the verses that say that we are the body of Christ.
There should be no loneliness in a Christians heart, but not because we tell them that God is all they need and then walk away.
There should be no loneliness in a Christians heart, because we as the body of Christ should be his hands extended to embrace one another when they are struggling.
If you read my last post, you will see were I have recently been embraced by the body of Christ, and there are not words powerful enough to express how much it has meant to me.
Lord let me in turn be a blessing to others as I am blessed. Let your love flow through me.
Recently several families from the church my family had attended, left the church because they were deeply hurt by the church leadership. My family was one of them. It all happened within a month of my husband being deployed. It hurt so deeply that those I loved and trusted could kick me while I was down. It literally knocked the wind out of me. I was so upset when it happened that I was hyperventelating, and my mother had to drive over to calm me down.
I have been reluctant to choose a new church home without my husband. In the meantime, I am attending church with my parents. The paster of my parents church and his wife, are such sweet people, that I feel safe there for a while. Normally, when I attend a new church I jump in with both feet and make it home. I have never gone to a church were I was not heavily involved. I find it hard to jump in 100% at this time though, because I do not know where I will be in ten months. It makes it hard to form bonds with people.
So I am in a very lonely place in my life right now. I also, because of everything, have basically no support structure set up except for my mom and dad. Who have been wonderful, but I don't want to drain them either.
There is a Charlotte Mason support group that started up shortly before my husband was deployed, but I have not been able to attend one yet. I really wanted to go this month. One, because I need to support, and two I need an excuse to get away from my children for a bit. I love my children, but since their daddy left they have been so clingy and it is draining me. I need to get recharged. Anyway, all of my family is busy the day of the meeting, and I didn't know who to ask for help.
So I sent an email out on our coop email group. I explained my situation, and asked for help from anyone who would be willing to watch my kids. There are several ladies in our group, that I know well enough to have them watch my kids, but I didn't know them well enough to ask them for help. ( I struggle with asking for help. Not only is it a pride thing, but when you ask for help, you open yourself up for rejection. Therefore, I have to feel really close to someone to ask for help)
Anyway, I was so overwhelmed by the wonderful responses that I got back. So many families saying they would love to help me. Many of them said that they would love to help me anytime, not just the day that I mentioned, but anytime that I needed a break. Some of them had other obligations, and were not available to watch my kids, but has such encouraging words for me. It moved me to tears.
I am so blessed to have such wonderful christian homeschool mothers that are so willing to help another mother in need. I cannot remember the last time I have felt so loved and blessed.
I have been struggling with getting my life in order since my husband left. We were out of town for so long. It was hard to get back into a routine when we got home. I am someone that doesn't usually like to be tied to the clock. I don't even like to stay home. The kids and I always want to be out and about. However, when we were always gone, we never got anything done.
I recently purchased a book by Sonya Shaffer entitled "Laying down the rails". It is such a wonderful book. I reccemend it to everyone. I have now gotten a routine down that we are sort of sticking to. It is a loose routine, but it is something. Also, the first habit that I am instilling in my kids is picking up their toys.
It was driving me nuts. They kept pulling out all their toys and then wouldn't put them away. I couldn't even see the floor in the play room. So I told them that if I found toys on the floor when they were done playing, that I would throw them away. They must not have believed me at first, because they still didn't pick them up when I asked them to.
So the next day, I went in and picked up all the toys they left on the floor. Put them in a black bag, and hid them in my closet. After that, all I have to do is mention a toy that is left on the floor is going in the trash and they pick it up right away. It is wonderful. For the last four days the playroom has been picked up. It is so wonderful. I made up a little chart to check off everyday that we keep this action up until the habit is made.
I am also using this book to help instill habits in me. There are so many habits I want to instill in my kids that I haven't mastered my self. It is hard work, but if I am going to instill it in them I must first instill it in my self.
So here is my pat on the back to me for starting to instill some more disepline into my life. It has done wonders for my mood as well. Every little accomplishment drives me on.
Well, my last blog said that I think we are done with the flu. I spoke too soon. We finished the stomach flu only to transition into the resperitory flu. This week we have all been caughing and running fevers. On the bright side. I would much rather have this kind of flu than the stomach flu. I absolutly hate to throw up.
After being sick in January and February, I am hoping that march is the month of no sickness. I am tired of dealing with sickness.
I am looking forward to spring. I don't know about the rest of you, but I tend to deal with depression every winter. This winter has been a doozy. I don't know what it is about spring though. I could be so depressed, and then spring comes and it is like a breath of fresh air to my soul. It is like walking through the dark valley, and coming out into the light with everthing living and growing and blooming. I am telling myself, just hold out until the spring. Praise the Lord, nothing lasts forever. Sometimes our soul goes through winter times, but I just have to remember, that spring always comes.
Thank you Lord for giving me the streangth to carry on. Thank you Lord that in the dark times you always plant some hope in our hearts.
I also want to say thank you to my friend at "falling like rain" for her wonderful words of encouragement. I know I am not alone, but sometimes it is easy to start feeling that way. It is always good to be riminded of others who have been were I am and have made it through.
Feb. 3, 2008~ I think we are finally done with the flu ~
My dd finally stopped throwing up on Wednesday. Yes! So I am slowly getting things back in order. We haven't done any school work all week because of the flu. Hopefully this week we can get back on track. My son was doing really well with the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" I hope that we have not lost ground by being away from the lessons for a week. I can't wait till he learns to read and write. It will be so nice for him to read his daddy's letters to him. Hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Jan. 29, 2008~ Finally, a ray of sun in the clouds. ~
My dd has been throwing up every night since wednesday. I have had no energy, and have been a walking Zombie. We have had 2 trips to the doctor, and one trip to the E.R. (dehydration) Finally, last night, she went all night without throwing up. PTL! I actually woke up this morning with enough energy to get caught up on my mountain of laundry. (most of it bedding that she threw up all over) I also got the bills paid, and the bedroom picked up.
I have been dealing with some major depression this week, but I keep holding on. I know that I can get through this, because I can do all things through God who gives me strength. With God all things are possible.
My dd is still acting very tired and weak, but I am praying that she is on the mend, and that there will be no throwing up tonight either.
Thank you Lord that you always walk with me through my valley's, and teach me valuable lessons in the process.
Thank you Lord that when you delivered me from depression all those years ago, that you gave me lessons I can cling to when that ugly monster again tries to rear its head.
I would like to leave you with some of my favorite parts of Psalms 42. I prayed this Psalm many times when I was dealing with some dark years of depression in my life.
Psalms 42:5-6a
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God."
"By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me-
A prayer to the God of my life."
Jan. 24, 2008~ I think I am on a roller coaster. ~
I know my last post was very depressing. Well after I had my cry, I still didn't feel better, so I called my mom on the phone. She set me strait. (I should have called my dad. He gives the sympethy, my mom tells you how it is.) Although I would rather have had sympathy, a good talking to is what I needed. Then she told me to come on over. So I crocheted and we watched her newest net flicks movie while the kids played. It gave me the break I needed, so I felt better.
Then on Tuesday, I was supposed to clean house all day because we were having some guests over on Wednesday. However, I got online at 8:00 in the morning, and my hubby was there. So we IM'd until 12:30. I hooked up the web cam so he could see the kids. He was so excited when our daughter started laughing and blowing kisses to the camera. He said his biggest fear is that she will not remember him when he gets home. I had such a good time talking to him, and getting everything sorted out. I was on cloud nine the rest of the day.
Then Wednesday came. I made 6 loaves of bread, and some homemade chicken soup. The only cleaning I didn't get done was dusting, and straitening the play room. I wasn't too upset about it though, It was much more important to talk to my hubby. I had put out the place settings got out the candles, and the crystal. I had it all done up nice, but only 2 my guests showed up. That was o.k. though, I got to get to know them better anyway.
The only thing that went wrong was one of the pieces to my mixer fell down the garbage disposal and got lodged. If my hubby was home he could fix it. But he is not. I tried to see if I could take the disposal apart myself, but I cannot figure it out. Now I have to wait until tomorrow when my dad will be off work and able to come fix it for me.
Then last night at about midnight, my daughter threw up. So I cleaned her and the bed up as much as I could and put her back to sleep. She was fine the rest of the night. My son never got sick, but two hours later, I was up throwing up too. I am not feeling nauseous any more, but I am feeling very week.
I called my mom and she said that it sounds like what she had last week, and she still hasn't quite gotten rid of it. I thought great. So I gave my daughter a bath, striped the bed and put clean linen on it. Now the rest of the day we are going to vedge, because I am feeling very week. My hubby said he would try to contact me tomorrow. I hope I am feeling better by then.
We were supposed to go shopping today, and mail my hubby a package, but it is going to have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.
Well, I will try to check in later.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who tried to encourage me after my last post. I know in my head that things will get better, it is just hard sometimes to tell it to your heart when it is breaking.
God promised that he will get me through this, and I know he will. He didn't promise that it wouldn't be hard sometimes.
My hubby and I are having communication problems. They still do not have the internet wired to their rooms yet, and the line to get to a computer is at least 45 minutes. So it has now been over 3 weeks since I have heard his voice, and I am still only getting an e-mail about 1 a week. I was so frustrated that I sent him a hateful letter this morning, and walked away from my computer. Of course that is when he finally got online. Not only did he express his unhappiness with my letter, but I missed him. Almost a week of checking IM every 5 to 10 minutes to see if he is online and I missed him.
I was so sick. I put the kids down for their naps early and then I just sat and cried my heart out. And now I will have to wait another week to hear from him.
At first I was so proud to be able to sacrifice for my country, but today I don't feel that way. After three months of this, I think it is really crappy, and I want him to come home. I can't stop crying and I wish I had someone to hold me right now. I don't know how I am going to do this for another 12 months.
Friday show and tell is hosted by Canada Girl. Just fallow the link above to check it out.
I still have not figured out how to get pictures off the video camera, so until then I needed to figure out what show and tell I could do with the pictures I already have. So this one will be about horses.
This is my mother-in-law's horse. Her name is charity. She is a quarter hourse She has had this horse for many years. Charity is trained in the western style of riding. This is my husband and son riding her.
This horse is my sister-in-laws. Her name is Glory, and she is a Theroughbred. She got her horse when she was a teenager. She got her horse the same time her mother got hers. They were origionally purchased in California, but have traveled with them when they moved. Glory is trained in both western and English, although my sister-in-law mostly does English. This is my sister-in-law leading glory around the arena with my son riding her.
This is my mother-in-laws rocking horse. They have had this longer than their other horses. The top picture is my darling daughter riding, and the bottom picture is my darling son riding her. Somewhere there is a picture of my husband riding this horse when he was the same age. Actually, there is a picture of him sleeping on the horse. According to my mother-in-law, my husband was very hyper as a kid. (like father like son) and he used to vigorously ride this horse, and then just crash. One minute the horse is rocking and the next he is asleep. Anyway, this horse has been in the family a long time. Maybe it will still be around when my son has a son.
Must finish the syllabus for the classes I am teaching this semester.
Must register for homeschool coop.
must get my office back in order.
I need to pay bills on Tuesday.
laundry
I need to get back to my organized mom's handbook. I got away from it these last 3 months, and my life is very unorganized at the moment. I am slowly getting back on schedule thought. I am hoping to be able to start back on my home blessing next week.
Meal Plan
I don't have a meal plan for this week either. It will mostly be whatever I pull from the freezer, and spaghetti. Last week I did use my seal a meal and put up some meals in the freezer. I am finding that without my husband here to eat the meals can be split in half, and last twice as long. I cut the food budget and put it elsewhere. We just do not need to buy as much when he is gone.
Train up your child.
Right now, we are working on learning to read, and I am hoping to start him with JBQ (junior Bible quizz) fairly soon. The boy is good at memorizing things.
Jan. 12, 2008~ getting back into the swing of things. ~
I started the "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" with my son yesterday. He sat through the lesson very well. I was much pleased. We will see how well it works. My cousin told me about the book. She used it with her daughter who is 6 and is reading at a 2nd grade reading level. I have high hopes.
Our homeschool coop will be starting the 25th of this month. We meet every Friday. I am excited. I love to teach, and I am teaching 3 classes this semester. I will be teaching Advanced Music Theory for the Upper Grammer/Retoric age group, Sign Language for the Early grammer age group, and logic for whichever age group is needed. They will let me know when the get the schedule more put together.
I am always excited when coop starts. The kids are so great, and I do so love to teach. I origionally was going to college to be a middle school teacher, but changed my major after my first summer working in a YMCA after school program. It was horrible. The kids needed so much, and your hands were tied you couldn't do anything about it. We had one child that would sit in a corner and at 8 years old would cry and say he was going to kill himself, and we were not allowed to comfort them for fear that someone would misconstrue our actions. My heart just broke. I thought I cannot handle this.
I am so glad that I get to homeschool my own children. I can hug them, I can wipe away their tears and let them know they are loved without someone thinking it dirty. That is one of my main goals of homeschooling too. I want my children to grow up confident, knowing that they are greatly loved by their parents and by God. They are my blessings.
Well I got to go. Time for breakfast. Its my favorite meal of the day.
My little one turned 1. I slaved over a whinnie the pooh cake, and an hour before the party my 3yo ds stuck his fingers in the cake. Dh was there to calm me down. The party was wonderful anyway.
March
My husband got the call to active duty. We origonally thought he would be gone the end of March, but then found out it would not be until after summer. We spent the next several months hurrying up and waiting. We knew he was leaving but didn't know when he would go.
April
We went to see my in laws. We went to the dinning out for his Unit. My Dh's parents watched the kids overnight, and we had a date. This rarely happens so when it does it is memerable.
May
My birthday. I am getting old. we didn't celebrate my birthday until June. however. I can't remember much about may either. My husband was gone for two weeks of training this month.
June
I found out about homeschoolblogger.com and opened my first account. It was so exciting meeting so many wonderful ladies. I was having so much fun. Origionally, I thought that this site would be a good way for my husband to be able to know what all is happening with us while he is away. Only he has had no access to the internet since he left in October. Hopefully that will change in the next couple of weeks. Time will tell what will happen. You never know anything with the military. You just have to learn to hang on, plan for the worst and hope for the best. This month I also celebrated my birthday with my sister-in-law. We went to a spa and got manacures and massages. It was so wonderful. My dh was gone for 2 weeks in training.
July The church we were attending at the time had a July 4th party. The kids had a blast. My ds even got to ride in a helicopter with his papa. The next week we were out of town again. My husband was training for 2 weeks this month also.
Aug
We went on about our life still not knowing when my dh would leave.
Sept. This month we finally found out that my Dh would be leaving the next month. Shortly after we found out my husband would be leaving us for a year, we began to plan how we would spend his time before he leaves. We decided that he needed to spend time with his parents and sisters too. So we spent a lot of time out of town this year. This month was no exception. One of the things we did when we spent time with his family was riding horses. This is a picture of my dh riding his mothers horse with our dd.
October This is the month that we said goodbye to my dh. It was not easy, but it went a lot better than I thought it would. I was so worried that my children would just fall apart when he left. God is amazing though, and he can even comfort hearts that are so little they cannot possibly understand what is happening.
November
The kids and I spent this month with my husbands family. I don't have any pictures of us however, because my dh took the camera with him. He is supposed to take pictures to send to us. We have the video camera, but I have not figured out how to get those pictures to my computer. I am sure I will figure it out soon. My husband spent this month away from us training for his mission in Iraq. I posted a picture with the gas mask. I thought about posting a picture of them coming out of the gas chamber, but seeing as how they are usually crying and puking when they come out I didn't figure you would want to see that.
December
My dh got to come home for Christmas. It was so wonderful, but it was harder to say goodbye the second time. We celebrated the kids' birthdays so that my husband didn't have to miss out on them. We also went tubing at a local ski resort. It was so much fun, and as soon as I get the pictures on my computer I will post them.
Well that was my 2007. It went so fast that most of it is a blur. The overwhelming thought of 2008 is that it will be a year without my dh. However, God is providing for us and taking care of us. He is also showing me things about myself this year. I know that even though my husband will not be here with me that we will all grow and be better off because of this trial that we must endure. I count myself privilaged to be able to make a sacrifice for our great and God Blessed country.
I thought some of you might like to see this. The primaries are coming up. I have my favorite. It is Fred Thompson. I did a blog on the republican candidates a while back, and wrote about him. I really hope that he gets the nomination, but It appears that he is lagging a little behind write now. I hope he picks up some more steam.
If you would like to see a video he made about why he should be president Here is the web address.
http://www.fred08.com/Virtual/FDTIowaSpeech.aspx
just cut and past it to your browser.
Fred was backed by the national right to life organization. He is a strong conservative, both morally and fiscally. I also love that he is strong on military. I know that our hope is in Jesus Christ, and that He is the one that places people in power in the nations, but my husband still has 4 years left on this military service. I am afraid of what will happen if any of the democratic runners gets in office, and even if some of the republican runners get in office. I really hope that Fred Thompson can make it to the white house. I will vote for him, and then I will just have to wait, pray, and trust.
Anyway, I encourage you to watch the video. It is really good.
Well my dh is now in Kuwait, and we are now finally back home. I am sorry that I have been gone so long. With my hubby gone, and my ds and dd both under the age of 5, I don't have the time to blog like I did before. I do miss all my friends here, and I will still try to get on here from time to time when I can, It will just be a little sparadic.
It is good to be home. We were gone for 3 months. I am so thankful that I have such wonderful parents that kept a good watch on my house for me.
We did get to see my hubby for 4 days around Christmas. The kids and I were so excited to see him. My dd was so clingy to him those four days. Whenever he would leave the room, she would cry for him. Saying goodbye the second time was so much harder than the first time. Of course then we thought we might see him in two months. Now we know it will be a year. It is sad when I think that 2008 will be a year without my hubby. We will not see him until 2009.
While he was home over Christmas, we celebrated the kids birthdays. both of our children have birthdays close to Christmas. Although my husband missed both of their actual birthdays, I didn't want him to miss the party, so we waited and had the party while he was home. He really appreciated that. We had a pool party. Then I rented a jacoozi (I haven't a clue how to spell that) room at a local hotel, and his parents watched the kids so that we could have some alone time. It was so wonderful, I did not want the evening to end.
Then the next day we went Tubing with the kids. There is a skii resort close to my in-laws place, and they have these huge intertubes with tow ropes on them. They tow you up the hill on a tow rope, and then you slide down the hill on the tubes it is so much fun. I am so glad that their daddy got to enjoy this with them. We all had such a good time. If I get a chance I will try to post some pictures of it. The people that worked there were so impressed with our kids. our 4yo went down by himself on several occasions, and our 2yo went down in her own tube with us. They said that there are 12yo that are too scared to go down the hill, and ours just loved it.
The next day was Christmas. It was such a wonderful day, and then the next day he had to leave. My father-in-law drove him to the airport, and I stayed home with the kids.
It was so hard to say goodbye. I miss him so much. I think the hard part is, not being able to contact him. It is a nine hour time difference. He called me the day after he made it to Kuwait. He called at 8:30 Monday morning, and it was 11:30 Sunday night here. His grandma had given him a 150 minute calling card from AT&T. After all the international fees and things, It was 13 minutes. I haven't heard from him since. I do not know how long he will be in Kuwait, or where he will be stationed after. I know it is all for security, but it is still hard not knowing. I also know that he will not have access to the internet until he gets there. So for a while, we will have no contact with him. That is so hard. I just keep praying that God will keep him safe.
Well I just heard my daughter crying, so they are awake. I need to go. I will try to write again when I get time. I hope that all my friends are doing well. I will try to check on their blogs at nap time.
It is so good to finally be home. 3 months away is a long time. I had forgotten what my house looks like. Now I have so much unpacking to do, and then we have to try to get back into a rutine.
