Happy 2010!

Happy New Year! It is the first day of the new year and the new decade. Just typing that makes me realize how fast the years are slipping by and how much I want to make each day count. This year I am praying to make sure I treasure each day whether it is filled with the things I thought would happen or not. I have learned by God's grace over the last several years that time is so precious and once it is gone you cannot regain a second of it. I pray for God's direction as 2010 begins and for consistency to seek His face daily and walk closely with Him so that this new year can be all He has for me and I can serve Him and bring glory to His name.

Happy New Year! Don't let a second go by that you are not living completely and thanking God for the gift of a new day.

Winding Down 2009

The year is quickly coming to a close. It is amazing to me how quickly the years seem to be going. I remember last year and getting our New Year's Day meal together and here it is time to do that once again. Our family traditionally eats New Year's Day meal together with aunts, uncles and grandparents as a way to mark the beginning of a brand new year and a fresh start. We eat pork barbecue, baked beans and black-eyed peas, collards, homemade macaroni and cheese and other favorites. We usually have something special for dessert as well. There will be lots of bowl games to watch as well.

I enjoy the tradition of eating together and I am looking forward to starting the new year, 2010. Dear husband should be returning in the early part of this year. We will begin our second semester of school and looking towards summer! Happy New Year to everyone!

Galloping Christmas Dog!

My camera is broken and until the company sends out the repaired one or a new one I decided to dig out a photo from last Christmas that I love. Hard to believe this puppy is now our big Ginger girl. She is embracing Christmas in a big way this year! She loves Christmas bows and garland and smelling all of the Christmas treats on the kitchen counter top. She has decided that dishtowels make great chew toys as well. She especially loves cute embroidered ones with neat little ball fringe, oh what fun! She has not quite figured out the stockings hung by the chimney with care, but I am just waiting for them to come crashing down along with the mantle garland. Tonight she almost made off with the Advent wreath on the kitchen table, candle and all, if not for a last minute save by dear son. Decking the halls has definitely been modified at our house this year. No glass ornaments on the tree and all bows with in Ginger range have been removed. In short Christmas has been Gingerfied and simplified.


Even though she has caused some disturbances in my usual Christmas decorating I am happy for the chaos she provides. She is a handful but I love it! It has helped me to really focus on why I put up the decorations in the first place and why it is so much fun to celebrate the season of Jesus' Birth. Funny how a tiny puppy grows up to be a 50 pound galloping dog that brings so much into your life. She is a good reminder of what is important this holiday season for our family...simply enjoying the Reason for this Season and remembering all the many, many blessings that we have.

Turning the Page

Dear Husband's JAG crew getting ready for the Christmas season in Iraq!!



Well, November is almost done and I am getting ready to turn the page on the calendar again. December is right around the corner and all the joy and celebration of Jesus' birth is about to begin. I am pausing to think about this last year right now and to try to make the most of this last month on the calendar. It has been a year of ups and downs, struggles and triumphs, but mostly a year without my dear husband.

Nothing seems right without him here among us and I miss him. I decided to blog about how things were going as a marker to me that everything would be okay and that God is with us now, even in these last few months before he comes home to us for good. All of modern technology is wonderful and does bridge the gap of missing him, it is helpful for the kids and I to connect with their Dad using Skype and texting and e-mails and even the good old fashioned postal system. We have all learned a lot from this deployment and that is what I am trying to gather up in my thoughts today. The kids have learned the meaning of sacrifice and putting others before themselves. They have learned how to communicate with their Dad so far away and how to help out even when they do not feel like doing so. They have seen a love relationship between their Mom and Dad that I hope will inspire and encourage them when they leave home and begin their own families.

The holiday season is upon us and the page on the calendar is being turned and I want to be able to celebrate Jesus' birthday with my children and family and friends. Yes, it is going to be different, and yes it will be very difficult, sometimes the reality of dear husband not being here is overwhelming and tears flood my eyes, but I know that God will work all these things out for His glory. So I am turning the page on my calendar on Tuesday and looking forward to what December will bring for our family. I know the children are excited about two more weeks left in school! We are getting close to finishing Unit 2 of Tapestry of Grace Year 3, and we are trying to hit our goals for reading and math. Nutcracker performances begin in Chapel Hill this weekend,Advent activities from the wonderful book, Celebrate with Joy, Christmas parties, gingerbread house decorating, cookie making and decorating the house and getting the crazy tree up! I want to enjoy it all. So I am resolving to give God our holidays, give Him the month of December, really as I should do with every month and ask Him for guidance and help to know what to do and when to do it. Won't you join me as you turn the page on the calendar to the last month of this year and resolve to give the month to God!

Almost Thanksgiving!

Well, the month is just about gone! Thanksgiving is two days away and we have taken the week of from school!! Enjoying a little free time for cleaning, cooking, thinking and preparing for the joyous month of December. Before we get there though I wanted to pause and think of all the things that we have as a family and as a nation to be thankful for this year of 2009. We are a family that is separated by many miles, but our hearts are bound together even closer than before this deployment began 13 months ago. I am thankful for my soldier husband and his service to our great nation and his example for our children. I am thankful for my three beautiful, wondrous children and all the laughter and love they bring to our lives and the growing they cause me to do in my relationship with Christ. I am thankful for all of our family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and dear friends that are family and our church home. I am thankful for the honor and the call to homeschool my children and for all of the amazing resources to do so. I am thankful for my life and my health, thankful for God's provisions and blessings. Thank you dear Lord for all that You have done for us! Thank you and help me to keep my focus on being thankful and not on missing my dear husband!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Blur That Was October

Well, amazingly enough October 2009 has come and gone. The month has faded into one big beautiful blur! Our family begin the month traveling with dear husband who was home for 16 days on R&R. Our travels took us to Busch Gardens at Williamsburg and the Great Wolf Lodge, followed by a few wonderful days at the beach, soaking up some sun, but mostly enjoying one another and making memories, the weather was a little wet!


Dear husband returned to Iraq October 9 which left us with the rest of October and we continued the whirlwind of activities with birthdays, Ginger's and mine, the State fair with the chocolate covered bacon and finally our church's Fall Festival.



Our time with dear husband was fleeting, but having what one of our friends calls a "Practice Homecoming" was wonderful. I can only hope the rest of our deployment time will fly by as quickly. I surely appreciate having a completed family time because nothing really is the same without dear husband. God continually reminds me daily even when I feel so very overwhelmed how blessed we truly are, and what an honor it is to have my husband who is following God's call on his life to serve his country and set an example for our children. Yes it is hard, but it is so worth it. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I am going to try to get back in the habit of posting more regularly. I will always remember the blur that was October!

Anticipation

Sweet husband has started the long Army journey home for 15 days of R&R, which in the past was called rest and relaxation, now it has some other name, but it means the same thing! His first flight on the first leg of the journey was canceled due to dust storms. The new plan was convoy! After much prayer and trusting, I received the call this morning at 4:45am, safe and sound. Now the next part of the journey begins. I do not know when or where for sure, and that is o.k., because I do know ultimately whose hands he rests in, always.

We wait with great anticipation for the final phone call, saying come pick me up, I am HOME! Preparations are going on, cleaning, grocery shopping, making sure that all the comforts of home are in tip top shape for his homecoming. I know that everything to him will seem wonderful, and I don't have to make a big fuss over him. He never has asked that of me, but I want everything to be just right.

He needs the rest. He needs the relaxation. He still has to return and finish the rest of the time of his deployment. Praying for strength and wisdom to know when to do what and how to minister to him. Thank you Lord for this homecoming. I will always remember these 15 days!