Back to Normal...

Finally a normally scheduled day...School/Work for K/Hubby respectively...coffee and laundry for me...quiet morning playtime for C.  But, Monday is still Monday...and this is our first day with an alarm in 4 days...gonna need some more of that coffee...

SNOW DAY...Take 2...

 We’ve had two snow days here. Thursday and Friday. Thursday felt so backwards…there was not a stitch of snow on the ground when we got up…yet school had already been canceled at 8:30pm on Wednesday night. It was so strange for K to not go to school when it appeared that nothing was actually going on out there.  The snow finally started around 11:30 and quickly became thick and heavy enough that it was obvious why the districts had made the decision to cancel. For hours (almost 24 of them, in fact) the snow fell and accumulated and blew all over the place.  By 9:00pm Thursday night, the schools decided that the road conditions and continuing snowfall were going to make getting to school more dangerous than necessary and so they cancelled school for Friday as well.  Friday morning, it was more obvious why we were all still at home…roads were still covered in up to 6 inches of snow (especially in the neighborhoods where the plows hadn’t gotten any clearing done) and flurries were still falling.  As the day went by, the snow stopped and the sun has come out…making it possible for driveways to be cleared and ice to be melted.  And now the sun glints off of pile after pile after pile of snow burning our retinas. LOL.

There have been three major downsides to these two ‘Snow Days’.  First, my hubby and I have both been sick for about the past week and a half. Thankfully, we seem to be alternating days…he’ll feel a bit better on the very day that I feel my worst and I will feel a bit better on the day that he is for sure on his death bed.  But for our children, it has been Hell.  You see, they’ve been perfectly healthy (thank God)…not a sniffle between them. But they are not accustomed to J and I being puny and less than 100% involved parents.  So in the past week, we’ve left the house twice for events not related to K’s school or J’s work. That has left them with a bout of cabin fever that is about to drive me nuts.  Second, K’s school just had a long weekend (5 days, actually) and have another long weekend scheduled over Easter (no ‘Spring Break’ up here…instead of a whole week off of school, they get two extended weekends instead).  Anyway, with so much time off of school K is bored and has really…REALLY…taken to bossing C around. Apparently it annoys me more than C since he just does whatever she says but it is driving me bonkers.  Finally, when the schools start closing, so do businesses, so anything that we might have had the energy to go do is a moot point since the place is probably closed anyway. UGH.

However, by Friday afternoon J and I were at least feeling well enough to fake it.  We bundled everyone up, invited over a friend that was going through the same thing (she’d been sick…kids were fine…hubby on a trip), ordered pizza and had a very casual afternoon of sledding on the hill across the street from our house, eating pizza, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.  It was so good for the kids…and the adults.  All of us needed some interaction other than our own families and I think everyone really benefited from some activity and company. I love friends like that…where it doesn’t have to be fancy and we can just throw together a simple afternoon/evening and everyone has a great time.

Moms Shouldn't Get Sick...

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. LOL. And it just started Saturday night. Bleh! Fever, body aches, the whole nine yards. I've been taking OTC meds and trying to rest but that just doesn't come easily to a full-time mom. I love my Bugs and caring for them is my ‘job’…though I consider it more of a luxury than work. The worst part is that I’ll feel ‘fine’ while I am sitting calmly on the couch or in bed…so then I get to thinking about all things that I could be doing and all the ways that I could be productive…so I get up and start doing stuff and promptly start feeling like crud again. Ugh! It is a vicious circle.  I am blessed to have my hubby home this weekend, though.  He has really picked up the slack for me…doing laundry, cooking, doing dishes and other miscellaneous cleaning/chores as well as taking care of and entertaining our sweet children.

Double Blogging...

Well, I have been testing out blogging...as you can see.  I have also been testing out two different blogging sites...Blogspot (eblogger) and Wordpres...currently I have been sharing identical posts on both blogs while I try to decide which one I like best.

This is what I have learned about blogging: 1) I enjoy blogging even though I'm not terribly consistent about it. 2) Most of my posts are very casual and are about family.  3) I do not consider myself a serious writer...more of a recreational one. 4) Keeping two blogs running is redundant, so I need to pick one.

This is what I have learned about the blogging sites: 1) Blogspot connects to my Google account and with Google+ it is very easy to share photos to my blog...which I do a lot. 2) My Wordpress blog has more followers that are unknown to me (i.e. strangers). 3) Blogspot feels more user friendly for the things that I post and I have more friends/family followers on that site. 4) Wordpress seems better suited for serious, professional writers and I am neither.

All that being said, if you would like to continue following my blogging adventure, I encourage you to follow me at 'That's Just Part of my Life' on Blogspot (eblogger)...well, here. :)  I may occasionally update my Wordpress blog...or at least post links in it to my Blogspot posts. But it is too time consuming to update both of them simultaneously. And, I'd like to give a BIG thank you to my friend Misty that even suggested that I try out other blogging options and encouraging me to just let the words come to me instead of trying to force a topic.  You're a real motivator, friend, inspiration and always full of such wise advice! Thank you!!  I appreciate all of your support, likes and comments and I hope you'll continue this journey with me! 

~Jac

Valentine's Day...

I see a lot of negative posting about Valentine’s Day. Well, holidays in general. And I agree, they are WAAAYY over commercialized! I mean, do you really need to have Christmas trees right next to your Independence Day display? Probably not. But whatever, I’m not in retail, so I’ll just decorate my house when I’m good and ready.  Personally, I like holidays. I like decorating for them. I’m not Irish, but I have my St. Paddy’s Day stuff ready to go on display tomorrow! After that it’s Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day before we dive back into the holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s). It’s the fun of it. The whimsy of decorating…and for me, it helps break up the monotony of the long, gloomy winter up here. I do agree with a lot of things that I see, though…

I don’t need a special day to know that my children love me. They show me every day with their actions and the hugs and kisses that they share with me.

My children don’t need a special day to know that I love them. I tell them every day…over and over…and I show them with the things that I do and by living my life with their best interests at heart.

I don’t need a special day to know that my husband loves me.  He tells me daily, makes countless sacrifices for me and our children and is the rock in our family.

I don’t need a special day to tell my husband that I love him.  I tell him daily, put him and the children at the center of my world and am there for him no matter what.

Not to mention the fact that I have an anniversary to celebrate the loving relationship that I share with my husband, birthdays to celebrate the amazing children that we have along with Mother’s and Father’s Day to celebrate joining the world of parenthood. 

But I can always enjoy a special day about love just for the sake of it. We spend Valentine’s Day as a family…we all love each other…the holiday is about love.  So, why not? We do special things like make heart shaped foods, dye things pink and/or red and make heart shaped crafts.  We also go out to dinner as a family. We don’t eat out too often and when we do, it is rarely without a specific reason.  So, this is our reason…we love each other, so nobody has too cook or do dishes, we go out instead and enjoy a yummy meal together.  This year instead of making heart pancakes or cinnamon rolls with pink icing, we decided to surprise the kids with breakfast out.  It was fun on so many different levels. First of all, it is a long weekend (i.e. winter break) for the public school system…the kids have Thursday, Friday, the weekend and Monday off…but my hubby still has to work a regular today and Friday…so he and I got up early and got ready (him for work and me for a day of errands)…then we woke the kids up and got them dressed. We didn’t offer drinks or breakfast, just dressed them and ushered them out the door. It was quite funny. Neither of them are morning people and neither of them were thrilled to be woken early on a ‘no-alarm-day’. LOL.  They were still nearly asleep in the car on the way there and didn’t ‘wake up’ till we got to our destination.  I’d seen an advertisement that our local Chick-fil-A restaurant would be serving heart shaped biscuits for breakfast and we thought that the kids would find it a fun treat. We were not disappointed! The kids loved their breakfast treat…a double treat at that…breakfast out and shaped like hearts!  It was a great way to start our day.  Rounding out our day with a family supper at Red Lobster was the perfect way to spend the day celebrating our family’s love for each other. 

~Jac

Just Me and My Girl...

Yesterday I got to enjoy some time with just my girl. It was so much fun…but a bitter reminder that she hardly resembles the child that she was when we welcomed her brother to the family.  She’s always been fiercely independent and incredibly intelligent. None of that has changed.  But we were a part of everything and every moment in her life…even when she started Pre-K, it took her almost as long to recap every moment of her day (3 hours) as she spent IN school. Now she is in Kindergarten and from 7:55 am – 3:10 pm, we are out of the loop. Don’t get me wrong, we still get a drawn-out recap of the day most afternoons and she spends 3:10 pm till bath time talking non-stop.  But seeing her in her element with her friends is both amazing and disheartening.  

K’s classroom Valentine Party was yesterday afternoon and an amazing and wonderful friend of ours watched our sweet lil’ man so that I could go to the party. It was a fun afternoon with a class of 5 and 6 year old children. They made a craft, had some snacks and exchanged Valentines. It was so cute and so sweet and a nice treat to be able to focus on just her for a little while. She, of course, was thinking of her brother the whole time. She wanted to save her juice box for him and save at least half of her treats for him, too.  Even when it’s ‘her’ time, she is always thinking of him.  She has the biggest, kindest, sweetest heart and she just adores her baby brother. I kept reminding her that this was her party and she did not have to give her treats to him.  As much as they love each other, time apart is both good for them and necessary.  And good for me…I got to just have a Kindergartner for a little over an hour and give her my undivided attention while spending time with her in ‘her world’.   Always time well spent…

~Jac

P.S. When they were given 'prizes' at the party, she asked if she could please take two of the bracelets...one for her and one for her brother...when they said yes (all the prizes needed to be gotten rid of since it was the last party of the year), she picked an orange bracelet for him (his favorite color). Love her...

Zoo Day with my Lil' Man...

I spend a lot of time grooming our children into the people that I want them to be as adults. Strong. Independent. Intelligent. Compassionate. Polite. With that comes a lot of teaching, structure, discipline, rules and (most important) consistency.  In doing that, I have been known to forget that every now and then they need to just let loose. And then I feel bad for the same strict structure that I enforce because I know is so good for them.  One-on-one time with my Bugs is oh-so-important and before C was born, it was so easy. I mean, when you only have one kid, one-on-one time is all the time…everything you do…it is built in by design.  But then you have a second child (or any subsequent sibling…parents with more than one child will immediately relate, but the concept is elementary regardless of how many kids you have currently…or if you even have children). And as amazing as that younger child is…and as amazing as the relationship is between those two children (my Bugs don’t just love each other, they LOVE each other…nearly inseparable and they each think the other one is **perfect**)…they each need, crave and DESERVE one-on-one time with Mamma and/or Daddy. 

Then it becomes a matter of scheduling.  Find a sitter for one kid while the parents do something with the other…or split the kids between the parents (Mamma and Daddy each take a child and do something one-on-on)…or once school starts, do something with the younger sibling while the older one is in school (assuming, of course, that your child goes to school outside of the home).  The one-on-one time is no less important with multiple children…it just requires a bit more creativity in scheduling.

K started Kindergarten in August. Yes, I know that was 6 months ago.  C is not old enough for Pre-K, so we get a whole year of school-days together…just us. And so we’ve had a good amount of one-on-one time.  But it occurred to me last week that we haven’t used it to do anything special. No trips to the Zoo, no Children’s Museum…just normal day-to-day stuff like errands, chores and the occasional extra playground trip, bike ride or long walk. WHAT was I waiting for? It won’t be long before school is out and one-on-one time becomes harder to schedule…then it’ll be August again and he’ll start Pre-K (just two days a week, but still making for a slightly less flexible schedule) as K moves on to 1^st grade. OMG…she’ll be moving to first grade…in just 6 short months…woah. That’s another post entirely.  

So last week, we packed a lunch, gathered snuggly jackets and a blanket (it was a bit chillier than I anticipated) and headed to the Zoo.  And we had a blast.  We got there just after they opened and didn’t have to be concerned with time (I’d already decided that C could skip his nap as long as he was having a good time and behaving well).  We visited gorillas, orangutans, antelope, and giraffes. Then we enjoyed lunch outside the aquarium.  When it got too chilly to continue sitting outside to eat, we finished our lunches inside the aquarium as we watched the penguins jump, swim and waddle.  Then we visited the tropical rain forest and the big cats exhibit.  There were very few things that we didn’t see or do, but we kept a leisurely pace and took our time watching the animals play.  We spent a great deal of time looking at the lion cubs. C was so excited over the ‘baby kitty cats’ that he wants to have his own baby lion. LOL.  I suppose every kid feels that way when they see infants of another species…but it is still so stinkin’ cute to hear it from your own child’s mouth. So innocent in their understanding that in just a few short months, that sweet ‘baby’ would be the largest thing in the house and not suitable for life as a domestic pet.

It was a wonderful day full of things that HE loved…no errands, laundry, dishes or other household chores. Just the things that an almost 3 year old boy enjoys…and he has talked about it non-stop since. Yes, I was ‘behind’ on the laundry and chores that I would like to have done before the weekend. No, I wouldn’t trade those few hours for anything.

~Jac

Happy Saturday...

It occurred to me this morning that our days of lazy Saturday mornings will eventually be coming to an end.  At some point between pregnancy number one and child number one starting Pre-K (and now Kindergarten), our definition of ‘sleeping in’ have already drastically changed. Sleeping in use to refer to sleeping until 9am (or later…we have two great sleepers that routinely slept past the 9 o’clock mark).  But with schedules and alarms, our bodies now naturally wake a mere thirty minutes…on a lucky day, a full hour…past when that dreadful alarm would sound anyway. That is ‘sleeping in’. And that is fine. Turns out we can fit a lot more into one day if we finish breakfast before noon.

Now it is the ‘lazy Saturday’ that we covet. You know, staying in jammies until the second cup of coffee is drained. But when a friend posted something this morning about how rough 8am Saturday commitments are, I realized that we aren’t that far away from that ourselves. 

Both of our kids are already involved in extracurricular activities…one at a time is our rule for now. We see no need to exhaust them by having their time scheduled to the minute 5 or 6 days a week (they are only 5 and 2, respectively). But, still, they have already become involved. For now those things all fall on weekdays…but the time is fast approaching when little league,  pop warner or city league sports will take over and practice will be two evenings per week followed by games on Saturdays. Games that will require us to get dressed first thing on Saturday instead of lounging in jammies for a few hours.  Games that will…dare I say it…force us to set an alarm on Saturday. Oh, it is painful to even think about.  But, I wonder, will there magically be more hours in the day again? ;)

For now, we will enjoy our lazy Saturday mornings…followed, most weekends, by some sort of family outing or errand…

…and with that, we are off to try on shoes and enjoy our day together…

…Happy Saturday…

~Jac

Faith, Effort and Love...Not Numbers...

If you have children, you will understand immediately what I am about to describe.  That comment that changes the way you parent, the way you view parenting and the way you relate parenting to others.  For everyone else, it’s a good story…a true story.

I was told a long time ago that I’m not really parenting until I have more than one kiddo. Really? Then what the hell have I been doing for the past year (half of which I did alone while my hubby was half way around the world)?! I want to make it clear that that comment pissed me off to no end…still does when I think of it. If you have a child, you are parenting. That’s really all there is to it. I believed that then and I believe that now. A part of me, however, wondered if I would feel like or be a different parent should we have an additional child. In the time since the comment was made, it has been explained to me over and over that I may have taken it too personally…which is always possible…I take a lot of things personally and I take EVERYTHING personally when it involves my sweet, angelic, perfect Bugs.

Okay, we all know they aren’t actually perfect. But they are perfect for us…perfect at testing boundaries… perfect at being kids…and that’s a good thing because that’s their job.  But they are my life, my career and the most wonderful thing that I have ever done, bar none.  I put my heart and soul into raising them…everything from hygiene, appearance and punishment to education, social skills and safety (and everything in between) is my responsibility and I approach it with the same vigor as any corporate executive gunning for a promotion or pay raise.   I spend my days shaping personalities, encouraging curiosities, teaching skills and appropriate behaviors and explaining the ways of the world to two of the most inquisitive minds that I have ever met.  I laugh, I cry, I scream and most nights I pass out from the exhaustion of it...and I truly LOVE every second.

So, do I feel like more of a parent now that I have two kids? No. Definitely not. I am more of a multi-tasker, more of a mediator (thankfully not too much since our Bugs get along so well) and more of a scheduler (which is saying a lot since most people already viewed my compulsive planning as a fault).  But, I am not any more or less of a parent. I teach the same things…just twice. I wash the same laundry…just twice.  I wipe the same tears…just twice. I’m not doing more…I’m just doing the same things more often.  And I still truly LOVE every second.

But that comment has forever changed me.  It changed the way I view the person that said it…and certainly not for the better.  Regardless of the intent, or if it was or wasn’t said in jest, it hurt me. And to say something like that to a new, first time mom (K was only about 9 months old at the time) is insensitive to say the least. Not to mention that I was single-parenting at the time and already struggling with worry about if I was doing our sweet girl justice on my own.  In my mind that person views themselves as ‘more’ of a parent and that infuriates me (they currently have more children than my hubby and I and probably always will since we intend to be done producing offspring). 

God made me the parent that I am because I am the parent that the children He blessed us with needs. I’m not more of a parent than anyone else and I am not less of a parent than anyone else. I am the parent necessary for the children given to me. Nothing more. Nothing less.  It has also changed the way I relate parenting to new parents.  I feel it is necessary (and that I am obligated) to remind them that THEY are what their children need…nothing more, nothing less…not what the books say, not what other people say and not what the internet says…YOU are the parents that your child needs and God gave you the instincts to do the job.  Follow your instincts first and when you feel truly muddled, then it is time to ask for help.  It causes me to bite my tongue a lot, too.  I try so hard to stay out of the ‘comparing’ game that is so common now-a-days anyway.  But when someone spends their time broadcasting their woes about their husband being gone for one or two nights or their anger at them being called out during supper, I can’t help but think about the weeks and months that I spend as a single-parent each year.  No, my hubby and I aren’t separated…well, at least not spiritually or legally…just physically. He is on active duty in the Air Force and spends an average of over 120 days away from us each year. Not as bad as some military members, but certainly a lot more than any family would prefer.  And even when he is home, a 40 hour work week is nothing short of a joke. A ‘workday’ is an average of 12 hours…a minimum of 5 days a week….weekends, evenings and overnight commitments are anything but unusual. And there is no such thing as overtime pay.  But, I refuse to make those comments. It isn’t worth comparing and it doesn’t make me more of a parent than someone with a standard M-F/9-5 job. What it does is make me even more thankful for the luxury of being a full-time parent…for the gift of being the one to be there for the ‘first’ everything…to get K from school each afternoon and drop her off each morning…to always be here when there are monsters in C’s room at night…to provide comfort, stability and structure in the midst of the turmoil of military life.  It also makes me more thankful for the friends that we have made though our journey as a military family.  The families that never compare hardships because it is all hard and you can’t measure the loneliness in one’s heart; you simply provide support and encouragement.

I am not more or less of a parent because of the number of children that I am raising. I know that now.  I am more of a parent because of what I choose to do. My choice to be involved in every aspect of their lives and interests, my choice to discipline consistently, my choice to put the time, energy and love into shaping them into strong, educated, independent and productive members of society…those are the things that make me a parent. It’s not about numbers…it’s about faith, effort and love.

~Jac

Whirlwind Weekend...

It was one of ‘those’ weekends. The kind where you are almost constantly on the go and the time just slips away.  It wasn't as if we had any major all-consuming plans. It was just a bunch of little things…all in different directions…that needed to be done.  The kind of weekend that you try, unsuccessfully, to explain to your friends without kids as they wonder what in the world you do all day/weekend that is so exhausting. I saw it coming on Thursday.  C and I still hadn't made it to the grocery store (we normally go, list and coupons in hand, on the day before payday when the store is far less crowded and we have the opportunity to take our time and not forget anything…I detest the grocery store, always have) and there just isn't time on Thursday after Coffee Group so, no grocery store. I knew then that it was going to be ‘that’ kind of weekend…not a bad weekend, just a full one.  Friday would have worked except we’d already made other plans so by the time we could have gone, it would have been too close to K getting out of school (Friday afternoons are always rushed anyway since it is also gymnastics day for K….so we get her from school, get her home to get changed and then are right back out the door). By the time we got home from gymnastics, I had no motivation to cook and there were (of course) no leftovers in the fridge…since J had worked late and we had STILL gotten home before him, he was in no mood to cook either…so back into the car we all went and enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal as a family from one of our favorite local restaurants.  For everything else, that left the weekend…

…still no trip to the grocery store…

My hubby had some errands of his own that he needed to accomplish…some stuff that he needed to get done for/with the garage (he has a project car that requires as much attention as a child), haircuts for him and C and a couple of other things.  I really wanted to get a chance to meet with my Mary Kay consultant…I love their products but sometimes getting together to experiment with new colors can be downright impossible.  I was also unhappy with a hair color that I had tried back in November. It wasn't exactly bad, but it was really dark for me with a lot of red and I was ready to give it up.  So, being the super-involved Daddy that he is, my hubby gathered both of the kids, their Kindles and drinks and they went off together so I could do some ‘Mamma Stuff’ (that’s what C calls all that girly stuff like hair, nails and makeup).  I met them for lunch (I love finally having a local Chick-fil-A!!) after my makeup appointment and then headed over to my favorite DIY beauty products store.   They spent the rest of the afternoon trolling around town while I spent it upstairs in our master bedroom/bathroom stripping color out of my hair and putting new color on…from chocolate cherry to golden honey in about 2 ½ hours. Not bad. 

…still no trip to the grocery store…

But with our Super Bowl (Not A Party) Event (see Super Bowl post) looming, we at least needed supplies for the wings, potato skins and sauces. So…back into the car again…stop at the grocery store to get what we need for that event.  And then out to supper again. For the love of eating out!

…still no trip to the grocery store…

Sunday morning we realize that we STILL haven’t made it to do our usual household shopping so we decided to make it a family trip (I secretly love family grocery trips…but they aren't always practical as far as schedules are concerned). Off we went, list and coupons in hand.  When we returned home, fully stocked with food and necessary supplies, it was time for naps (munchkins must either nap or observe 2 hours of quiet time in their rooms to be allowed to stay up a bit late for football fun).  While they napped, we did everything else necessary to get ready for our ‘Not a Party’ Event.

Wings were a new experiment for J and I. We wanted boneless, skinless wings (basically poppers tossed in sauce) so we cut boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins in thirds…after tossing them in some seasoned flour and quick-frying them (1-2 minutes in a deep fryer), we seasoned and fried them a second time. At this point, they were already yummy enough to snack on, but wings aren't wings without wing sauce/seasoning.  We’d already decided on one wet sauce and one dry toss.  The wet sauce was a Honey Chipotle sauce that would clear out your sinuses in a heartbeat…I pureed it in the food processor, then dumped it and the wings into a bowl and tossed it around.  SO. YUMMY.  The second was a batch of dry toss Taco wings. So when we fried them the second time around, we added some taco seasoning to the flour mixture…then tossed them in more taco seasoning (dry) as soon as they came out of the deep fryer. BEYOND. DELICOUS.  Our sauce bar was equally as awesome…sour cream, ranch dip, two guacamole choices (regular and spicy), an extra batch of the Honey Chipotle and some salsa.  With the Mexican-y foods that our friends brought, we had a pretty awesome tex-mex inspired Super Bowl. And I am pretty sure we all ate too much…then half-time came and we ate more. **groan**

By the time the game was over, everyone left and the dishes were done, the weekend was over. Seriously OVER. What happened to the, roughly, 84 hours between Coffee Group and falling into bed Sunday night?! **Most** of our single friends don’t get it. And I don’t blame them…I didn't get it until about 5 years ago…and I get it even more now than I did then. Sometimes the minutes and hours just slip away and the next thing you know it’s 3 or 4 days later and the project that you started on Wednesday is still folded next to your sewing machine. And the singles wonder why you didn't just finish it on Wednesday evening. Now I just smile and say ‘I just decided to do something more fun instead’. They will understand…when they are married and have their own kids.  But as a single, I hated it when people would say ‘you just don’t understand what it’s like until you’re living it’…don’t get me wrong, it is a TOTALLY true statement. But I don’t want to make them feel bad. And the truth is, snuggling with my Lil’ Man, coloring my hair in silence while I read a good book, watching a show/movie on the couch with my hubby or building Lego pet shops with my Lil’ Lady is far more fun than anything else. 

~Jac

This is NOT a Party...

Now let me rewind a bit…all the way to New Year’s Day.  J and I were discussing what has become our annual Super Bowl Party.  Funny how things seem to just evolve instead of being planned…each year we have ended up hosting a kid-friendly appetizers and desserts Super Bowl Party.  But, we decided that since we’d hosted 3 events in two weeks with at least 12 guests per event, we were burnt out a bit on entertaining and weren't going to host a Super Bowl Party this year.  We made sure to share this with our group of friends so that they could make other plans or even elect to host themselves.  Did I mention that we are kind of the ‘entertainers’ at this point? Fast forward to Friday at supper…we were discussing what we were going to do for the Super Bowl.  There were a couple of parties going on but none of them appeared to be kid-friendly and we have two football-loving, very well behaved little munchkins that we did not bring into this world to pawn off on babysitters.  So, J suggested that we contact just a couple of our closest friends and see if they had plans...

We did.

They didn't.

I said something to J about our decision to not have a party. “This isn't a party” he said. Uh huh.

So I told them that I was going to experiment with some wings…around 5:00pm. 

This is not a party.

That’s when the game is about to start?

This is not a party.

I will also be making potato skins and a ‘dips bar’ to go with the wings.

This is not a party.

Oh, you’re bringing a 7-layer dip and sopapilla cheesecake? Great!

This is not a party.

Oh, y’all are going to bring some French bread dip thing and cupcakes? Awesome.

This is not a party.

I clear off the buffet and set out plates, cups, napkins and utensils and then use the dining room table for all the food.

This is not a party.

A living room full of our favorite people while we eat, drink, watch the game and laugh at the commercials.

Sure was one of the best parties that we didn't have.

~Jac

Small Blessings...I'll Take It...

It’s the little things that are the biggest blessings sometimes. My hubby’s work schedule is relentless. He is gone before the kids get up on most days…and if not, he is definitely out the door before we leave to take K to school.  Then he barely makes it home for supper…and that’s only because we've started eating supper later so that we can do it as a family.  And that's just when he is actually home (as opposed to deployed...LOL). So at this point our evening schedule is supper, clear the table, baths and bed. LOL.  Some would say that isn't good for one reason or another…but it works for us and it works for the kids and it means we get to eat as a family (well, most of the time). 

I noticed the change starting about two weeks ago.  The school called and was convinced that sweet K was sick.  Bless her heart, she has allergies like you would not believe and our current, unpredictable weather has really played a number on her sinuses.  Not to mention that she has indoor and outdoor allergies plus seasonal and year round. The poor kid just can’t get a break. Anyway, all the runny nose crud from her allergies was finally starting to drain…good and bad…in draining, it created a cough.  Poor kid was coughing almost all the time.  So, during a particularly bad day at school, they sent her to the nurse who then called us and said they were concerned…she had a very low-grade fever but they had no idea if it was just from the near-constant coughing or if it was a sign of some sort of illness and in the interest of the rest of the children in her class, they would like us to pick her up and have her doctor examine her to be sure she didn't have anything contagious.  I called my hubby and told him and he said ‘I’ll call the clinic while you get you and C ready to go…I’ll call you back with her appointment time or an authorization to take her to an off-base facility.’  Bonus! So, I traded my ‘cleaning/housework clothes’ for real clothes and went to get my little man that had been playing in his room (avoiding a nap).  As I opened the door, my phone rang…Daddy had the authorization number! Yay! Unfortunately, little man had apparently fallen asleep in the past 15 minutes or and wasn't coughing so and I hated to wake him (he suffers the same allergies and was dealing with the same cough as his sister…so any non-coughing sleep was a rarity).  When I groaned in frustration, my hubby (of course) asked what was wrong.  So I shared and his response was ‘Give me two minutes and I’ll leave here to go get her…if she is sick, he could be, too and if he’s resting comfortably, let him sleep.’  Woah. That did not just happen. I said okay and quietly backed out of Lil’ Man’s room.  Daddy picked up K and brought her home and while I took her to the doc, he even stayed home for C to keep sleeping (she was fine, BTW…no fever at the doc and not sick at all). WOAH. That just never happens. At least not until now.

You see, the first several years of his career, he has spent so much time building a strong foundation for himself that things like that just didn't happen. And that was fine. I handled everything and I was good at it…still am. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't hard at times. That there weren't times when I wished he’d just tell ‘em he had to go and come home and help…like when I was sick and still had an infant to take care of or whatever.  Not that it wasn't an option…or that there weren't others in the same position that did it. He just didn't want to be ‘that guy’…and I didn't want him to be ‘that guy’ either.  I wanted him to build a reputation based on dependability, respect and strong work-ethic.  Not a reputation built on ‘I have to go home and take care of my wife.’  But now…now we are there. Now (every now and then) he can look at his guys and say ‘Y’all handle this, I gotta go handle something else’ and that’s okay…he’s trained them well and the office runs smoothly when he has to step out for something else (either work related or family related)…there are days when the juggling is tough for him and his phone rings off the hook when he does leave the office for one reason or another. But he has that opportunity now and it is priceless.

But this week has been even more different.  Maybe it is because he is heading to a new job soon or maybe it’s just an unusually calm period of time.  Whatever it is, though, he hasn't had anything terribly early in the morning, so for 5 days in a row (okay, 4 since Wednesday was a Snow Day), he has been able to take sweet K to school (notice that I saved this until the last day of the week so as not to jinx us...LOL).  She has LOVED it…and that is a massive understatement. It has been so good for her and she has just basked in the opportunity to spend her morning with Daddy.  It’s been great for C and I, too.  This week has been bitterly cold and we have been perfectly content to stay in our warm, comfy jammies and spend the morning snuggling and reading books…C even had the opportunity to sleep in a couple of times and I've gotten to finish drinking my coffee while is still hot!

I know it won’t last forever. And before we know it, he’ll either be out on the road (deployed) or immersed in his new job and we’ll be back to doing it the ‘old’ way…and that is both expected and acceptable…you see, this isn't just a ‘job’ for him (or for the kids and I), this is a lifestyle…one that we love and wouldn't trade.  But for the time being, it is a blessing and I’ll take it.

~Jac