Too soon!

Well, DH has been home around 6 months now (close to) and just a month after he returned home they started preparing for the next deployment. It's not for 9 or 10 months but I'm already starting to feel sad about it. Yes, already, I'm nearing depression over it!

It could be that the kids and I are going on this little trip of ours (to my niece's wedding) and so it's bringing up all the old feelings of separation again. I don't know. DD is feeling it too. She has been kind of sad about it too. It could be that if DH wasn't already preparing he could be going with us!

I don't know, I just know that the sadness already coming and it is WAY TOO SOON!!!!

Whew!

Well, the kids and I are going on a little road trip this weekend and so I'm trying to get the house cleaned up for DH. I've worked and worked in the kitchen. I've even decluttered a little in there and reorganized. I've got a new place for my bills that is much neater. I've homes for some the things that shouldn't always be on the counters. Whew! I've just been going crazy in there!! I still have more to do, I'm just taking a short break. I'm tired.

I have lots to do all around the house. the kids have the living about done and ready to be vacuumed. I have lots to of laundry to fold but I can get to that. The kitchen is the main thing. I also want to clean up the office area and the bathrooms. I'm getting even more tired just thinking about it all!

Well, I best get back to work dear cyber friends. Take care!

Imagine....

A very nasal voice and a rather pale face and sleepy eyes.... yep, that's me. Oh! I left out the cough and the constant blowing of the nose!

I couldn't sleep at all last night. My nose was so very stuffy and I just felt miserable! Now, I just want to go to sleep. I want to put my jammies back on and sleep the whole day!

But, I have homeschooling to do with the kids. I can tell it will be a pretty easy day for them since mom is feeling so poorly. We had told them we might camp out in the backyard tonight but the weather has turned cooler again and mom is still feeling puny so... we may have to put it off. I feel bad about it though. We'll see.

Well, duty calls. Have a wonderful weekend dear cyber friends!

Sickly....

Yes, it's got to me too. Last night as we were watching tv I slowly went down hill. I have a feeling that nights for the next few days are going to be horrible for me. My cough was awful and I felt like my throat was going to close up on when I would try to speak or even just breath. Both those would make my eyes burn and water. I was miserable!!!

I feel a little this morning but I afraid that come nightfall, I'll be right back where I was. Cross your fingers for me!!

We had a terrible thunder storm last night. It was awful. DD came and got in bed with us and DS came down to sleep on the couch. It was loud and the lightening was... well, bad, bright, terrifying!

Now it is sunny and warmer. I'm definitely getting spring fever!! I walked around the yard this morning looking with wonder at all that like that is breaking forth. We have trees and bushes that are budding and bulbs that are springing forth. It's wonderful!

Yes, I think spring is probably my favorite season. I used to say I loved them all but I've been thinking about it and well, spring is one season I never wish to say goodbye too. Fall is the same for me. I love the crisp mornings and the warm afternoons.

The kids are planning our next camping trip. They can't wait! The warm weather has them ready to get out and explore, to go on an adventure. It'll have to be a few weeks but I can't wait either!!

Happy Tuesday!

Well, the long weekend is over and it's back to "work". We've all been a little sickly lately but hopefully we are on the mend.

The kids are busy on their school and I should be busy on my housework but instead... here I sit typing on the computer. I really should give it up! BUT I CAN'T!!!

We are getting ready to start planning a garden! We are planning on lots of veggies. The kids are excited about it too. We were planning on going to the library to check out some books today but I think it be tomorrow. We are looking at getting "Micro Eco-Farming" and "All New Square Foot Gardening" and whatever else we find. IDEAS! We need them.

I am NO gardener but I've always wanted to try. I'm hoping it will be a fun adventure for us.

Weekend...

Well, we have had a lazy weekend so far. DH has a 4 day weekend so he was home on Friday too. We went to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday and had a great time. Saturday we woke up to snow and so we played in the snow for awhile and then we basically just vegged the rest of the day. We've had some awesome crock-pot meals. Today's is my favorite. It's SOOOO easy and SOOOOO yummy!

I put 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crock-pot with 4 cups of chicken broth, a can of cream of chicken soup and and a little more than half a stick of butter. I let that cook for several hours and then when we are ready to eat I take the chicken out and cut it up or shred it and then put a package of egg noodles in the crock-pot with everything else and cook until done. It is sooooo YUMMY!!!

Well, I have a bit of a headache so I'm off to find something to give me comfort. Have a wonderful weekend!

Popular

this seems to be a popular search topic and I seem be getting some traffic from it so here is a link to that post. I'm not sure why people keep searching for it or why they keep getting sent here but so that you can find it easily here it is.... SGT Eddie Jeffers

A Valentine...

Happy Valentine's Day, dear cyber friends. Hope your day is filled with love.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yea Me!!

I finished mending one whole quilt yesterday!! I figured it would take me a day or two to do just one. I need to get started on the other one but I'm so very tired today!! I want to just crawl into bed and sleep. I has to be the rain but man!

Anyway, I'm off to get busy for today. Have a wonderful day!

Today...

Good morning dear cyber friends,

I have lots to get to today so this will be quick. I have a kitchen to clean back up, sheets to change, quilts to mend, teaching to do, dinner to prepare, and letters to write.

Our church had a chili cook off last night so DH worked on his chili until time to head out and then when we got home we were all so tired we just went to bed, so I have the mess to clean up now. It's not really too bad, but it has to be done.

My sheets are in the washer so I've started there.

I have several quilts that need mending. We are evidently very hard on our quilts. Either that or our quilts are cheaply made. Could be either one. One of them is probably at least 10 years old and the other is only about 4 years old. They were both probably bought at Wal-mart so they probably are cheaply made. Anyway, I have mending to do.

The kids are both working on their math on their own right now and dinner is planned I just need to throw it in the crockpot. The letters I'll try to get to as soon as I finish here. So, hopefully I'll be able to get it all done. Well, the quilts will take time but I want to get them started.

Have a wonderful week, dear cyber friends.

Friday...

We've had a nice day today. Slow and easy but productive all the same. The kids work was mostly work they could do on their own, so I was able to do some things too.

I worked on straightening up the kitchen some and I did a little laundry too. I straightened up my bathroom and made the bed up properly. I planned dinner for tonight and went through some recipes.

I even got to do a little writing today. Yea!! I'm thinking about writing an ebook about my adventure homeschooling as a military wife. I don't know though if anyone would be interested in it or not though so... We'll see.

It's cold here today. Is it where you are? I'm sitting at the kitchen table typing this and my hands and nose are cold.

The kids are watching a movie called "Rigoletto" it seems pretty good. It's one DD picked out. I'm getting ready to go doll myself up a bit before DH gets home. I've not been doing that much lately. Time has just been getting away from me DH is home before I know it! So I'm off now to go and do this. Have a wonderful weekend!

On my soap box....

I got this as a forward today from a friend. Sorry it's long and then I am also posting a responseat the bottom after this.

Hope Rides Alone

New Media JournalUSA Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, USA (Iraq)February 1, 2007
I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.

America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a service member, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.

But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.

We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!

Isn't that what America is about anyway?

Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.


MY RESPONSE:

You know, I'm a democrat and I'm not totally for the war in Iraq, I have mixed feelings about it. DH will be leaving again in less than a year to go to Afghanistan (this war I can get behind that's who attacked us on 9/11) for another year (he will have been home just a month or 2 over a year when he leaves again).

I agree with this guy that "America" is not at war. It's true. The American people have had to give up nothing in this war, not like they did in WWI and WWII. Life here just goes on as normal for most Americans.

I will say, that a lot of our soldiers are sick of the war too. That's not say that they aren't proud to serve because they are very proud serve this great country of ours but they are sick of watching their friends die, of missing out on their children's lives, leaving their families behind and not knowing who will protect them.

You know, this last deployment, one of our wives back here was raped in her home and can you believe that this soldier had to fight to be able to come home and stay with her? We had another wife with a lot of medical problems (surgeries and such with a child that required medical care as well) and they let her husband come home for a few days but not long enough to take care of her. I did it for him, he was lucky that I was here but there were others that I didn't know about who wouldn't ask for help that needed it and their husbands were sick with worry over there.

This war is totally unreal, it's heartbreaking both for us AND for the innocent Iraqis.

Also, I would hope that we would hold our military to a higher standard, that we would expect the best behavior out them at all times. We have the investigations because we want to show the world that we are better than our enemies and we won't allow our soldiers to mistreat people.

DH has seen some of what some of the soldiers the letter writer spoke of did to some of the Iraqis and he said what they did was terrible and disgusting.

If we truly are this Christian nation we want everyone to think we are, then we have to act like it even in war and yes, hold our soldiers, our citizens to a higher standard. We have to be better than our enemies or the war will never be won. If we don't punish soldiers who do wrong and show the Iraqis that we don't as a nation act this way then they will just continue to think that that is the way ALL Americans treat others and they will just continue killing. At least when soldiers show compassion it touches someone and that's the way it should be.

I don't think anyone is denouncing the military or their actions. Everyone knows that they are following orders and doing their job. I also don't think that questioning our President is wrong or bad. I think it is what we are supposed to do otherwise we would be a monarchy instead of the free country we are. I agree that name calling is stupid and doesn't help anything. I for one am sick of the negative stuff in politics, the mudslinging, the name calling, the lies. It's terrible. It's hateful and it doesn't help anything at all. It only makes matters worse.

I feel sad for this soldier. I really do. I'm sorry that he doesn't feel the support from our country as he should. We do support him. You can support the troops and not the war.

I will tell you as a military wife when I see these cars with 10 or more yellow ribbons on it or I see signs in business windows that say I support the troops, I always want to ask them "How do you support the troops? What exactly have you done to support the troops other than put up a sign or a ribbon?" The signs don't mean so much without action. "Actions speak louder than words."

I obviously have mixed feelings about all of this. But I do think we have to hold our soldiers to a higher standard, for that matter we should ALL be held to a higher standard. That's really what we are doing when we question and debate, we are holding each other to a higher standard. We won't any of us ever measure up all the time but we can do our best. That's all we can do, our best, and try to show our best.

Okay, I've rambled on enough. Sorry about that. Please, if you haven't yet, go support our troops. Send a care package or a Valentine, a note of encouragement. Go mow that military spouse's lawn or trim the hedges or trees, or take her car to get the oil changed, or pick a night and tell them you want to babysit for them. Don't just say, if you ever need anything because odds are they won't ask for help. You just DO IT! Support our troops AND their families!

Again, sorry to ramble and please excuse any errors, this was written with my children standing around me talking constantly doing their school work. I'm by no means perfect nor do I know everything or that matter much of anything. These are just my thoughts.

Melt down???

I think DD just had one. I was very calm in talking with her just now and she was just crying and crying. I was getting on to her a little but not really. I'm trying to get her to follow instructions. Not and easy task!

Anyway, our crock-pot meals are still going great. I made a wonderful dish last night that was TOO good!! Meaning, I didn't want to stop eating it!! YUM!

We have been busy this week. We've had trips to the library and all kinds of stuff. BUSY!

DS has decided he wants an allowance so I told him he had to earn it. So he has been working very hard to keep the living room clean and trying to stay on top of the kitchen dishes too but that's a hard one. He's doing pretty good though.

I joined a Bible study at church and I'm having a terrible time staying on top of the reading. There is a lot! I always have interruptions and it makes it really hard. It's not exactly what I thought it would be but it has been interesting.

DH has not had to go to PT in the mornings this week and boy have we been lazy! I have got to stop the sleeping late but with the cold mornings it's so nice to just snuggle up to DH and stay all cozy and warm. I need to get up and exercise though or read my Bible study or start to work on the house! But snuggles are good too.

I have pictures to post later of our snow last week. The kids had a ball playing. I'll try to get them on here in a day or two.

Have a great week!

Well, let's see. DH is back at work. He is doing pretty good but has some pain in his jaw.

DD is feeling poorly but she has been taking it easy and hopefully will be getting better soon.

DS and I are fine and doing well.

We've been utilizing our crock-pot a lot lately and have been LOVING it! Tonight is Polish Sausage with potatoes and cheese. Smells wonderful!

Last night I was trying to plan some menus and went to get a few new recipes and DH said, "I liked the ones from last week can't we just have them again???" How funny is that! I told him that I thought he might get a little tired of them if we had them every week. It's fun though to make these dishes and the kids have even liked most of them. DH always has something to take for lunch the next day too. LOVE IT!

Well, I better get to fixing a veggie to go with tonight's meal. Have a great night!