Inexpensive Fall Decor

 

I’d be lying if…

I’d be lying if I told you that this has been a good week. I have looked forward to this week since the day Keith left for his deployment. This is my last week without him. I thought that I would be spending it preparing for his arrival, finishing up last minute projects, and being just plain happy as I looked forward to him being home in a matter of days as well as being filled with relief knowing that our time apart was almost over.

Things have taken quite a different course. I am still looking forward to him coming home of course, and still busy preparing for his arrival as well as preparing for his parents’ visit. But, my heart has been very heavy. It started out with the dogs going to the shelter, a change I am still grieving over. I have not stopped missing them since I took them. I know that in time it will get better, but it sure does sting right now! It has been much more difficult than I ever thought it would be.

Then yesterday, my dad lost his job. Our economy is bad and we are very close to a recession (according to President Bush). My dad worked for a small airline company, and they had to make budget cuts, he was one of the budget cuts. I am sad for them, I worry for them, and am carrying that around in my heart as well.

Kate, who was doing very well behavior wise, has now become difficult again. Of course, it could be that I am having a hard week, and so things that weren’t so bothersome before are now.   She is just doing a lot of normal things that 3 year olds do, but this week they are more un-nerving than they usually would be as I am so anxious about everything going on.

If I can just get through these last couple of days. I’ll have help with Kate soon, and my best friend will be home to help me deal emotionally with everything that is going on and be the shoulder I need to cry on.

I am praying for strength and peace for myself, and that my dad would be blessed with a new job quickly. I know that God will see me through as he has done so many times in the past, and I know he has a plan for my dad too. I just pray that in the mean time, God would just help us all to cope and have a positive outlook.

Everyday Display- Fall

This Everyday display from Creative Memories hangs above the desk in our living room (or I could be fancy and say “great room” as our living room and dining room are one in the same ) Anyway, I like to change it out every few months. This is the “fall” look for the display right now. I rather like it as it also matches my “great room” decor. I used a picture that we had taken for Kate’s 3rd birthday.

Saying Goodbye

On Saturday I made probably the hardest decision of recent. I took my two labs Maggie and Sugar to the shelter. It was something we had been discussing during Keith’s entire deployment. Saturday, I finally decided that that was the day. We needed to give them up for a number of reasons. I plan to start doing family child care soon after Maddy joins us and by the regulations of the Air Force family child care the dogs cannot be around the children. Maggie and Sugar would have had to stay locked up, in their kennel all day. They were messy, really messy. They caused a lot of extra work, work that I didn’t need with a three year old and a newborn. They don’t travel well and are difficult to control, which limited me in us being able to travel home to family while Keith was gone. I could go on and on listing the reasons that they had to go.

With all of these reasons I never, ever, anticipated how difficult it would be getting use to them being gone. Wondering about when and who would adopt them, if they would be sad wondering why we didn’t want them anymore. We got both Maggie and Sugar with the intention of keeping them for, well forever (as long as they lived on this green earth). We never got them thinking, well if it doesn’t work out or when we get tired of them then we’ll get rid of them. We thought they would always be our pets. They had become part of our family, like our “children.” Maggie was my first “baby”. We got her before Kate was born.

Both Maggie and Sugar are really wonderful dogs, and so good with Kate and Grace. They are loving and just really great dogs.

These past few days have been very very hard. I miss them terribly, but even so I know they must stay at the shelter until they are adopted. I keep telling myself that with time it will get easier. I also have a lot of guilt, guilt because I had to give them up simply because they didn’t fit in this season of our lives anymore. Guilt, because, they did nothing wrong, they didn’t bite Kate or act mean with her, they didn’t even chew anything. They just were making things really hard for no other reason than, they were just dogs.

So, in the midst of my joy preparing for Keith to come home I am also grieving for these pets. Keith was more than supportive of me taking them this past Saturday. It was something we talked about over and over until we finally reached the decision that we did. A decision, that never in a million years we  thought we would make. If you would have asked me 6 months ago whether we would do this, we would have told you not in a million years. Isn’t it funny how you think things will be and then God leads you down a completely different road. It is that road, that caused us to have to consider how Maggie and Sugar would fit within our family.

We probably won’t be getting any new dogs until after he retires, 10 or more years or so. I think having dogs when you have children is wonderful, for both the dogs and the kiddoes. And, while it would always be my first choice for Kate and Maddy to grow up with a dog, it just isn’t going to work out for us for a number of reasons. Also, it would be very difficult to find a dog to fill the place that Maggie and Sugar had in our lives. We’ll see where God leads us, and where he leads Keith in his career. But, I know it is going to be a very long time before we have a dog again.

Anyway, that’s what has been going on in our lives as of recent. Please pray that Maggie and Sugar will be adopted quickly and by people who will love them as much as we did.

Great Post

This is a really great post http://simplemom.net/the-daily-balance-of-parenting-housework-four-useful-reminders/ 

I enjoyed reading it and I think you will too It had some great reminders for me, the perfectionist in me that wants everything to be perfectly clean/and or organzied….which is really hard with a toddler (no she is actually almost a “preschooler” now…) and two large dogs…anyway, enjoy!

Rubbing Elbows with a Presidential Candidate…

This was taken a few years ago at my brother-in law’s commissioning into the Air Force. John McCain was the speaker. After the ceremony we asked if we could have him take his picture with Keith and Kevin. We had no idea at the time we would have a picture of the two of them with a Presidential Candidate.

Best Campaign Commercial

I’ve been honest here at Journey Home about how much I disagree with President Bush. I will be honest again, I have never thought that we needed to have carried on this war as long as we have. I believe we were lied to concerning weapons of mass destruction. I feel that the lack of planning concerning this war including our exit strategy is unfair to those who have served in Iraq. I however would never call the war a mistake, I would point out President Bush’s many mistakes as commander in chief of our armed forces. This war has had many positive things, we removed a vicious dictator, we have helped the Iraq people to have a “better” lifestyle. I do believe that we need to bring our troops home soon, that we need to be developing a serious exit strategy. I believe that while some military presence will always be necessary in Iraq we can’t continue with the numbers we have currently deployed to Iraq.  I also believe that the sacrifices made by military families were not in vain, including that of the ultimate sacrifice. I feel we’ve had poor leadership, and despite that, our military has made us proud.

This video is by far the best campaign commercial. I agree with the person in the video when he says “When you call the sacrifes made a mistake you disrespect the service and sacrifice of those who have served.”

Home-Coming

I’ve heard this song several times over the time Keith has been gone and it always made me think of him. I watched this video on you tube and someone else had the same idea We are very much looking forward to our own home-coming. There are several things that make the sacrifices the military family makes worth it. The home-coming is one of them.

Home Management Notebook

 

Alright…go ahead and laugh, it is ok, I try not to take myself too seriously anyway…but, yes I have an entire three ring binder devoted to “home management”… I’ve only within the last year developed such a binder, so I spent the first 4 years of my married life without one. I can say that things are much more organized and things go much more smoothly with said binder. In my binder I have 5 tabs : mops/church/community, weekly cleaning/to-do, encouragement/new ideas, menu/grocery/budget, misc./holiday/event planning. I also use the pockets inside for receipts and coupons and just about anything else I need to hold onto for safe keeping. There are tons of blogs and websites that can give you great tips for creating your own binder. One great site is http://homemanagementbinder.com/binder-tours 

I’ll share with you what I have learned about home management binders. While there are endless ways to make your binder, think about what works best for you, what your goals are, and what you need to keep track of during this season of your life. Right now, I try to keep it as simple as I can. In the past my binder or notebook has been much more elaborate…but it didn’t get used…this more “simple” version that I have now works much better. I also use a day runner that has combined calender planning pages with an address book. I take this day runner with me everywhere…I write down events, doc appts, etc. on the spot.

If you decide to make one, don’t forget to make the cover pretty I used my creative memories paper, and stickers to jazz the cover up a little.

The first page has art work Kate created for me

Orange Square

 

Kate and I are working on the color orange, and various shapes this week. We cut out an orange square to practice cutting skills, then painted the square orange.