The Countdown to Homecoming

If you give a military wife a meal, she's going to gain at least a few extra hours in her day. When you give her the extra hours, she'll probably start to do the dishes that were piling up everywhere else. When she's finished, she'll be able to clean the floors too. Then she'll want to finish the laundry that didn't get put away earlier. When she looks around, she'll realize how much more she was able to accomplish and smile. Her kids will ask her why she's so happy. She'll explain to them how grateful she is to her friend for providing a meal. The kids will get to try new things and be happy that their mom is happy. Then since all the mess is caught up, they can just hang out and have some fun and relax. The kids will ask her to read them more stories, and she'll have time. She may even have time to get in a workout, a good shower, a cup of tea, or maybe even all three! Bedtime is less stressful and we all know that is priceless. The happiness o...

So maybe yesterday I was just a little too Pollyanna-ish and life wanted to throw me something to see  if I could keep my perspective and gratitude? Or maybe crap just happens. I don't know for sure, but either way, I found myself staring into a toilet full of poop that Annika decided to put a plunger into and mix all up. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Did I mention Holden threw a baby toothbrush down the toilet while Annika was flushing the other day and nobody was supposed to be using my bathroom? Uff... that's right. And did I mention that nobody knows who took the poop in my bathroom today? "Not me" sure does a lot of crazy things in our house. As I was scooping  out the toilet, I found myself trying to figure out a positive perspective... I think it's like how you never truly appreciate how well your nose works until its stuffy or runny! I need to remember to be more thankful when I can flush the toilet and everything goes well. Other than the toilet incident, we had a p...

Another weekend down. I had high hopes of the summer flying by and so far it really is. We went to Fargo Friday to see the Budweiser Clydesdales. We didn't get to take a picture by them because we didn't realize if we went inside to get some drinks and have a bathroom break, they'd be gone when we came back out! :/ Oh well, I took a pic of them eating their hotdogs instead... My sister had this crazy idea to keep 4 of my kids and 3 of her sister in laws for a cousin sleepover! They survived all the kids, so we'll see if it happens again! I kept Holden with me and stayed with a friend. On the drive home, I started thinking how I wish Holden hadn't been being such a little stinker and how much more enjoyable the weekend would've been... Then I thought back to the days prior to having kids. I remember sitting in a restaurant and crying to Dennis that all I wanted was to have babies like everyone else and then our lives would be so amazing and complete. I wa...

My kids are night owls. Obviously I am as well, but I have to admit that without Dennis here to reign it all in a little, it's gotten out of hand. You see, when your kids push the line of 2am, then if you want to get things done without them, you need to stay up until 5am. You can see how this becomes a bad, bad situation. So tonight, I'm happy to say that at least everyone is in bed right now (10:30) even though nobody is asleep yet. I have warned them that I will be waking them up to pick canola in the morning... But being silly farm kids, this got them more excited. Then they kept talking about how they just love picking canola. We'll see how well they do in the morning! But what am I debating about remembering or just trying to forget? I hadn't planned on taking all 5 of them to the well child appointments I made for Holden and Christian. It was only going to be the boys and me. Well, scratch that. The girls ended up having to come with too. Did I mention it was a...

Whaaat? Has it almost been another week? It cannot be true! I thought I had posted something. Did I imagine that? No wait, here's a draft I started, but never finished. I think what probably happened was that I started posting to Facebook more and then forgot I didn't say anything here. Hmmmm- oh well, remember what I said about consistency? Besides, I have somewhat of an excuse. I wasn't feeling well at all the last couple of days. My stupid gallbladder was acting up again, and I ended up with a 102 fever... Do you know how terrible you feel when your temp gets that high and you're normally a cool 97? Uff... Anyway, again- thank goodness for family!!! I was able to text my sister in law, and she came and watched them so I could go to the walk-in clinic without any kids. I try to avoid asking people for help with my kids because I just don't want anyone else to have to deal with them. But like Chris told me, let people help and if it's too much, they won't...

So the weekend is here. The little girls finished VBS, and I'm picking up the two oldest in a few hours. No news must be good news! I'm excited to hear about their time away. I'm also anticipating lots of dirty laundry! So thankful for our new washing machine. And just because not everything can run smoothly, the glass place lost Ellie's window. I'm really not sure how this happened, but at least it's not winter, right?! Only a little rain has come in, so not too bad. Sofia has now watched the Elmo deployment DVD several more times and yet she keeps asking if Dennis remembers her or loves her still. The "I miss daddy" is on repeat! I'm hoping when we get the deployment wall finished, that will help her to calm down a little bit... I'm glad we have no real plans for this weekend. I just want to clean and then sit around and be lazy! Next weekend will be nice and full. It's already mid-July, and I just know it's going to be done to...

Well, as you can see, I have problems being consistent! So I guess if I aim for every day and blog at least a couple times a week, I'm going to call that success. 😊 Yesterday I dropped the two oldest off at Bible camp until Friday morning. If you think going from 5 to 3 makes things easier, it doesn't. Sure there's not as much food being eaten around here, but the two little girls are constantly fighting. They "hate" each other so much, but just won't leave each other alone! It baffles me. And losing my two oldest means losing lots of help with Holden. I did drive by a church and realize they have VBS this week. What great timing! Something for my girls to do for over a couple hours. They are having a lot of fun. There's another VBS next month and those will help so much in making this summer go by fast. I put up a map on the wall tonight. Looks like we will make a deployment wall afterall. Sofia was looking at the pins and asked, "Mom, does dad ...

Last night I was so exhausted that when my head hit the pillow, I forgot all about writing anything for this blog. I'm not sure why I was so tired, I had my sister and brother-in-law here helping me! Uff- it truly "takes a village." Speaking of my village- I had a flat tire. Isn't it funny how I just said to Dennis on the way to Fargo that I hadn't had one now in what seems like a very long time! Words- WORDS! I will not have anymore flat tires! I will not have to deal with this... Thank goodness for Stephanie and Henry. They came over and got it plugged. Blinds got put up in the living room. I'm really not sure why in the world we waited so long to do that?! The living room is so much nicer now. And this afternoon, we went to the fair. We got there a little after 4 and didn't get home until midnight! The kids definitely made good use of the unlimited wristbands. It was sure nice to be able to split up with my in-laws! The kids did very well today. N...

Here I am at almost 1:30am, and I'm still washing laundry. Is it terrible to admit I started this process around 11:30am?! It's also crazy that some of these loads I've washed on a quick 15 min cycle! 5 kids= lots of bedding and lots of clothes. I just washed the rest of my husband's laundry as well. And yes, I'll admit, I did bury my face into his hoodie and debated for one moment not washing it... I thought about just keeping it out. Then I came to my senses and remembered I can just spray some of his cologne into the air or something. As I was mowing the lawn this afternoon, I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I snapped myself out of it pretty fast when I thought about Dennis in the hot sand with all his gear on- Uff- I cannot and don't even want to imagine. I have joked with the kids about how dad is so lucky to go on "vacation," but I know it's not really like that. As much as I crave some time away, I wouldn't want 6 months in a de...

Another day is over. I'm not going to lie. For awhile it got pretty long. No, the kids weren't fighting- I hadn't heard from my husband and was busy stalking his Facebook messenger status like crazy! When it got to "Last active 16 hours ago," I could barely stand it. How could he have had a few more stops and not had any access to internet?! My mind was busy and when my middle daughter told my youngest son in a silly sing song tone that he was never going to see his daddy again, I about lost it. After I made it clear to her that we were never to say such things and that it's not something to ever joke about, he messaged within half an hour. Oh the relief! I was staring at my empty kitchen wall today, and I messaged a friend to see if she could help me with a "Deployment Wall." So- maybe we'll have something decent here after all! The girls continued coloring more pictures today. I even caught them trying to mail him a bunch of quarters. We h...

Well, here I am. Here we are. Deployment has started and the countdown can begin. Yesterday with all the Facebook statuses flooding my newsfeed with lots of pics and quotes including, "Home of the Free Because of the Brave," I couldn't help but cringe a little. It's not that I'm not proud to be a military wife or family, but knowing your 5 kids will get to sleep after midnight only for you to need them to wake up by 2:30am feels more like- Home of the Free because of the "crazy." 😜 Sometimes I'm pretty sure my husband feels I'm heartless. Like when he texts me to make sure I'm easier on the kids the next few days... Just because I'm not crying on the outside doesn't mean I have none of my own feelings of sadness. This isn't the first time for me. We've been married 16 years and this is deployment #4. The first one happened just a few months after 9/11. He got home just before our 1st anniversary.  Looking back, I wish I...