New beginnings

The last couple of weeks have been filled with end of school events, last-minute-scramble-to-get-good-grades, and graduation activities. We have two boys in our home who graduated and we couldn't be prouder of them. We had a party for them in our home with their friends and family... and I spent the whole day getting choked up. I'm not sure why, they are not my boys (although I love them to pieces). I keep thinking about what an exciting time it was to graduate and also the sense of having a new beginning and what will be made of it. Maybe their circumstances have not always been ideal but they are in charge of what happens now. It's a clean slate. Nothing is more liberating...and frightening. Now there is no one to lay the blame on. You are responsible and accountable for all that happens going forward...good or bad.

I am 20 something years out from that moment and I am not at all where I thought I would be on my graduation day, but I couldn't be happier. Really, life unfolds in such an amazing way and while we have these grand plans on that big day, your path rarely stays true to them, and it's OK. Things have happened that I wish I could change, but I might have missed out on the extraordinary lessons that have formed me. There have been so many unexpected blessings, though, that offset those disappointments. I'm not a teacher, I started school to be one, never graduated. I had a 4 year old who was having seizures and another on the way when I decided that was no longer a priority for me. That particular "dream" had been replaced with a much better reality. Not better that my son was having seizures, but that my family was so much more important to me than checking that particular box. I've never regretted it. A few years ago we were planning how we would spend our time when our two boys were out of the house, then we had a third child...completely unexpected... and such an amazing gift for all of us. It's OK that those plans are on hold, this experience is so much richer.

I don't know what the future holds for these boys, but this Gary Allen song keeps running through my head:

But the struggles makes me stronger
And the changes make me wise
And happiness has its own way of takin' its sweet time

No, life ain't always beautiful
But I know I'll be fine
Hey, life ain't always beautiful
But its a beautiful ride
What a beautiful ride

They are bright young men and have overcome their circumstances. I am hope filled!

Until next time,

Julie

White Girl

Every spring I put on my shorts for the first time of the season and in my head I hear in a deep rumbly voice, "Oooo, Girl, you're about the whitest thing I ever did see." It still makes me laugh because it was said by the darkest man I have ever met. One of our son's closest friend's grandparents lived in our neighborhood and he played at their home quite a bit. I used to go shopping with his "Mimi" and the boys would stay with his grandpa. His grandpa was washing the car when I walked up in shorts for the first time one spring and that is what I heard. He then walked over, held his arm down next to my leg, shook his head, and went back to washing the car.

I fall into the redhead/white skin category. We have two skin color options, red or white, and you know red heads should stay away from red...it clashes with our hair. Truly my hair is strawberry blond but my skin doesn't seem to get the distinction. Since skin cancer tends to run in the family I slather up before going outside so I can keep my pasty skin... well, pasty. Also like a true redhead I have freckles on every spot of my body. I don't get to have the beautiful porcelain white skin to make up for lack of being able to tan. Awesome!

This almost complete lack of melanin used to bother me. I wasn't going to ever be the cute tan girl in the bikini, you should put shades on to look my direction at the pool. I have grown accustomed to my skin over the years and now I actually own it. It's all good! Because I have stayed out of the sun or drowned myself in sunscreen, I have managed to stay a bit fresher. It has slowed the aging process down for me and I can't say I'm unhappy about that. It's fun to still get carded occasionally, not because I look under 21 but apparently younger than I am. I'll take it.

So when you see all the pics this summer of the hot babes on the beach, I'm the pasty white girl in the back ground.

Until next time,
Julie

Five Men and a Baby

We felt called and have the ability to help out a couple of young men who, through circumstances outside of their control, needed a place to crash. They have been with us for a couple of weeks now and will continue to be until they graduate high school and move on to their perspective AIT schools in mid June (both in the National Guard). They are good men, will graduate from Lincoln with honors, and have a wicked sense of humor so fit right in to our family. They are also great with the little man, who LOVES having all these guys around. There is never a dull moment in this house. However, having 5 men and a baby is a challenge, to say the least. We have friends who have larger families than this and I applaud them! 

Where do I put all these people? When I brought the oldest home from college he took over his usual space, the den with the pull out couch and all the amenities. So we now have my middle son sharing his room with our two guests. There are two beds in there with another twin mattress tucked under that is pulled out at night. The beds are just for crashing, though, because frankly that room has turned into gaming central. There are two large TVs in there with every imaginable system hooked up as well as the computer in the corner with it's dual screens. Apparently, we can't all play the same game at the same time on ONE TV. To top it off, another TV was brought in last night and hooked up in the basement with even more systems. Wow! The extra TVs actually belong to our guests who obviously came with LOTS of electronics...and baggage...

We have set up a system in the bathroom so that each one has a hook for a towel with their names above it and a laundry bag system, again, labeled for their convenience. Should anything actually end up in there remains to be seen as most of the time the floor is carpeted with clothing...clean, dirty? Who knows... I don't do it. I've showed them all how to use the machines, good luck with that. There are several large built in drawers in that bathroom so they have each been given drawers for their clothing and half of a closet to hang things. The good thing, I suppose, is they are all going military so they might as well get used to sharing tight quarters. 

Food! Oy! Can you keep enough food in the house for men? Short answer...NO! I try to cook a few meals a week and have pizza, sandwich, or hot dog nights to offset that. Thankfully, because they are all in school until May 24th they eat breakfast and lunch there during the week. My job is just to provide dinners. They are responsible for their own snacking. I will say, that I have loved having a full table for dinner. We laugh and listen to them tell stories and share our day. Nothing beats that in my book. 

Is it tight? Yes. Is it chaotic? Yes. Would I change anything? No. We have been blessed by these boys and hope that God will bless them while they are in our home and in their futures.

Until next time,

Julie

Vacation Season...Woo Hoo!

The kids are in the final stretch of school so we are trying to plan our vacation. I've mentioned that we will be camping our way to Mt. Rushmore, and we've also decided to hit up Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta this year, which has the added bonus of visiting my folks and my brother. Seriously, you know it's the other way around, it was time to go home and visit but we've decided to do it during the Balloon Fiesta. I'm excited for both trips.

I believe vacations have a cycle. Here's the pattern: (This applies to those of us who left home and went far far away.) When you are young, broke, the only 'vacation' you take is to get home to see your family and since you will be staying with them you can 'afford' it. When you finally get a career and are doing OK, generally married with younger children,  you still go home for 'vacation' and see the family because you want your children to have a relationship with them. The years tick by and you're doing better financially, but the kids are in school and so vacations only happen in the summer and holidays. Typically you save the trip home to see the family for the holidays and try to squeeze in an actual we've-never-been-there vacation in the summer. Finally, you are doing well in your career but now the kid goes to college so it's back to broke...time to plan the trip home again.  I've finally realized why the commercials for these fabulous luxury vacations generally show more mature couples...not old, but empty nester age. Brian and I took our first real couple vacation last year, and we were only able to do that because my mom rocks and came out to hang with the kids. We won't be able to do it again for a while, just as we have one son finishing up college we'll have another going in, and of course helping them is more important.

I bring all of this up to say, planning vacations becomes serious business, as a result. We don't do them often and so they have to count. Brian starts throwing out ideas very early in the spring, generally huge unrealistic plans that I immediately shoot down. (I am the chief financial planner in this house.) Then over the following weeks we will narrow it down to more reasonable yet still fun destinations. It's an exciting time and we are all ready for a break. There will not be many more opportunities to travel with all my kids at the same time, they will grow and will leave and start their own vacation cycles. I have to soak up this time and store these memories away, because one day I'll be on vacation with Brian wishing I had the little rugrats running around me.

Until next time,
Julie

I LOVE camping...kinda

Spring is finally here! I'm a big outdoors kind of person. I love to sit outside in the backyard while little man plays. I love grilling out and sitting around the fire pit (I live for s'mores). I love going to beautiful places and hiking, or kayaking, or fishing, or hanging out at the beach. I love everything about camping... except the camping part. The part where we go to our tiny tent, plop down on an air mattress, have to find a comfortable position AND maintain it all night so that our movement doesn't catapult the other person off the bed or cause them to sink to the cold hard ground... once we've assumed said position hope that not everyone in camp will keep us awake since we can hear everything. AND THEN, God forbid you have to use the restroom. Another part of camping I don't like...crawling out in the middle of the night and hiking to the loo. Um, no!

I want a pop up camper. I'm trying to talk Brian into one versus a big camper because, quite frankly, I don't want to haul a monster around. We've used a pop up before and loved it. It had all the amenities without the bulk. We want to go camping this summer and I want to head up to Mt. Rushmore. I'm psyched but I don't want to rent an RV, I want my own little mobile home to tag along. I realize that it's not the Hilton and there are nicer ways to travel but I'm just looking for a step up from the tent. I also know it is not sound proof but the walls are thicker than a tent. I want to be able to load it down...and not the whole back end of my car. I want to be able to have everything stored where it will be for the most part without dragging it in and out. I want to be comfortable if it rains or if there is an infestation of annoying flying things. I want to get up in the middle of the night and walk two feet to the toilet. (It's the little things that make me happy) I want to enjoy all the daytime camping activities without all the night time hassle. Power, water hookup, and wifi would be nice too. I'm just saying...

OK so I'm spoiled. I didn't grow up on the frontier and I did the Boy Scout thing...I'm over it.

Until next time,
Julie

PS If you have pop up recommendations, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Food vs. "Food"

Once upon a time, not that long ago, when you went to the grocery store, if you shopped the perimeter of the store (produce, meat, dairy, grains, etc) you were considered to be leading a healthy lifestyle as far as nutrition is concerned. Gradually over the years that is no longer the case.

A few weeks ago Monsanto, a biotech company, was in the news again. They are always fighting some lawsuit regarding their genetically modified seeds, etc.  I started writing about it and then deleted it because it sounded very soap box like and, quite frankly, I'm not that fanatical about it. It's not that I don't care I just tend to fall more in the middle on this issue. I listen to these lawsuits and the extremist both directions and appreciate the concerns on both sides. However, it seems to have come to a point that ALL food is no longer good for you...hmmm. This presents a problem as it is necessary for life.

Standing in my grocery store, every where I look, I can recall an article about why I shouldn't consume that product. With the middle aisles we have always been warned that processed food is not as good for you, contains preservatives and all kinds of unpronounceable things. I stand on the perimeter and know that the produce is genetically modified or sprayed with pesticides. The meat has all been injected with steroids that also then affects the dairy and eggs. (Not to mention all the whistle blower articles about the poor treatment of the animals.) Also, somewhere along the line carbs became evil. Great! If I can't shop the middle aisles or the perimeter there is nothing left. So what the hell are we supposed to eat?

Where do I fall on this? I shop both. I try to pick the lesser of the evils and based on my family's reactions to different foods either eliminate or continue to purchase things that maybe aren't on the "healthy to consume" list. I believe there are real food allergies and by all means avoid those foods but I am blessed that my family does not seem to have any of them. If you are all organic, no carb, no gluten, no sugar, hard core all the way kind of person and that works for your family...more power to you, you're awesome. If you have never looked at a label in your life and just buy whatever...that's great too. Whatever works for you and your family is OK with me, I'm certainly not judging. It just saddens me to feel that we, somewhere along the line, became the proverbial frog in the pot and now that it's boiling what do we do?

Curious to know where you fall on this?
Until next time,
Julie

I work out...no..no, I don't.

I've decided that I must really enjoy the horrible way you feel every time you start working out and eating well.  I have come to this conclusion based on the fact that I do it for a period of time until I feel great, I'm in pretty decent shape, and healthy, then I stop just long enough so that when I start I can have the full craptastic starting all over experience again. I don't know why I do this, because I always feel better when I'm active but something happens, illness or injury, that takes me out for a couple of weeks and then the motivation is gone.

I do great if there something I am actually working for. Last year we went to Hawaii. I really made an effort for several months to get into shape so that I could not only look decent on the beach but also that I could participate in all the island activities without dying half way through. I haven't gained the weight back, thankfully, (I gained some at the holidays and lost it when I got braces) but due to not running it has sort of redistributed interestingly on my body. So while the scale still says the same thing, the clothes...not so much. Ugh! Currently I'm doing the don't do anything differently and hope your body changes just because you want it to diet. I'll let you know how that works out.

I'm hoping now that spring is here and I'm actually pulling out the summer clothes I will want to get out there and do something, but until the trees stop blooming...see I can justify anything...hold please...

Just found my motivation...I'll be back in action tomorrow.

Boston 26.2, I'm praying for you!

Until next time,
Julie