Friday's Letters

Dear Jack, Your furparents are doing everything we can to get those mean fleas off of you. I'm sorry your so itchy, but please stop itching over my head! Dear Chris, You are a good man, and I love you very much. Dear Corned Beef Tacos, You better be good! My husband has been bragging about you for some time now, and it's time for you to prove yourself to our guests! Dear Caden, Everywhere we go, you make people smile. At my doctor's appointment yesterday, you had almost 10 people surrounding your cute little self just so they could get a glimpse of you! One lady even said you made her whole day, and I believe it. That smile is contagious!

'The Talk' in a military family

When you hear the phrase, "lets have the talk," it most likely gives you anxiety. When it comes to a military family, there's no wonder you would be full of anxiety, since 'the talk' is full of what-ifs, uncertainty, and life changing decisions. If your a fellow milspouse, you might have figured out what I'm talking about, but if you haven't, I'll let you in on it: re-enlisting and picking orders.

If you would have asked me four years ago whether my husband would re-enlist, I would have said, "Of course!" I was so full of military-wife-pride, and I was sure that this would be our life for the next 20 years. Fast forward 3 years, 2 deployments, 1 pregnancy alone, moving across states a couple times by myself, multiple underways, rarely getting to see family, having a hard time making friends, duty days, shitty pay, all the other stresses of military life, and all the glitter is starting to fade, at a time where my husband is really enjoying the success he is finding in his job. Don't get me wrong, I am still a proud military wife, but now that I have been through all the struggles, I see military life for what it really is. And I see it for what it does to me.

I have the sweetest, most loyal husband a girl could ask for, yet I can't let go of the eighteen years of being let down by the men in my life before I met him. Trusting my husband is a daily struggle for me, and being a military wife makes it so much harder. How is it different that any regular 9-5 job you may ask? Obviously, theres deployments and port stays, where my husband is gone for months at a time, and I have to trust that he comes 'home' at night in port. But even when my husband is home, I can't just waltz into his work to bring him lunch, meet his coworkers, or anything at that matter. I've also come to realize that some of the trust issue stems from the fact that I feel like we live completely separate lives, and while mine revolves around solely around him and our son since I don't have anyone else here, he has a life away from me. It is selfish, I know, but it is a hard slump to get out of. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

There was a while where I told my husband that I didn't want him to stay in, that I wasn't cut out for this life. But then I remembered that we had to make the best decision for our family, not just for me, and after having 'the talk' we have decided that staying in is what is best for our son at this time.

We have made the decision to re-enlist, now what? We pick orders, wait a few months, and then hopefully get the one we chose. My husband is an OS, a sea-going rate, which means the only orders that are specific to his rate are a few instructor positions. Since the chances of one of those instructor positions being open in Chris's window are pretty slim, as well as the fact that we don't necessarily want to stay in San Diego, has steered us towards recruiting. Chris has heard a lot of positive things, but I have read almost all bad things. I just keep reminding myself that it is the best option, and we will work through whatever obstacles we face as a family, but it doesn't mean I'm not nervous.

So, it is basically settled that we are choosing recruiting orders, but now the question is where. Do we go back home to the hot Arizona dessert? Do we stay in San Diego so we can enjoy the weather and be visiting-distance from family and friends? Or do we experience somewhere new while we can? I don't think this would be such a big decision if it wasn't for our son. I want him to have a good relationship with his grandparents and cousins, but I also want him to have the best experiences. There are pros and cons for wherever we choose, and they never seem to outweigh each other.

We still have a few months to decide, and boy do we need it!

September Green Series: Dirty Dozen

My goal was to do a monthly Green Series, but life got in the way. If your interested, you can check out part 1, which I started back in June.

For many of us, it is simply not possible to buy all organic because it is just so darn expensive. Plus, if your local super market is anything like mine, the organic section is about 1/100th of the grocery store and provides very few options. So, keeping in the spirit of my green series and an attempt to help others make simple and not-so-expensive changes, I'm going to suggest an alternative: only buy organic fruits and veggies when it comes to the 'dirty dozen.' According to the Environmental working Group, this includes: apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, imported nectarines, peaches, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, and bell peppers. In 2013, EWG also added kale/collard greens and summer squash to the list. The EWG is even so nice as to provide the clean 15 so you know where to save your money: asparagus, avocados, cabbage, cantelope, sweet corn, eggplant, grapefruit, kiwi, mangoes, mushrooms, onions, papayas, pineapples, sweet peas, and sweet potatoes. No matter what list the produce is on, you should still wash your fruit and veggies before eating them. Another idea is to spray them with vinegar and then rinse.

Buying organic is a personal choice, but a smart choice. When the grocery budget gets a little tight in our house, we skip the organic, but we try to stick to the dirty dozen as much as possible. When it comes to my son, 90% of his food is organic, because I know how sensitive his growing little body is. Local farmers markets have the most delicious organic produce (seriously, you can taste the difference) but they can get really expensive, so we only go about once a month.

Do you follow the dirty dozen?

Blogtember

Would you be surprised after reading a post like this that I am participating in Blogtember, a series that encourages bloggers to post 5 days a week? Don't worry, I'm not a blogocrite (you know, a blog hypocrite), I'm just linking up a couple days at the most. It's fun being able to share some meaningful posts, and Jenni has some awesome topics.

For example:
Tuesday, September 10: Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

I started out this post with a list of all the times I thought my life took a major turn, but then I erased it all. Instead, I settled on the most important one: when I was diagnosed with endometriosis at 20 years old and was forced to question whether I was ever going to be a mother. At the time, I was working a full time job and had just started back at school after taking a year off. As much as I wanted children, my husband and I had previously decided that we were going to wait at least until I was done with school. Being diagnosed with a disease that can affect your future really puts things into perspective. I kept telling myself that we weren't ready for a child, we were too young and still had so much progress to make in our relationship, but deep down I wanted nothing more than to have a child and was too afraid to admit it.

From the moment I was diagnosed, I never stopped thinking about being a mother. From the moment we started trying to conceive, my heart ached with the need to get pregnant. From the moment I started carrying my child, I loved him with every inch of my being.

 From the moment I first laid eyes on him, I have defined myself as his mother. You know that song by Passenger that says, "Only know you love her when you let her go?" I never knew how much I wanted to be a mother until it was almost taken from me. I couldn't be happier with the turn that my life has taken.

I still can't believe he is 10 months old!

10 month update

 

My little man is 10 months old!

Oh, How Pinteresting: Love Quotes



 I love quotes (example 1), and I love love quotes. So it's no surprise that this week I'm loving the love quotes on Pinterest!

 

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Is anyone else not happy with the new way to embed pictures on Pinterest? I'm not, especially because half of the time my picture doesn't show up. I'm going back to the time-consuming process of saving the picture to my desktop and linking back to the pin.





Every-Day Bloggers

The most popular bloggers publish posts six out of seven days a week. I have never been and will never be one of those bloggers, and I don't want to be. There is one simple reason for this: I want to enjoy life instead of blogging about it.

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I love blogging, but I don't want it to consume me or my family. I want to spend the days playing with my son, the evenings catching up on the DVR list with my husband, and the weekends having fun with my family. I know some people set aside specific times for blogging, and I guess I do to: after I work on homework and clean the house during my son's morning nap. That means that some days I don't get around to blogging, and that's okay with me.

Are you a 24/7 blogger? Do you ever find blogging too consuming?