by admin -

Our Thanksgiving

I am thankful for the wonderful time we had during our Thanksgiving vacation. We were able to see lots of old friends, play games, eat too much, cut down our Christmas tree, and stay up way too late. My husband and son were able to hunt and my husband got his first buck. (no pictures, I understand not everyone is hip to the hunting photos) We were also given another deer from our former pastor. Our good friends help us process both deer and we came home with 50 pounds of meat.

We had an extremely eventful Thanksgiving dinner and I was trying to figure out a way to write it all down and share it with my readers. Thankfully I don’t have to, one of the ladies we shared Thanksgiving dinner with has already written her version of the story, and it is almost exactly like my version, except her version is much funnier. How she has time to write anything with 4 children 5 and under is a mystery to me! Anyway, if you want to read about our Thanksgiving adventure stop by Elizabeth’s blog for some good old West Virginia entertainment! Here is a preview….

Now, I have been told that borrowing a man’s gun is like borrowing his underwear; it isn’t something men like to do, but they’ll do it in extreme situations. Is this situation extreme enough? Apparently so because as Mr. Have-A-Gun-Haven’t-Had-A-Deer-Yet-Today gets his weapon, Mr. Gunless chooses to borrow the gun of Mr. Already-Shot-A-Deer becoming Mr. Underwear Man. Perhaps we’re witnessing something akin to women going to the bathroom together; it just can’t be done alone.

For more Gratituesday visit Laura’s blog.

by admin -

Christmas Must-Haves

I thought it would be fun throughout the month of December to share some of my favorite Christmas “must-haves” with you all.
My first Christmas pick is a CD. My family loves music and I am always trying to find kid appropriate music that isn’t annoying to adults. A few years ago my sister-in-law sent us this CD and it has been a favorite ever since.

Go Fish Snow is a catchy upbeat Christmas album, that doesn’t dilute the true meaning of Christmas. I think the cd is about $10 and would be a great gift for your family.

Here is one of the songs off their Christmas album, enjoy!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiH2sdH_S3I]

note: I have not been compensated in any way for this post.

by admin -

Cutting Down the Tree

One of our family traditions is to cut down our Christmas tree each year. This tradition was pretty easy to start when we lived in WV, because there was a Christmas tree farm close by. It was a little harder in Virginia Beach, but we found a farm and cut a smaller tree than normal. I found a farm last year in Maryland that is beautiful and we plan to go again this year.

If you would like the excitement of cutting down your tree you can visit the Pick Your Own Christmas Tree website which lists Christmas tree farms all over the world. This website has lots of other information regarding how to pick a tree, how to make your tree last, as well as a list of farms that give sleigh rides.

Cutting your own Christmas tree is probably not the most frugal Christmas idea (unless you live in WV where the price of a seven foot tree is $18), but it is definitely the most fun. We usually make a day out of it. We bundle up, play Christmas music in the car, get hot chocolate or hot apple cider at the farm and then come home to decorate. We also stop at the bait and tackle store for more fishing line, but that is another story.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas tree cutting fun…

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

For more Works for me Wednesday visit Shannon.

by admin -

So Much to be Thankful For…

As I look back on 2008, the blessings are abundant. A little over a year ago we packed up and moved to a new city, where we only knew one family, my husband was injured, heavily medicated and couldn’t drive, and we were mistakenly assigned a three bedroom house on base.

Now, a year later my husband has been completely healed, we have more friends than I could have ever imagined, a great church, wonderful neighbors, and a five bedroom home.

In January my grandfather passed away, and although I was saddened, I was tremendously thankful that 6 years earlier he decided to move across the country to live down the street from my parents. The great-grandfather that my children barely knew, became someone we saw several times a year. My children all have wonderful memories of their great-grandfather that would not have been possible had he not moved close to my parents.

A few months ago my husband was cleared for full duty and now is able to work, drive, and read, all things he couldn’t do for over a year! As if that wasn’t enough he was selected for promotion this summer, which means more opportunity and more responsibility. All of the doctors are a bit baffled by his recovery, although they think a combination of the medications and therapy played a significant role. We think the doctors and therapists did a great job and are thankful to God for his healing.

We arrived at a new church last year with a load of baggage and not a lot to give. We have been so blessed by everyone we have encountered since our first Sunday. We are excited that we are finally able to give a little back!

Finally, we are excited about the newest Happy Baby arriving Spring of 2009.

So much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to in 2009!

For more Gratituesday visit Heavenly Homemakers.

For more Thanksgiving posts visit 5MFM.

by admin -

For the price of a stamp!

Long time readers of my blog know that I run a coupon program which sends coupons to our troops overseas. Certain bases accept coupons that are up to 6 months expired, while other bases accept only current coupons. For the price of a stamp you can send your unwanted or expired to overseas bases. The postage rate is the same as mailing letters and packages to a stateside address. The prices at overseas commissaries and exchanges are significantly higher than those in the states. Many military families do not make very much money to begin with, and the money they save with coupons really makes a difference. Below is an email I received today from someone who receives coupons from this program.

Oh my … do I have a story to share with you and your bloggers!  Six ladies from Singapore, 2 Air Force and 4 Navy wives, loaded up at 5:15 am Friday, November 14 for a MAC flight to Yokota AFB, Japan. We arrived successfully and hit the ground running!  Our goals were to Christmas shop, BX shop and Commissary shop. (Not only is food a challenge in cost but also selection of traditional holiday foods can not be found in  Singapore)  Clothes (Singaporeans are short and stick skinny), makeup (no need to explain) hair color (still no need), shoes (largest size for men is size 9)… do I need to go on?!  I shared the Coupons for Troops on the flight where we sorted and organized.  To make a long story short… 6 ladies total coupon savings $202!  All we used were the coupons sent to us by your generous, thoughtful Coupon for Troops participates.  The Commissary at Yokota boxed up our items and will MPS them to us free.  We boxed up the BX and BX Extra shopping ourselves and the post office will MPS them free. The MAC flights were free and lodging was $19 a night.  We boarded the 4 am flight on Monday, November 17 for Singapore weary, successful, proud and grateful!  Grateful for the support of you and your bloggers.  Seems like a little thing, to clip a coupon, but it sure adds up over time and blessed us all.
Thank you again so very much!

It is hard to believe something as simple as passing on your unused coupons could make such a big impact in these families lives, but it does! If you want more information on how you can participate in this program send an email to, coupons4troops@comcast.net.

by admin -

Williamsburg

I am so thankful for the opportunity to visit Williamsburg last week. We had such a great time. The best part about our trip (other than the fact that I ate at my favorite restaurant) was that we met up with two different families that we don’t get to see very often.

The first family was a family we met when we moved to Virgina Beach. We became friends at a very difficult time because my husbands injuries were most severe during our winter in Virginia Beach. Our friends drove my husband around and even took him to work almost every day for about 6 months. This was a huge blessing to our family. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with them two years ago and have so many wonderful memories of our time together. I am sad we do not see them now that we moved away, but am hopeful we can make time to see each other more in the future. It was fun spending part of our day in Williamsburg with them and catching up.

The second family is a family we see more frequently, but not enough in our opinion. They are friends who live in West Virginia. It was hard when we first met them because the dad worked for my husband and in the military that means no friendship. The wife and I became great friends though, and our kids grew very close. Last year the dad retired from the Navy so we have enjoyed family time together over the past year. These friends have been a wonderful example of servanthood to our family and I love spending time together. We will be spending this Thanksgiving with them in WV and I can’t wait! They surprised us in Williamsburg last week and we had a great time!

While it is hard moving so frequently, I love having friends that I can visit in so many different states. I realize that if the Navy hadn’t moved us to West Virginia and then to Virginia Beach, we would have never met these families and many others. I am thankful we have friends around the world!

Fun in Williamsburg

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

For more Gratituesday visit Heavenly Homemakers.

by admin -

Getting Ahead

I finally feel like I am getting ahead of the lice game. We still have a steady stream of laundry because I don’t want to take any chances of the lice spreading. In the past 5 days I have only found one live bug, so I consider that a step in the right direction. We still spending our mornings going through everyone’s hair and checking, but things are looking up.

The good news is that because we had to cancel all of our plans I got a lot accomplished this week. First I conquered Mt. Laundry. The before picture was actually taken before things got really bad. At its worst point I actually had to climb over it to get to the washer.
Before

Photobucket

After

Photobucket

I cleaned off one of my desks.
Before

Photobucket

After

Photobucket

I was also behind in organizing the Coupons for Troops mailing. The coupons were sorted and repackaged this weekend and mailed out today.
Before

Photobucket

After

Photobucket

My kids had quite a laugh when they opened the Sunday paper. The topic of the kid’s section, lice!

Photobucket

Since we couldn’t go to church yesterday I baked most of my breads for the week. I will post about that later, but I’ll leave you with two pictures, any guesses what I new recipes I tried this week?

Photobucket

Photobucket

For more tackles visit 5MFM.

by admin -

Changing Course

This week didn’t really go as I had intended. We made two unexpected trips to the doctor’s office, canceled the orthodontist appointment and didn’t really get to the cleaning and organizing jobs I had planned.

We did however give haircuts to all the boys in our house, vacuum all upholstered surfaces, vacuum all floors, and vacuumed all mattresses. We washed every towel, sheet, blanket, comforter, and pillow in the house, and then started all over again. We also packed away all of the stuffed toys. So much for going through the kids’ toys this week!

I decided this would not be a good time to go through our winter clothes. I am sure that can wait until next week until we are lice free.

Sometimes it is discouraging to have a plan and then get derailed. When I realized my week was going to change dramatically on Tuesday it was hard not to get into a funk and want to withdrawal. The thought of decontaminating my house was overwhelming. All I could think about was six kids, I have six kids and they are all going to pass it to each other, and pass it to each other, and pass it to each other. We will have lice until Christmas!

As each additional person was found to have lice, instead of being overwhelmed, I was relieved. I began to realize my task was completely overwhelming and that I couldn’t do it all. Over the past few days I have received numerous emails and calls from people letting me know they would be praying for our family.

I think sometimes as moms and wives we set a high standard for ourselves. As I have read many other bloggers’ goals this week I have been impressed with all the things they want to accomplish. I just hope we all remember to keep our eyes on the main goal, which is to do all things to His glory, not our own.

I hate the fact that most of my family has lice, but I love the fact that we have all worked together to solve this problem. It has been nice to have to stay home and hang out with each other. Although I am sad most of our plans were canceled, I know we can schedule them for another time. I have even enjoyed the quality “talk time” I have had with my kids as I picked through their hair each morning.

Even though we are all sleeping with one sheet and one blanket (less laundry to decontaminate), I truly feel like my home as become our haven this week.

For more havens visit The Homespun Heart. <!–

by admin -

Infestation

The bugs have spread to girl #2 and possibly girl #1. We are taking no chances and cleaning/washing everything in the house. During our washing frenzy a crayon went through the dryer… because it is not as if we don’t have enough to do right now. This has happened to us before, the crayons not the lice, so if you would like a tutorial on how to get crayon out of your dryer you can find it here.

So far the boys do not have it, but we are checking several times a day. Since we were all in a hotel together for a few days there is a good chance that we could all be infected. Not from the hotel, we have determined that girl #3 had it before the hotel, but from the close quarters.

Girl #3 has the prescription treatment, which I absolutely do not like and do not want to use on anyone else. We are trying olive oil on girls #1, and #2. We have canceled several planned family outings as we don’t want the kids to infect anyone. I took a picture of girl #2 with her olive oil head and shower cap. She gave me a big smile, and seemed excited to be getting some special treatment. After I took the picture she asked me to post it on the blog. I’ll post it tomorrow.

All the stuffed toys are being bagged up and we are attempting to wash bedding from 8 beds as well as towels, jackets, hats, and our regular dirty clothes.

The boys have been warned, if I find anything on them the clippers are coming out. I cannot have the kids passing this to each other for weeks. They are not happy with the thought of that kind of haircut so hopefully they will comply with all my other requests.

Meanwhile, I continue to scratch all over. I don’t think I have lice because I haven’t seen any evidence and weird places like my back, legs, and feet itch. I think it is all in my mind. My husband has already told me he wanted to shave his head because just the thought of it grossed him out. I might try an olive oil treatment on myself tomorrow, as a precautionary measure. I figure the chances of me getting it rise with each kid. I’d consider shaving my head too, if I looked good in a hat.