"In the end what matters most is...
how well did you live,
how well did you love
how well did you learn to let go."
You will bust a gut...Homeschooler and comic Tim Hawkins spoofing Carrie Underwood's 'Jesus Take the Wheel'.
Website if you can't load youtube.
Today, as I drove up the driveway, I noticed two windows to the front of the house never got beribboned wreaths on them. Normally that kind of assymetry would not have been tolerated on my part. Very odd. Maybe OCD is loosening its Kung Fu grip on me...
Matthew's favorite word these days: dumbass. Evidently, he was in the car with Dad at an unusually frustrating moment--for Dad. Interestingly enough, my three year old is well skilled at inserting this word contextually into conversation to the great of delight of siblings and hismale co-creator. This means one thing. Next time we need milk, to return library books or hit a park day, said male co-creator is soooooo handling that with this particular offspring in tow.
Key to a pleasant visit at the inlaws house full of even more inlaws: have something socially acceptable to do that requires little participation in the general conversation...I made candy for jarheads and Spartans and avoided all manner of political and or social interjection. Of course a couple of rum and cokes never hurt.
Books/magazines/CDs on my desk: The Fountainhead, the Bible, the Economist and Texas Farm and Ranch, Tracy Chapman's Fast Cars, the new Eagles CD, Snow Patrol, GooGoo Dolls and some funk stuff whose band name I can't pronounce with lyrics which include: "paranoia will destroy ya" circa 1997.
Recent debates: men vs women, gluttony, why eating marshmallows out of your pants has a downside, best John Wayne movie of all time.
What's been going on with everyone else?
Morale = Letters from Home
While training in Fort Lewis, WA I had the pleasure of being guided by an officer who honed my leadership compass and showed me what good, humble leadership could do for a platoon. He taught us how to be good leaders, how to know the difference between spot-checking and micro-managing and how to take care of our soldiers without turning into parents.
One of the many lessons he taught us was that a soldier's morale depended on the Letters from home. He said it casually, and I gave it little thought, but as the long days and longer nights passed I came to realize how right he was.
The first week, I got no letters. Not having any word from home wasn't so bad.
The second week, I got no letters. My heart would leap, then sink as each mail call yielded no letters for little Katana.
The third week, letters came in earnest as the mail from my boyfriend in Korea had finally crossed the ocean and made its way to Fort Lewis. Each time my name was called for mail call, I felt such giddiness! Letters meant someone took time out of their day to write and mail something to you. Letters meant someone thought about you. Letters meant someone cared about you even though I had been displaced from reality and put in an environment that was away from my loved ones.
The fourth week I received three packages – cookies, cookies, and did I mention cookies? This training was the first lesson I had in the importance of support from home. This was only a month-long training and miniscule in comparison to the long Deployments that our soldiers experience now. It's important, now more than ever, for our soldiers to receive support from home.
Kat
A life in Pictures and Words
http://blog.belleau-wood.org
A blog and Photo Gallery.
I have been doing milsupport since early summer. It started out as something I had been meaning to do for some time and but the intention had evaporated again and again with the pressure of 4 kids, a household, homeschooling and a couple of support groups I ran.
At some point I found this passage and others like it while doing some surfing on the net. Watergate Summer, one of the first blogs I ever visited, mentioned working with these folks coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and so I finally found myself on site that matched troops with individuals and groups.
"Public opinion and material and emotional support have been shown to affect the impact of deployment sacrifices and exposure to trauma" (Bolton, Litz, Glenn, Orsillo, & Roemer, 2002; Koenen, Stellman, Stellman, & Sommer, 2003)
Support was something I could do and so it began for me, my homeschool group and my family. We haven't looked back.
In milsupport, you can bring a little peace to a few folks at a time. Is there an impact? Is your time wasted or are you just holding back the ocean with a spoon? I leave this to Katana and those like her to answer. --Hope
Tips for letter writing and packages Adoptaplatoon AnyMarine AnySoldier AnySailor AnyAirman
"The boy's stockings came in the mail last night on Christmas Eve. Cool!I felt like Santa tip toeing around the berthing hanging up stockings on their racks."
Email from 1st Sgt. was a great Christmas present!
To those that brought supplies to help fill stockings and Christmas packages,
To Susan, who cut and sewed the stockings in spite of a house under major renovations at the holiday,
To all the folks who have pressed money into my hand for shipping in the last six months or offered an encouraging word,
To the postmaster who got all of the presents on the last truck before deadline,
To everyone who has ever helped get some love to Karmah and to those who helped with some in time for Christmas,
Thank you so much for showing these Marines people in the States are glad they were born, too.
Merry, Merry Christmas!
Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad...Psalms 9:11
