Thankful For My Heroes!

I am forever awed by people who voluntarily join the Armed Forces. I admire their courage and sense of duty. I just conversed with a young man who enlisted and will be heading to Iraq soon. He asked me to pray for him and his young wife while he is away. I am awestuck by our conversation.

I must admit, I am a wimp. I don't think I could be a soldier and I am not crazy about the idea of any of my children being one, either. I love my country. I am a patriot. And if one of my children decides to sign up, I will not attempt to stand in their way, but I am selfish, I guess. I want my freedom, I just don't want it to cost me anything. Especially, not my children. I am married to a disabled vet, but he did his time before we wed, so I did not "pay" our dues with him. I just reap the benefits.

In my defense, I always salute the flag during the National Anthem (even when many adults and children alike do not take the time to stop their activities to do so), I weep when I hear of the death of another American troop on foreign soil(even though I don't know them), I am elated when some of our soldiers get to come home(again, even though I don't know them), I always thank soldiers in uniform for their service(their gracious reply, "Just doing my job, ma'am, but your welcome...and thanks"is typical ), and I preach patriotism...spout it wherever I go. So I am not that bad, am I?

What I do know is how thankful I am that there are people who love peace enough to fight for it. I appreciate those people who put their lives on the line to protect my country. I am grateful to the men and women who dedicate themselves to preserving my freedom. Those people who live, breathe, walk, talk, leave their families and all they love, to go to strange, dangerous places and do a job that is often thankless and certainly doesn't pay well, just so that I don't have to deal with bombs exploding in my America. Because of them, there is not a war going on in my country and I am relatively safe from harm. Because they put themselves in harm's way and stand between.

I attribute my freedom to speak my mind, write my feelings, go where I want, when I want, do what I want, in large part, to them. They are such an integral part of what makes me free. They are the backbone of our country and I salute them today, for all they do, all they have done, and all they will do, to make and keep our country great.

Our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard are made up of men and women who love America enough to stand up and be counted. They have the courage to face the hardships of a soldier's life. They endure a life of difficulties because of their sense of duty. There is no draft and even in time of war, they still come. Ready to go defend freedom and destroy terrorism wherever they find it. They understand the meaning of "the greater good".

They are the best of the best in my book. They deserve our gratitude. They have earned our respect. They need our support. They don't seem to need our thanks, but they appreciate it. They make me all the more proud to be an American. They are my heroes!

May God bless our troops and God bless us all.

I Was Afraid of This

This is growing in my baby's throat!

Well, the doctor confirmed my suspicion. Grace has strep. She was somewhat improved on Thursday morning then began to spiral downward Thursday evening. Her fever spiked at last check before medication was administered at 101.5, which is not too high, but it was not going in the direction I wanted. It was obvious she was not significantly improving. Our doctor worked her in. Bless his heart. He was trying to leave the office early to take his family to the Alabama football game and then camping for the weekend. God bless him for not leaving us to deal with this all weekend! OR, visit a Doc-in-the-Box then have to pay again to see our doctor the next week to follow up.
He is even prepared, if needed, to call in prescriptions for any subsequent family members who may succumb to the nasty, dreaded, streptococcal bacterial throat invasion. As he offers this so generously, I am thinking of all the mama-loving I did before I suspected this was strep.

Hmmmm....all those kisses, all the times I tasted the food or drink to see that it would be OK for her taste, all the hot oatmeal bites that I put the spoon directly from her mouth, into the oatmeal, blew it, touched it to my lips to be sure it was not going to burn her mouth, then back into the bowl....Oh-My-Goodness! The times that she fell asleep sitting with me in the recliner as she breathed directly into my face...Oh, dear!

Spanish Horchata-Ole'

My son is taking Spanish this year and is struggling to say the least. Tomorrow he is to bring in a recipe and a dish of some kind that is of Spanish origin. We chose Horchata, a drink made with rice and milk.

He doesn't know his way around a kitchen very well and I think it is important at his age that he do his own projects. With this recipe, he didn't have to cook anything, it is easily served, and easily transported. He began by soaking long grain rice for half an hour in water then drained it, reserving the water. He then used the food processor to make a paste of the rice, added some cinnamon, then added that back to the water to soak for two hours. Then he must drain the liquid from the rice with a sieve, add milk, sweetened condensed milk, mix well and then into the frig overnight. He will serve this over ice tomorrow in class. The original recipe called for a little rum in the mix, but to avoid being arrested for serving alcohol to minors, we opted out of that ingredient.(smile)

All of this effort will get him two daily grades, turning in the recipe counts as one, serving the finished product counts as the other.

I hope his turns out well, he could REALLY use two REALLY good grades in Spanish! But if nothing else, he has learned to make a new drink that we hope is going to taste good and has to be somewhat healthy for you, he has learned the ins and outs of a food processor, and knows a little more about kitchen duty. It is all bueno!

Adios! Buenos noches, amigos!

Addendum to the Previous Post

Callie has informed me that she, too, likes the Christmas music, so here is my official printed retraction about the torment of Callie. I apologize for any misrepresentation.
It seems only the male gender of the house will be tortured this season. (smile)

I Am Excited About....

XM!!!

I have difficulty listening to radio anymore, because I have been spoiled with commercial free XM! I have my husband, the Gadget Man, to thank for that.

My home system is quite sensitive, so when someone driving past my house is changing their XM channel, consequently, so does mine.

I awoke to a sports channel this morning and as I was resetting my regular station, going through the line-up of channels, I spot Holiday! What? Was that Holiday? Yes, it is! Holiday!

You must understand, I have been dubbed, "Little Miss Merry Christmas" because of my love of the holidays. Not to mention, my family celebrates Christmas together at Thanksgiving, so it is perfect timing to put me in the proper festive spirit of the season.

I was overjoyed! Jubilant! This means from now until New Year's Day I will be able to listen to my beloved Christmas music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! I am ecstatic! Gracie is too. She is a girl after her mom's own heart.

So it begins. The ecstacy of Laura and Gracie...the torment of Callie, Micah, and most especially, the Gadget Man!

"It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....fa,la,la,la,la,...la,la,la,la!"

It is Just This Middle Part That I Hate!

The Good Shepherd cares for His sheep.

Today began as any other, with the exception of being the day for school photos. I had to help the girls with their coifs, so they would be beautiful for posterity's sake.

Michael and I had our morning coffee, Lee arrived to start the work day and off they went to get parts for a job. When they arrived at the office of our largest supplier, Michael was informed that he no longer had distributor privileges. No letter of notice, no email, no phone call, just waited until he showed up to buy parts and notified him of the change at that time. Shoddy way to run a business.

What this means for us. Micagra will still be able to service the systems this company sells but the parts will cost us more, which will in turn cost the customer more. It will also mean, and this is the big one, that we will no longer be able to use their system to upgrade existing systems in the facilities. Ouch! That is where our biggest income lies.

We knew this was on the horizon. It had happened to other small businesses that do what we do. We just didn't know when the axe would fall. Well, today is the day.

This will mean a major shift in our business. We had already begun working with another product in anticipation of this event. Now we must shift into high gear with that. It will involve investments into equipment and parts from the new company and a large building where Michael and Lee can produce the previously pre-fab equipment and parts they once were able to purchase. It will take more time to make them and thus take away from time in the field. Another ouch.

There is nothing they cannot make themselves and it is only a kink, but it comes at a time when we were on the verge of investing in our new home and the uncertainty of the political/financial times are weighing heavily on us.

Dilema, confusion, questions. All parts of that bigger issue uncertainty.

We will pray for guidance. We will talk about our options, think about it, talk some more, pray, think, talk...it will all work out in the end, of that I am sure. It is just this middle part that I hate. God has always watched over us and taken care of us and I am sure He will now. That part I do not doubt. The uncertainty of the "getting to that point" is excruciating with decisions to be made, the rights and wrongs of it all, the"what ifs" to consider, the "what to do and how to do it" stuff.

Recently, I filled out a "Get to know you better" email. One question was what do you like least about yourself and my answer was my indecisiveness and how excruciating it is for me to make important, major decisions. It makes me wonder if God is stretching me and growing me. Maybe it is an exercise in trust. Since I know Jeremiah 29:11 says,"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." and I believe that. And Romans 8:28 reads, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

I guess now is the time to put my faith into action. In my Sunday school class, we were talking about Noah and how he had such faith to trust what God said when the whole world, more than likely ridiculed him for doing so for about 120 years! As a trust exercise, I had my children stand in front of me with their arms outstretched and fall back into my arms, promising them I would not let them fall. It took a couple of times for each of them to finally relax and fall back, without stepping back, and trust me to catch them. How ironic. Or coincidental? Or maybe just God preparing me to do the same with him. I didn't understand why they were so hesitant to fall back when they knew I was there to catch them. Hmmmm.....I am learning that it is scarier than it looked.

A Little Taste of History

I had the honor of driving Miss Gracie and three of her 4th grade classmates to Fort Toulouse/Fort Jackson for a field trip yesterday. Although the rain dampened the ground it did not hamper our good time.

We saw re-enactors dressed as Native Americans, French soldiers, Colonial American soldiers, and men and women who would have just lived and worked in the 1700's and 1800's. They showed us how life was lived in those days and boy, do we have a better appreciation for modern society!

When the rain began, we found a spot to shelter and keep dry. It was under the canopy of the musicians who played a violin, fiddle, fife, drum, and hammered dulcimer. Being products of an interactive, technological culture, I thought the children would tire of listening to the music and singing, as we waited for the rain to subside. Instead, they asked if the musicians knew any Christmas music and when the music began, the children began to sing along! They made quite an impression on the re-enactors and I must admit, I was pretty impressed myself!