About Me I'm Stacy - a disciple of Christ, an Army wife, and a homeschooling mom to our 7 year old daughter. I spend my days doing fun science projects, going on field trips, cooking gluten-free meals, taking photos, reading, blogging & managing the home. I'm constantly behind on scrapbooking and want to learn how to crochet more than scarves, but there are only so many hours in the day.
I believe that shoes should always be optional, life is better at the beach, and chocolate is a necessary food group!
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By Midlife Army Wife, on May 10th, 2012
Today is Day 4 of the Blog Carnival hosted by Wives of Faith. If you are a military spouse and like to write, jump on over and join in – you might even win a prize!
Today’s topic is:
“Picture It: It’s been said that a picture’s worth a thousand words. Post a photograph you’ve taken.”
This one was pretty easy for me because I have a picture I’ve been wanting to post anyway! I can’t do it in one picture, but rather a series of pictures.
To some of you that might look like an ordinary weed – something that takes over your yard where the grass should be, something you try to get rid of.
But you would be wrong.
What I see when I look at that little flower is BEAUTY. I think of the delicate petals, the bright color of sunshine, and happiness – pure joy, even. I actually look forward to spring when these little flowers pop up all over the yard.
Why?
Because of this…the bigger picture.
For as long as I can remember, Emily has loved picking these flowers for me. When she runs out to check the mail, she comes back with one for my hair. After playing outside, she’ll come in with a handful of them and present them to me like a bouquet. She loves to sneak up and put one in a place that will surprise me when I turn around.
Recently, she even put together an entire arrangement with sand, marbles, seashells and rose petals for me. Isn’t it beautiful?
Seeing her joy in these little flowers brings me joy, and every time I see a dandelion I have to smile! God uses the ordinary, and makes them extraordinary – just like He uses you and me.
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 9th, 2012
I know I’m really late posting about this, but I wanted to share a few pictures from our recent military ball. It’s my 2nd one in just over a year, and we enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and go out for a fancy date. Emily even had a great time that night because she got to have her 2nd sleepover ever (read about her first one here) with some great friends that night.
I got the most incredible dress from my dear friend and bridal/formal wear shop owner – Unforgettable You. This is the second time she’s managed to help me pick a perfect dress based only on my (self-measured) measurements and sent me the dress through the mail all the way from Canada to North Carolina! I wonder how many formal gowns I’m going to end up with in my closet when Rob finally retires from the Army?
We had a great time at the ball chatting with friends, watching people strut their stuff on the dance floor, and enjoying the traditions of the Calvary.
 
One of the traditions is the Punch Bowl Ceremony and includes filling up this trough with a variety of alcoholic beverages.
 
Here is a description I found on this tradition:
The history of the “Punch Bowl” ceremony has become obscured with time. It is thought that during the years of the west ward expansion, Cavalry Troopers would share their spirits with one another thereby insuring that all fellow troopers had something. The alcoholic spirits usually consisted of what ever an individual trooper’s taste was, and that when mixed with other alcohol created a powerful drink known as “GROG”.
The comradeship developed over the decades and through the various wars and campaigns usually entailed the rare opportunity to share “liberated” spirits with each other.
Today’s “GROG” or punch bowl ceremony is more symbolic. It encompasses the age old custom of sharing with the history of a unit.
I think my favorite part (besides admiring my very handsome hubby in his uniform!) is the “photo booth” they set up for us to take free pictures using funny props. In the first one we were trying to do our “serious face” because I’m always teasing Rob about how the soldiers aren’t allowed to smile in pictures.
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 9th, 2012
Today is Day 3 of the Blog Carnival hosted by Wives of Faith. If you are a military spouse and like to write, jump on over and join in – you might even win a prize!
Today’s topic is:
“Describe your best HOOAH moment”
HOOAH: The phonetic pronunciation of the acronym HUA (Heard, Understood, Acknowledged)
According to Wikipedia, HOOAH can also:
- be used as a call and response cheer, with one soldier exclaiming, “hooah!,” and other soldiers responding in like.
- be uttered at random and in a group in order to boost morale. One or a few soldiers will begin chanting “hooah!,” and then others join in.
- be used as a sarcastic remark for something specific to the Army. Sometimes used sarcastically. As in, “This detail is about as hoo-ah as it gets.”
- to describe a highly motivated individual. As in, “Greenfield has been extremely Hoo-ah lately.”
I can think of a few things that make me want to say, “HOOAH!” – like seeing my man in uniform! I am so proud of him and it is an honor to stand by his side. Also, when I finally had him back in my arms after his deployment – what a day to celebrate!
When I read this topic though, I immediately thought of a time where I felt really proud of myself as an Army wife. A time that I felt like I pushed myself, pulled myself up from my bootstraps so to speak, and worked through it.
When Rob was deployed to Iraq last year, Murphy (of Murphy’s Law) decided to attack our truck. Our truck that was fully paid for and our only option for transportation. A few issues came and went, but the one I was the most proud of was when I fixed a window on the truck, saving us 200-300 dollars and earning a lot of self confidence.
One day my daughter and I headed out to run a few errands. We had a big list ahead of us and a lot of driving to do, so our first stop was to fill up the truck with gas – something that should have been routine. As I hopped back in the driver’s seat and closed the door, the back left window fell down.
Ok, that was weird. I didn’t shut the door THAT hard. I’ve had windows fall before so I thought I’d just hop out, push it back up with my hands and be on my way. Only, it wouldn’t budge!
Tried the power switch – it would go down, but not up. Great, I just made it worse. Tried the other windows and they worked just fine. Isolating the problem already!
I decided I couldn’t go run my errands and leave the truck with an open window (and our purchases inside) everywhere we went, so we changed our plans and went home.
Normally, I would have just waited until Rob got home and he would have taken care of it. He’s handy with fixing things like that but since we had several months of the deployment left to go, I knew it couldn’t wait. My second best option? Google. I quickly came to the conclusion that the window had either simply fallen off the track, or the window motor would need to be replaced. Neither of those sounded like something I knew how to do, so I called a repair shop for a quote.
“$300-400 including parts & labor. Oh, and we don’t have any in stock so it’s a special order.”
WHAT????
I needed a plan B. Sure, we had the extra deployment money and even money in savings, but I sure didn’t want to spend it on that. So, I prayed for direction, and then I looked up the price of the worst case scenario – a window motor.
The price of the part? $100.00 delivered to my house.
That’s it? God is so good!
I knew that if my husband were home, he would replace the part himself to save us that $200-300 dollars, so I was determined to do it myself. Now, how to accomplish that?
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)
It is an amazing world we live in, folks. Seriously. I’m aging myself here, but the internet still amazes me on almost a daily basis. You can find anything out there. Lots of things I don’t even want to know about, but that’s another post.
I found a video on YouTube of a guy demoing how to take off the door panel and replace the window motor. I can do this!
I put on my work clothes, got the tools out, and took my laptop out on the driveway to keep the video handy. I’d watch a little, push pause, work a little, hit play…over and over until I was done. I ended up taking the entire panel off the door, removing the speaker, unhooking the motor, and then putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. It took me about 30 minutes. Mechanics get a really good hourly rate!
HOOAH!
Sure, I was proud of myself, but even more I was thankful that God helped me get through this. I trusted Him and He never lets us down. It’s moments like this where we can choose to let the hard times knock us down, or we can push through them. It was important to me to do this for several reasons — 1) I wanted to make my husband proud – for him to know I can handle things at home, 2) I wanted to save us from spending money if we didn’t need to, and 3) I wanted to be an example to my daughter – she even got to help me!
When the hard times come – and they will – I hope you’ll make the choice to push through them and find your own HOOAH moment! You’ll be glad you did.
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 8th, 2012
Today is Day 2 of the Blog Carnival hosted by Wives of Faith, and the topic is:
“What duty stations or locations would be on YOUR dream sheet?”
This one is easy for me to answer! So far I’ve only lived at one duty station – Fort Bragg – and I really like it here. It’s close to the mountains and the beach. There are plenty of fun attractions a short drive away, and countless ones within a day’s drive all up and down the east coast! Coming from Dallas, TX where going to the beach required a long weekend, I absolutely LOVE being able to go to the beach and back in a single day.
That said, there are some places that I would love to live during the remainder of my husband’s Army career, if the options were ever given to us.
1) Italy or Germany – these are a tie for me because either one would get us to Europe. Rob was fortunate to be stationed at both of these his first time around in the Army, but those were before he met me so I would love the chance to experience that with him and see first hand where he spent several years of his life.
2) Hawaii – This one might not ever happen because it would require my husband giving up his Airborne status to go there, but it’s still on my dream list. Our family loves, LOVES the beach and all things about the ocean. While it might not be our retirement dream of the Caribbean, it would certainly be paradise to live in such a beautiful place and experience God’s glory in nature. They have mountains IN the ocean there, what’s not to love about that?
3) Alaska – I know, crazy cold right? That part would probably take a lot of getting used to, but I would still choose it over a stateside location just for the beauty of it and the chance to experience it. The pictures I’ve seen of Alaska are always just beautiful and where else can you spot a moose in your backyard?
All of my “dream spots” are out of the continental U.S. because I figure we could go anywhere within the lower 48 on our own if we were willing to drive a while. These dream spots are places that I figure we will never have a chance to move to unless it’s on the Army’s dime, so why not go big?
Also, I was born in California and moved to Texas when I was 5. Then, I spent the next 30 years living in the same 30 mile radius, but my heart has ached for years to move to a new place and get to travel. One of the things I was most excited about when Rob got back in the Army was the chance to see the world and show it to our daughter. I know God has a sense of humor and it would be ironic if we spent the next 13 years at just ONE duty station, but we’ll hope not! Let’s get out there and see the world!
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 8th, 2012
It’s no secret that I love chocolate. Dark chocolate, to be exact (it’s even good for you). Back when I used to eat milk chocolate and too much sugar, I loved Magic Shell – remember the ice cream topping that gets hard when you pour it on your ice cream? It was so yummy!
Unfortunately, the original Magic Shell has a couple problems. First, it lists sugar as the first ingredient. Ingredients are listed on a package in the order of quantity which means that in this case, there is more sugar than any other ingredient. Chocolate is much further down the list (#4) after the oils. Second, the only source of “chocolate” in there is listed as “chocolate processed with alkali”. Processing chocolate like that is sometimes referred to as the Dutch method and the purpose is to remove the bitter flavor and make the chocolate a more uniform color.
The trade off is that cocoa beans processed with alkali lose the flavonoids and antioxidants that are found in raw cocoa nibs or very dark chocolate. In order words, it removes the part that makes dark chocolate good for your health.
But now, my friends, you can have your Magic Shell and eat it too!
I made my own “Magic Shell” using 2 ingredients – our favorite dark chocolate (antioxidants and all) and coconut oil!
You can use as dark of a chocolate as your prefer, and even get organic if you wish. Even though the dark chocolate we usually buy does have sugar in it, it has unsweetened chocolate as the first ingredient followed by cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and then sugar.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dark chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
Directions:
- Melt chocolate and coconut oil together in a double boiler and let cool to room temperature.
- Pour over ice cream, and eat! (Store the leftovers at room temperature)
And eat it, we did – as you can see! On top of homemade ice cream, on top of a brownie – all homemade, gluten-free, and paleo too! I’ll post the brownie recipe and ice cream secret soon! We splurged and called it dinner a couple of nights ago. I don’t like to brag, but I was called “the best mom EVER” and that’s pretty cool.
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 7th, 2012
This week, I’m taking part in a Blog Carnival hosted by Wives of Faith. If you are a military wife, I can’t encourage you enough to become a member and get connected with these awesome ladies!
Here are my top 20 answers in no particular order to today’s topic,
“You know you are a military wife when…”
…you no longer have to do math to figure out what time to start dinner when your husband tells you he’ll be home at 1830.
…someone asks for the last 4 of your social security number and you ramble off your husband’s instead.
…you are surprised when the sound of thunder is REALLY thunder and not just artillery.
…you are close friends with someone for an entire year, but your husband’s have never met because they are never home at the same time.
…a good day includes your husband not landing in a tree.
…you say, “stand by” to someone when you are figuring out your answer.
…you refuse to answer the front door when your husband is deployed.
…you have a plan on what to do with your child if you should ever see men in dress uniforms at your door.
…you store your kid’s outside toys in a Tuff box.
…your husband’s work & dress clothes cost more than yours do.
…you tear up at songs like “Proud to be an American” and “American Soldier” no matter how many times you hear them.
…you run out of leftovers for your husband’s lunch the next day and he says, “I’ll just grab an MRE at work”.
…some of your closest friends are people you’ve known less than a year.
…the emergency contact for your child is someone you’ve known less than a month.
…you know your husband’s co-workers by last name only.
…you need your ID to buy groceries.
…your husband says he’s going to another state for a week to for training and you think nothing of it because it’s “only” a week.
…you know that any reference to “sand box” describes a deployment, not your kid’s backyard toys.
…you avoid going grocery shopping within 2 days of payday unless it’s an absolute emergency!
…your husband says he gets to “sleep in” and sets his alarm for 6:30.
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 7th, 2012
Back in February, we went on a big family vacation during Rob’s 2 week block-leave after returning from deployment. I wrote about one half of our vacation – seeing the Statue of Liberty in New York – but I never got around to writing about the 2nd half until now.
For over a decade now, I have been fascinated by the Appalachian Trail – a 2100+ mile long trail running from Georgia to Maine. It is known for its many hikers, many of which are called “thru-hikers” and attempt to hike it in its entirety in one season – typically 4-6 months. A small percentage of those that set out to thru-hike the trail actually complete it due to sickness, injury, poor planning, financial reasons, or simply because it wasn’t what they expected.
I have read countless books and personal journals about the trail and it is a dream of mine to thru-hike it one day with my husband.
Where we live in North Carolina sits just about 4 hours from a section of the Appalachian Trail! We decided that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to set foot on a part of the trail while we were here, so we made that our destination for the second part of our vacation. We stayed in a house that was literally right on the trail and we managed to hike several miles of it that week.
I was absolutely GIDDY to be ON the trail!
It was AMAZING! Our family just thrives when we are surrounded by nature – be it the beach or the mountains. This particular week we were so secluded that we had no cell phone service or access to internet or TV. It was so peaceful!
We sat around on the deck reading books and enjoying the view while Emily had the time of her life climbing trees in the front & back yards.
 
We played game after game of Muppet Monopoly while enjoying home-cooked meals together.
We enjoyed several days of hiking time as a family
 
 
Emily enjoyed finding animal tracks and jumping in every available mud puddle
  
It’s important to stay hydrated when hiking
Or else you might get a case of the sillies
There were so many beautiful views!
 
Rob and I each took a day to go off and do some hiking on our own. It was a great feeling of accomplishment and a peaceful time communing with the Lord as I hiked about 6 miles one day (with some STEEP terrain!).
 
I look forward to the day when we can do the entire trail together, but in the meantime we’ll do as many “section hikes” as we can!
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 5th, 2012
One thing that is very important to our family is prayer. As a Christian, we know it is more than just asking God for something that we want but also a way to have that personal relationship with Christ. To express our desires, our fears, our weaknesses, our sins. To ask for forgiveness and accept it when it is given (it always is!). To pray for our friends and loved ones.
When we moved into this house, we wanted to set up a prayer wall where we could display the names of people we wanted to pray for. It’s too easy when we sit down to pray to forget about a specific request we told someone we would pray for, or to have more prayer requests than time and not know where to start. Our goal for this prayer wall was that whenever we walk by it, we would see the names and pause to pray for someone on there. We also use it when we sit down to eat together as a family – we take turns choosing a name from the wall and we pray for that person/family. We’ll switch out the names as needs arise, or maybe we’ll just take over the whole wall!
Our new living room had just the perfect corner to put it in – we can see it from our dining table where we gather as a family too!
The Prayer Corner
Close-up of cross
Close-up of poem
A cute sign above the board
Close-up of prayer board
The verse at the top of the prayer board is from Ephesians:
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Eph 6:18)
I’ve also seen these cute Prayer Pails on Pinterest that would be easy to make if you don’t have an open wall in your house.
Do you have anything like this? What are other ways that you keep track of prayer requests?
By Midlife Army Wife, on May 5th, 2012
We are so excited – there is a dive shop in our area!! I can’t tell you how much we’ve missed seeing this flag:
If you are a new reader you may not know that Rob and I met through SCUBA diving and it is our true passion! We used to teach classes together, and we miss it so much. Life happens and we just haven’t been able to do any diving for a few years, but we are hoping to get back into it.
Recently, Rob stumbled across Black Jack Tech Diving – a local technical diving shop. That means WRECK diving! There are lots of great wrecks off the North Carolina coast and we would love the chance to see some of them in person while we live here. We went in to the shop to talk to them and they have a lot of fun wreck diving trips planned. Hopefully we can get one of those on our schedule this year!
By Midlife Army Wife, on April 25th, 2012
Right now Hubby & Lovebug are out on the deck doing some quality bonding and working with power tools.
All for our very spoiled cat.
See, our kitty likes to go outside. That’s not so strange, but the strange part is she won’t even try to jump the fence (I don’t think she knows she CAN) so she just stays in the backyard.
The problem?
The deck at our new house has some gaping holes underneath, and we now have a puppy that likes to playfully chase the cat. We don’t want the cat to go hide under the deck where we can’t get her out, so we need to cover up the holes before we can give her freedom.
I don’t care about her freedom so much as I want to be able to leave open these beautiful french doors and enjoy the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. Obviously, if the doors are open she will head outside. So, it must be fixed.
So, Hubby & Lovebug headed to Lowe’s to get some lattice and are now cutting it to fit on either side of the deck.
Soon…very soon…we will once again be able to leave the doors wide open and enjoy the fresh air.
That reminds me – I need to find our flyswatter!
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