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By Alyssa, November 30, 2009 6:29 pm

It was really early for Bubba

After a few naps and lots of cleaning, I’m officially back from the Thanksgiving holiday.  It was a great week catching up with an old Army friend and his boys.  That’s right, I was outnumbered six boys to just me, and felt right at home!  We started a new family tradition this Thanksgiving and all signed up for the Turkey Day 5K in our neighborhood.  The four of us were out the door at 8:15 am and ready to run.  Well, we were kind of ready if you don’t count forgetting a bike pump for our jogging stroller (a friendly stranger helped us out) and showing up right as they ran out of race shirts (supposedly they will send them to us later).  Hubby and I got our competitive juices flowing during the run and Bubba even ran his first race in the kid’s 400m fun run.

It was nice to work off some calories before totally engorging ourselves that afternoon, but the real reason we ran the race was to support National Guard families.  The race sponsored the Colorado National Guard Foundation, a program that provides assistance to National Guard service members and their families experiencing financial hardship.  What many don’t realize is that more often than not Reserve and National Guard service members that deploy take pay cuts in order to serve their country.

During my first deployment, my unit crossed the Iraqi border with a platoon of Florida National Guardsmen attached as a security detail.  Stuck in the middle of the desert with these infantry men, I learned a lot about the hardships of “part-time” soldiers.  Several of the soldiers left six-figure jobs when they were called to active orders in support of the war.  Although there are laws that protect soldiers from losing their civilian jobs during deployments, those laws don’t protect soldiers from missing out on civilian promotions and incentives.  The platoon sergeant of the unit was passed over for promotion during our deployment because he wasn’t in the states to take a test given only once a year.

Is this treatment fair?  Probably not, but it’s just part of being in the Guard.  I think of my parents as my mom tries to hold down the fort during my dad’s current deployment.  Unlike active soldiers that have well-organized family support groups and a fort or base nearby, my mom resources her help on her own to survive.  Because National Guard and Reserve issues are so close to home, it felt good to support their cause on Thanksgiving.  While I started a new tradition with my family on Thanksgiving, my dad took part in an old tradition.  He and other senior leaders served Thanksgiving to the troops at his dining facility in Iraq.  I’m praying next year he can take part in my tradition, home with his family.  Check out the Colorado National Guard Foundation website to see how you can support soldiers and their families this season.

Run, Bubba, Run!

I won, Mom!

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By Alyssa, November 23, 2009 3:51 pm

I have a confession.  I had a few jealous moments last week.  I keep in touch with a lot of my old Army buddies through Facebook and found myself looking through a few of their photo albums.  Some are assigned to sweet overseas positions in Italy and Germany, while others are teaching as Westpoint or ROTC instructors.  I find it humorous now, not at the moment, that right after spending a day consumed with “What if I’d stayed in?” or “Wouldn’t it be great to travel Europe?”, my entire family was hit with the worst stomach flu in our history.  From Wednesday night to Saturday morning starting with poor Zeke, we took our turns… well, I’m not going to get into the details of it. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

It was about the time that Bubba and I were sprawled out on my bed too weak to watch movies or even sleep that a little perspective SMACKED me in the forehead.  Thank goodness I’m at home!  I couldn’t imagine working and being stuck with that nasty bug.  Not only would I be worried about our health, but I’d have daycare to shuffle, work requirements to get around, and everything else that gets backlogged when you’re sick.  I think the Hollywood “working mom” image, where some fabulously coordinated woman easily juggles wife, mom, work, daycare, groceries, laundry, dishes, is a load of crap!

Thank goodness, Hubby and I are in a position where I can stay home taking care of our boys.  I know a lot of single moms in the Army and dual military couples that have it tough.  They drop their kids off at daycare at 5:30am so they can make it to morning physical fitness and then don’t see them again until 5:30pm. During that 12 hours apart mom and dad are working their tails off, often times bringing work home with them, and then, in those precious few hours before bedtime, they cram quality time, chores, dinner, etc.  I have immense gratitude for these brave men and women.  They have limited choices and do the best they can for their families.

My current phase is staying home with my kiddos.  I don’t know how long this phase will last, but I am so thankful for every minute of it.  I looked at those pictures and lost that thankfulness when I started to think I would never be able to do things like that.  Popular culture tells me as a stay-at-home-mom I will never fulfill my true potential or accomplish my dreams.  Today I stopped believing that.  I may not get to travel as much as I want to now, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll never get to travel.  I would love to be a high school teacher or college professor someday.  Staying home with my boys isn’t keeping me from that.  I’m just postponing it for a bit.  My boys are worth it.

I hate to say thank goodness for that awful stomach flu, but it was perfectly timed.  Nothing like being literally knocked to your knees to understand that there is a purpose in what you are doing each day.  I believe in what I’m doing and know too much about being a working mom to think that I’m missing out.

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By Alyssa, November 17, 2009 10:10 pm

Dear Aarhaus Family,

I was hurt by your letter.  I tried so hard to keep everything nice and chilly after you shoved those ten bags of ziplocked COSTCO cheese in front of my vent.  I was suffocating!  A couple of my parts just couldn’t take the pressure and I felt like a failure.  I thought for sure that you would immediately call a repairman, but NO!  You started looking for my replacement.

I heaved a hum of relief when you came back empty-handed.  Days passed, then weeks, as I tried to seem helpful, holding up kiddo artwork with magnets and providing filtered water.  It was tough to watch you make dozens of trips each day to the garage fridge.  How could you even see what you were grabbing from a fridge made without inner lighting?

Finally, I heard you make the call and could hardly believe it when the appliance repair guy came into the kitchen.  ”How much to repair?” you asked.  What a relief!  I only had two broken parts and could be fixed for less than $300.  Not sure if you realized it, but my matching cousins (stove and microwave) were super excited to hear that I’d be sticking around.

I’ll try not to hold a grudge that it took you over 45 days to make my repairs.  I’m just thankful you never gave up on me.  I’m feeling especially shiny after your cleaning and have just one tiny suggestion for the smell… a baking soda box would be nice.  I look forward to serving your family as long as I can.

Icy hugs and kisses-

Your Refrigerator

P.S.  I’ve included a picture and request from the garage fridge.  He says he would be more than willing to take care of any future purchases of COSTCO cheese.

The Faithful Garage Fridge

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By Alyssa, November 16, 2009 11:21 am

It’s been a month since I first posted my HE Laundry Recipe (click here if you missed the original post) and I’m convinced I’ll never go back to store-bought detergent!  My clothes smell better and are so much softer than they ever were before.  I had some questions from the last post and figured it was about time I answered them.  Hope these are the details you were looking for!

1.  Is Borax safe?  Borax is a cleaner that has positives and negatives just like any other cleaner.  It is a boosting agent for your laundry and not only conditions the water but also deodorizes the clothes.  Borax should not be inhaled or ingested!  I was thinking about using it on our carpets, but after investigating I decided it just wasn’t a good idea for my asthmatic hubby.  Same goes for shaking up the contents of your homemade detergent around your kiddos.  I don’t like them to be around when I’m messing with bleach and use the same procautions with borax.

2.  Can vinegar be used as a fabric softener?  I have to preempt this question with the fact that my clothes rarely need to be softened with the new homemade detergent.  Seriously, the detergent makes my clothes so soft!  I’ve heard from one person that regular vinegar use ruined their HE washer, however the majority of the information I found with vinegar and HE washers was positive.  Because I don’t feel every load needs the softening, I’m only using vinegar on my rag/towel/washcloth loads as they tend to smell mildewy after a while and the vinegar removes any bacterial residue (Thanks for the tip, Paula!). Also, the dryer completely takes away the vinegar scent. Can’t even tell that I’ve used it.

3.  How often do you use dryer sheets?  I rarely use dryer sheets unless I’m washing clothes made from synthetic materials.  Natural materials come out so soft with the detergent there isn’t a need for dryer sheets.  The seldom times I do use them, I reuse and reuse and reuse, usually until they are flimsy and unscented.  No reason to use them once as they perform well multiple times.

4.  What is Mrs. Stewart’s liquid bluing?  Mrs. Stewart’s liquid bluing “potion” is so much better for white/light colored loads than bleach.  I have no idea how it does it, but the clothes come out brighter and whiter.  Only word of precaution, a little bit goes a long way.  The label instructions indicate only a few drops are needed per load and ONLY A FEW DROPS ARE NEEDED.  Don’t do what I did squirting the bottle for five or ten seconds and end up with white sheets with blue streaks.  Oops!

5.  Why Fels-Naptha bars?  I love these bars so much I bought a pack of 24 from Amazon.  They smell wonderful and work so well on stains, especially as a pretreatment.  Wet down the stain, rub the bar over it and, BAM, your stain is gone.  I used this method to completely erase beet juice from little Zeke’s white onesie (Yes, my one-year-old LOVES beets).  I use washable diapers (Bumgenius are the bomb) and have seen a total turn-around in their smell and cleanliness after using the Fels-Naptha laundry detergent recipe. Man, I could gush about these things forever.  Anyone find any other fun uses for them?

Please comment if you have any other questions.  I’d love to research them for you.  I have to also mention how much money this stuff is saving us.  I’ve been using the recipe since the middle of September and have only made three batches.  Three batches for about $6 is pretty good considering my daily diaper washing and three guys and a dog at home.  Hopefully, you are saving money too!  I look forward to your comments.

Brands I used

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By Alyssa, November 12, 2009 1:07 am

I can’t sleep after a busy Veteran’s Day.  I had the grand idea today to use my veteran’s Home Depot discount to buy paint for our master bedroom.  Twelve hours later, I succeeded in painting the room with only a few splotches on the carpet courtesy of the 4-year old.  Painting most of the day gave me a lot of time to think about my first veteran’s day out of the active Army.  I couldn’t help but ponder sacrifices.  My grandfathers’ sacrifices.  One left the farm and high school to discover sea sickness on a naval ship.  The other left his new bride for a year to fight in World War II in the South Pacific.

Veteran’s Day is my parent’s anniversary.  They celebrated their 31st with a phone call as my dad is currently in Iraq on his second deployment.  My dad enlisted in the Army 28 years ago, answering his call to serve as a 29-year-old father of two.  My mom’s held down the home front, their business, and the farm, for every drill and deployment, usually without breaking a sweat.  You can’t celebrate veterans without acknowledging the sacrifices of their families.

I thought today of the soldiers I’ve been privileged to serve along side.  I used to make my them fill out a 3×5 card, a “get-to-know-you” card, just for me.  Besides the usual, name, rank, family information, I asked them to tell me why they joined the military.  I pulled out a few of the cards today. They were dated October 2002.

I joined the Army…

because my Mom wanted one of her sons in the military.

to do something with my life.

because I hated Minnesota.

to provide for my daughter.

to get out of my house.

to serve.

A few months after writing these cards, I deployed with these soldiers.  I’m still amazed at how collected they seemed when we crossed into Iraq for the first time, many of them still in their teens.

I had a happy Veteran’s Day.  Happy that I’ve survived two deployments.  Happy that I left active duty to provide for my family at home.  Happy that my little Bubba told me today he can’t wait till he’s bigger and drives a car and plays in the Army.  I guess I should go to bed, but not without thanking all of the soldiers that are away from their families tonight.  Happy Veteran’s Day to you!  I eagerly await your safe return home and thank you for your sacrifice.  I pray for you every day… even the day after Veteran’s Day.

March 2003, Iraq