Within the first few days after we moved to Colorado Springs there was a welcome home parade for the 4th Infantry Division, including my husband's unit, the Brigade Reconnaissance Team - later the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Calvary. It was an emotional time for us, our little family of three had just reunited after being apart for a year. We were adjusting to being together in a new place where it was just us for the first time, we knew no one.
This was not a parade of marching bands and little league teams. It was a parade of proud and exhausted soldiers marching in their newly issued boots. Rows and rows of uniforms interspersed with equipment - up-armored Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles. No music, no candy, just a steady stomp and cheering crowd.
Colorado Springs is home to the Army base Fort Carson, and also home to the Air Force Academy, Peterson and Schreiver Air Force bases. When there is a welcome home parade, they bring out every piece of aircraft that was used during that tour of duty for a flyover. Imagine the giant C130, Chinook helicoptors, etc. flying low and fast overhead. There are few tall buildings in Colorado Springs, no one wants to impede the view of Pikes Peak, and so the aircraft fly in low, shaking the ground. The soldiers are stoic and unnerved by the flyover.
I'm sitting on the curb with our three year old daughter standing between my knees, taking it all in, looking for Daddy. She sits down when the aircraft start to come through, unsure of the noise. The C130 soars overhead, seemingly 100 feet above our heads. I can feel the rumble in my feet, pride for my husband, pride for the soldiers he walks with, pride and camaraderie for the families surrounding me. We all made it through this rough year-long tour together. I bury my tear-filled eyes in my daughter's soft, straight hair. To this day a good flyover gives me chills and my eyes well up with tears.
Our hometown July 4th parade this year had a flyover by a two jets from the local Air National Guard unit. Instantly filled with the old feeling of pride in the few seconds it takes for them to fly over I feel like something needs to be said - all I can muster is "I love a good flyover".
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
I am feeling terribly unproductive lately. Seems to be a really awful spell of it. I sit here at the laptop and look for something in my favorites only to see that I have a couple crafty pattern websites saved that I have bought fabric for but am unmotivated to work on. I also have Shutterfly waiting for me to finish a photo book about our vacation last summer as well as figure out how to share pictures. There are two half-read books on my night table - noticing a pattern yet? I blame Etsy.com and too few hours in the day. I could get a lot more done in day if there were just a few more hours to search Etsy for insipiration and still manage to get the boring stuff done.
High points of the day: menu drawn up for the week, grocery shopping all by myself, laundry folded and put away thank you darling daughters, a $4 bouquet of flowers arranged quite prettily and some peace and quiet as the before mentioned darling daughters play nicely upstairs. [emphasis added on the best parts]
High points of the day: menu drawn up for the week, grocery shopping all by myself, laundry folded and put away thank you darling daughters, a $4 bouquet of flowers arranged quite prettily and some peace and quiet as the before mentioned darling daughters play nicely upstairs. [emphasis added on the best parts]
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day of it all. The business of being an adult is at the same time a welcome routine and a burden. The balance constantly changing – home, family, work, friends. Many relationships to manage and never enough time in the day. And then there’s you.
Keep a little time for you. Write, journal, doodle, daydream. It’s true that your children grow older every day but so do you. Today is the only January 18, 2011 you’ll ever have in your whole entire life. Are you going to spend it giving away every minute to someone else or are you going to take one or two – even 15 just for you. Brew a cup of tea, listen to a favorite song, re-read a favorite passage from a book, lay down on the living room floor put your feet up on the couch and stretch your arms out to the sides, find a quiet spot. It’s not selfish to take a break and re-charge yourself. Come back ready to rock, or at least muddle through, the rest of the day.
Keep a little time for you. Write, journal, doodle, daydream. It’s true that your children grow older every day but so do you. Today is the only January 18, 2011 you’ll ever have in your whole entire life. Are you going to spend it giving away every minute to someone else or are you going to take one or two – even 15 just for you. Brew a cup of tea, listen to a favorite song, re-read a favorite passage from a book, lay down on the living room floor put your feet up on the couch and stretch your arms out to the sides, find a quiet spot. It’s not selfish to take a break and re-charge yourself. Come back ready to rock, or at least muddle through, the rest of the day.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
This Christmas season I find myself humbled by the grace and strength of others. Members of my extended family and community have suffered great loss this year. By all appearances, they are doing okay, making plans, attending events, going to work and functioning each day. Maybe that is the trick, to focus on anything except how miserable and heartbroken you really are. There are many individuals that I think of daily, hoping that they may find peace.
Our immediate King/Faust family has had a decent year. There have been difficult days but all in all we are doing well. I am a fan of lists, and here is one more to end the year.
Things to be thankful for this Christmas season.
Our family is close; in distance (for the most part) and heart.
We are all relatively healthy.
Our homes are warm and safe.
There is ample food in our cupboards.
Good friends; they bring such spirit to our lives.
What I am most thankful for is our little family of four. The days and nights that we worry and work hard to provide and create a good home for our children appear to be paying off. Throughout this year we as parents have benefitted from their love and laughter, their kindness towards others and overall goodness.
This Christmas season, I hope that you are able to make your own list of things to be thankful for. May your list bring you comfort and joy.
Our immediate King/Faust family has had a decent year. There have been difficult days but all in all we are doing well. I am a fan of lists, and here is one more to end the year.
Things to be thankful for this Christmas season.
Our family is close; in distance (for the most part) and heart.
We are all relatively healthy.
Our homes are warm and safe.
There is ample food in our cupboards.
Good friends; they bring such spirit to our lives.
What I am most thankful for is our little family of four. The days and nights that we worry and work hard to provide and create a good home for our children appear to be paying off. Throughout this year we as parents have benefitted from their love and laughter, their kindness towards others and overall goodness.
This Christmas season, I hope that you are able to make your own list of things to be thankful for. May your list bring you comfort and joy.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
My thoughts drift, as they often do, and this morning I was struck by the sun shining through the skywalk window sparkling on the dust. It was so pretty until I started to sneeze and realized that it was dust, not heaven-sent sprinklings of patience and time. What a violent burst to my bubble.
I have written about a sprinkle jar before – the sight of sparkly cinnamon-sugar falling out of a jar melting into butter on warm wheat toast correlating to the warm fuzziness of a happy, worry-free childhood.
Of course, it’s the romanticized version of the sight, the movie set slow motion scene with perfect lighting – I do not recall sunlight pouring into the kitchen and straight into the tiny pieces of cinnamon and sugar as they dissolve into the butter. I recall sitting down with my toast at the table to read the comics and attempt the crossword, plopping down for Saturday morning cartoons or in front of the crackling fire. It’s the relaxation, the minute or two to take a deep breath and just be.
It’s been a long fall adjusting to new grades at school, home improvement projects that seem to have a mind of their own, irregular work schedules, and the stress of balancing work, school, home and parenting. Finding balance is hard – especially because I have trouble balancing myself, have been known to trip over my own feet, fall off of sidewalks and cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.
There is an old corporate training program about work-life balance with an exercise where you imagine that you are juggling glass balls and that each ball represents a part of your life – work, home, etc. You are supposed to imagine what would happen if you dropped a ball while juggling and that ball broke beyond repair. Juggling requires balance (which I lack) so I preferred to imagine that all of my glass balls were safely tucked away in my pockets where they were not at risk of crashing.
Earlier this week it felt as if everything was off balance, that the glass balls were about to dig themselves out of my pockets and crash to the floor. I took a few minutes at work for just me, opened up a new Word doc and made a list of everything that was so hard that day. The last thing on the list was ‘refill sprinkle jar’. I took a deep breath, stood up and stretched and just let the worry go. I could do nothing about a lot of the stress so just let it be rather than let it bother me.
At home that night I made cookies with my daughters. A batch of snickerdoodles that failed so miserably I could only describe them as a cookbook type-o. I made a second batch of always successful chocolate chip cookies, half for a company Thanksgiving luncheon today, and half for a co-worker with four children whose husband suffered a massive heart attack earlier this week.
Sprinkle jar, refilled.
I have written about a sprinkle jar before – the sight of sparkly cinnamon-sugar falling out of a jar melting into butter on warm wheat toast correlating to the warm fuzziness of a happy, worry-free childhood.
Of course, it’s the romanticized version of the sight, the movie set slow motion scene with perfect lighting – I do not recall sunlight pouring into the kitchen and straight into the tiny pieces of cinnamon and sugar as they dissolve into the butter. I recall sitting down with my toast at the table to read the comics and attempt the crossword, plopping down for Saturday morning cartoons or in front of the crackling fire. It’s the relaxation, the minute or two to take a deep breath and just be.
It’s been a long fall adjusting to new grades at school, home improvement projects that seem to have a mind of their own, irregular work schedules, and the stress of balancing work, school, home and parenting. Finding balance is hard – especially because I have trouble balancing myself, have been known to trip over my own feet, fall off of sidewalks and cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.
There is an old corporate training program about work-life balance with an exercise where you imagine that you are juggling glass balls and that each ball represents a part of your life – work, home, etc. You are supposed to imagine what would happen if you dropped a ball while juggling and that ball broke beyond repair. Juggling requires balance (which I lack) so I preferred to imagine that all of my glass balls were safely tucked away in my pockets where they were not at risk of crashing.
Earlier this week it felt as if everything was off balance, that the glass balls were about to dig themselves out of my pockets and crash to the floor. I took a few minutes at work for just me, opened up a new Word doc and made a list of everything that was so hard that day. The last thing on the list was ‘refill sprinkle jar’. I took a deep breath, stood up and stretched and just let the worry go. I could do nothing about a lot of the stress so just let it be rather than let it bother me.
At home that night I made cookies with my daughters. A batch of snickerdoodles that failed so miserably I could only describe them as a cookbook type-o. I made a second batch of always successful chocolate chip cookies, half for a company Thanksgiving luncheon today, and half for a co-worker with four children whose husband suffered a massive heart attack earlier this week.
Sprinkle jar, refilled.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
A very good tomato soup
A few weeks ago I was on the couch at home snuggling a sleeping, sickly Gretchen and watching the Today Show. Martha Stewart was part of a segment on how to make quick and easy food at home rather than ordering take out. Martha said that a good replacement for pizza delivery is tomato soup and a toasted baguette slice with fresh mozzarella. Meredith Viera quickly put Martha in her place by informing her that while the soup and side were delicious, they were no substitute for pizza. The look on Martha’s face was quite amusing.
Here is the tomato soup recipe, I really liked it and took it over to my in-laws and they really liked it. Gretchen is the only one that will eat tomato soup with me so I cut the recipe in half and post the half recipe here.
Tomato Soup
1 T. olive oil
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes (optional, but they did add a nice kick)
½ c. onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
14 ounce diced tomatoes and the juice
1 ¼ c. chicken broth (could use vegetable broth)
Heat the oil and red pepper flakes over medium-high heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring once in awhile. Pulse the tomatoes in a blender or food processor 3-4 times. Add tomatoes and broth to the sauce pan and bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes. Allow soup to cool* then pour back into the blender or food processor to blend until mostly smooth or whatever consistency you prefer.
*A word to the wise, blending hot liquid is not a good idea unless you do it in small batches, about 1 cup at a time, and hold the lid on with a towel. If you choose to dump all the hot soup right into your blender, go ahead and turn it on and watch as the lid blows off and coats your entire kitchen in tomato soup.
The red pepper flakes add a nice spicy flavor and if you have non-spicy eaters, just leave it out and add hot sauce to your own bowl. The soup would work quite nicely with a toppings bar – small pieces of fresh mozzarella and basil, variety of crackers, croutons, good bread, cooked shrimp, or even partially cooked veggies.
Here is the tomato soup recipe, I really liked it and took it over to my in-laws and they really liked it. Gretchen is the only one that will eat tomato soup with me so I cut the recipe in half and post the half recipe here.
Tomato Soup
1 T. olive oil
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes (optional, but they did add a nice kick)
½ c. onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
14 ounce diced tomatoes and the juice
1 ¼ c. chicken broth (could use vegetable broth)
Heat the oil and red pepper flakes over medium-high heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring once in awhile. Pulse the tomatoes in a blender or food processor 3-4 times. Add tomatoes and broth to the sauce pan and bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes. Allow soup to cool* then pour back into the blender or food processor to blend until mostly smooth or whatever consistency you prefer.
*A word to the wise, blending hot liquid is not a good idea unless you do it in small batches, about 1 cup at a time, and hold the lid on with a towel. If you choose to dump all the hot soup right into your blender, go ahead and turn it on and watch as the lid blows off and coats your entire kitchen in tomato soup.
The red pepper flakes add a nice spicy flavor and if you have non-spicy eaters, just leave it out and add hot sauce to your own bowl. The soup would work quite nicely with a toppings bar – small pieces of fresh mozzarella and basil, variety of crackers, croutons, good bread, cooked shrimp, or even partially cooked veggies.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Oh yes, he did.
The dog ate Katie's homework.
Her class just finished studying pioneers, including a field trip to Living History Farms. To finish up the unit, she needed to complete a final project. A list of suggestions was sent home and she chose diorama.
Katie takes classes in the summer from a certain retired teacher that resembles ET when sitting at her kidney bean shaped table. The big project she worked on for summer classes was on her favorite vacation - given that she's technically been on two vacations, she didn't have much to choose from. Katie made a shoebox diorama about our family vacation to Minnesota in 2009. We went kayaking in Lake Minnetonka and Katie took a bunch of pictures of the lake houses, boats, lily pads and sand. The pictures turned out to be perfect for covering the shoebox, she made a dock, added a boat and called it done. The diorama turned out to be really cute and I was thankful that she did not include any pictures of my hyperventilating. While kayaking looks like fun, I have this thing about not being able to touch the bottom of a body of water.
So, when Katie chose diorama for her final pioneer project she was really excited. She dug a shoebox out of the basement and looked around for a small box to craft a covered wagon. Turns out that a Jiffy corn muffin mix box is not only the perfect size for a mini-covered wagon, when we emptied out the package to make cornbread, we found that the inside white paper packaging was a perfect covering for the wagon. Katie covered the wagon with construction paper and we rubber banded the packaging paper to a large can of diced tomatoes to round out the shape.
The rounding out turned out beautifully and made for cute little covered wagon. We called it a night with homework, saying that we'll add wheels and a background tomorrow. That was Wednesday, the project was due on Friday. The next morning we went through our usual morning routine, Katie met the bus, I dropped Gretchen at school and headed to work. Erik had been working ridiculous hours for a few weeks and got home at about 8:30 in the morning. He called me at work to report that in the 45 minutes Rommel had been left alone in the house he had torn apart and eaten part of the covered wagon. Apparently the corn muffin smell was more than he could take and the only option was destruction. That's what we get for naming him after a genius of strategic warfare, he's always got something up his sleeve.
A replacement box of Jiffy corn muffin mix later, the second diorama turned out quite nicely and made it school in one piece.
Her class just finished studying pioneers, including a field trip to Living History Farms. To finish up the unit, she needed to complete a final project. A list of suggestions was sent home and she chose diorama.
Katie takes classes in the summer from a certain retired teacher that resembles ET when sitting at her kidney bean shaped table. The big project she worked on for summer classes was on her favorite vacation - given that she's technically been on two vacations, she didn't have much to choose from. Katie made a shoebox diorama about our family vacation to Minnesota in 2009. We went kayaking in Lake Minnetonka and Katie took a bunch of pictures of the lake houses, boats, lily pads and sand. The pictures turned out to be perfect for covering the shoebox, she made a dock, added a boat and called it done. The diorama turned out to be really cute and I was thankful that she did not include any pictures of my hyperventilating. While kayaking looks like fun, I have this thing about not being able to touch the bottom of a body of water.
So, when Katie chose diorama for her final pioneer project she was really excited. She dug a shoebox out of the basement and looked around for a small box to craft a covered wagon. Turns out that a Jiffy corn muffin mix box is not only the perfect size for a mini-covered wagon, when we emptied out the package to make cornbread, we found that the inside white paper packaging was a perfect covering for the wagon. Katie covered the wagon with construction paper and we rubber banded the packaging paper to a large can of diced tomatoes to round out the shape.
The rounding out turned out beautifully and made for cute little covered wagon. We called it a night with homework, saying that we'll add wheels and a background tomorrow. That was Wednesday, the project was due on Friday. The next morning we went through our usual morning routine, Katie met the bus, I dropped Gretchen at school and headed to work. Erik had been working ridiculous hours for a few weeks and got home at about 8:30 in the morning. He called me at work to report that in the 45 minutes Rommel had been left alone in the house he had torn apart and eaten part of the covered wagon. Apparently the corn muffin smell was more than he could take and the only option was destruction. That's what we get for naming him after a genius of strategic warfare, he's always got something up his sleeve.
A replacement box of Jiffy corn muffin mix later, the second diorama turned out quite nicely and made it school in one piece.
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