What’s cooking on the Homefront #13 (and practial modesty notes)

This post is a combination post for reasons I’ll get into at the end. For now, let’s talk food:

• Sunday- Braised steaks with gravy over mashed potatoes with carrots, green beans, beignets.
• Monday- Avocado spinach quesadillas, spanish rice, salsa verde
• Tuesday- Roasted chicken, steamed asparagus, parker house rolls
• Wednesday- Mushroom orzo, Caesar salad
• Thursday-  Fish
• Friday- Burgers, Sweet potato fries

Sewing adventures continue:

Hearthie made us aware of this free pattern, and I like the skirt, so it’s the next thing on my sewing to-do list. It’s perfect for around the house. Now I just have to find the right fabric for it in the right color.

Speaking of clothes:

While I was away last week, there began a discussion here on the subject of modesty.I started a bit of a controversy when I said I liked this ensemble. Modesty is a hot topic of late among the blogs I read regularly. Cane Caldo has been covering it extensively writing many posts, the most recent to be found here and here. sparking a series of post here, and Hearthie has also weighed in with her thoughts here.

Since there is so much that has been said and probably nothing that could be said that hasn’t been, I want to talk practicality. Because I am very big on submitting to one’s husband, I don’t really have the luxury of settling into the safety of a standard Christian modesty uniform. What many women (including me!) think is lovely and safe, my husband would call frumpy. I have written before about my journey  to set modesty standards for myself apart from his approval. However, we do have modesty standards in this house and we stick to them. They are:

• No spaghetti straps or tube tops.
• No painted on pants.
• No minis (that does NOT mean nothing above the knee which I’ll get into)
• No “evening look” style makeup
• No short shorts (bermudas only)
• No cleavage

As you can see, this leaves a lot of ambiguity, which means that everything is modeled for my husband before any tags are torn off. Our girls are more modest than most other young women their age by a mile. Even with that, they only really stand out in the summer because they are so much more covered than most. The Flroida heat is an excellent excuse for nakedness and most women of every age take advantage of it.

I wear my share of long skirts and clothing that would be considered overtly modest. I tend to like those clothes, but my husband doesn’t and it is possible to be modest without such a uniform. As a practical matter, I achieve modesty through layers, strategically worn pieces bought from the store, and moderation. Longer tops over fitted pants, camis under shirts with lower necklines, etc.

In addition to the fact that I wear pants, sleeveless tops, jeans, and dresses that skim the knee is the fact that my husband likes novelty.  We are savers and not wasteful, but he doesn’t view spending a couple hundred bucks 3 or 4 times a year to fix his wife up as wasteful. This post is timely because this past week he bought me two new outfits which are the perfect example of how we handle modesty from a practical standpoint.

He bought me this blouse, with white pants. No, he didn’t pay $100 for the blouse. The blouse is long enough to cover my butt and hips, so the outfit is modest enough. Nothing is accentuated that shouldn’t be, and it meets his approval. When we go out, I’l put on some silver strappy sandals with a heel (or perhaps black), and that’ll complete the look.

Speaking of heels, there was quite the debate here about heels as well last week. I chimed in briefly but I do want to add that I haven’t found the health issue with heels to be something I should worry about because when I wear heels, I never leave the house without a pair of flats. I believe Nonya commented that she does the same. This is simple common sense and no loving husband wants his wife uncomfortable in the short term or hobbled over the long haul.

When I am tired of the heels, or just know I’ve walked in them long enough, I switch shoes. Given that I only wear heels 2 or 3 times per week, that I’m mostly at home barefoot or in running shoes, I don’t have a problem with wearing the shoes my husband likes for what might add up to a grand total of 8 hours in an entire week. On the high end.

The other outfit my husband bought me was this dress. Because I am tall, it skims the bottom of my knees, but is not a mini dress. I took it upon myself to go and buy this in the event I decide to wear the dress to church. During the summer, if I am out with my husband I won’t feel compelled to wear a cardigan with it. Unless I find another pair I like better, I’ll wear the dress and sweater with these shoes and pack a pair of beige flats for switching when neeeded.

My point is that the modesty discussion is one that needs to be had, and we need to be modest, but many of the modesty wars are matters of personal taste rather than debates about truly blatant immodesty. At least among those of us who actually bother to try and be modest.

All good things must come to an end:

I know I’ve done this before, but it’s different this time. I’m not one of those christians who hears the Holy Spirit speaking to her all the time. It’s just not my experience. There have been three times in the past 20 years since I got serious about my walk when I was sure I’d experienced it, and last week was number four.

I have been in what can best be described as a state of spiritual stagnation, and it’s something I have been praying about. Hearth recommended I read a book, The Bondage Breaker, and I was getting into the study and praying I felt in my heart as if one of the things I need to do to move forward is stop writing here. As if it’s time to strip away some of the things that are a distraction from the most important things.

And so, this is my last post for the forseeable future. I’m not going to delete the blog or start another anywhere else. I don’t anticipate vanishing away completely, either.  it’s just time to realign my priorities and this blog no longer fits in. I don’t imagine there’s anything I can say that I haven’t already said between the two blogs so the archives will always be there to bless anyone who might stumble upon them.

Comments will remain open here until March 1 at 21:00, at which time I’ll shut them down and no further comments will be moderated. this song has been echoing in my head since the realization that I am done here hit me last week. It’s a favorite of my husband’s as well, so it’s particularly fitting. It’s based (I think) on 2 Chronicles 16:9a

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

For those not inclined to listen to the song (I know because I’m often that way as well), the lryics are fairly simple:

There’s a voice that cries out in the silence
Searching for a heart that will love Him
Longing for a child that will give Him their all
Give it all, He wants it all
And there’s a God that walks over the earth
He’s searching for a heart that is desperate
And longing for a child
That will give Him their all
Give it all, He wants it all

And He says love me, love me with your whole heart
He wants it all today
Serve me, serve me with your life now
He wants it all today
Bow down, let go of your idols
He wants it all today [x3]
He wants it all

And there’s a God that walks over the earth
He’s searching for a heart that is desperate
Longing for a child that will give Him their all
Give it all, He wants it all

And he says love me, love me with your whole heart
He wants it all today
Serve me, serve me with your life now
He wants it all today
Bow down, let go of your idols
He wants it all today [x3]
He wants it all

It’s been a pleasure, ladies and the few gentlemen that read here.

What’s Cooking on the Homefront #12

Menu plan:

• Sunday- Fried chicken, red beans and rice, collards, Oreo dessert
• Monday- Butternut squash soup
• Tuesday- Slow cooker meatballs over angel hair pasta
• Wednesday- Blackened salmon, Caesar salad, garlic bread
• Thursday- Thai chicken saute over rice, veggies
• Friday- Swiss mushroom burgers

The Oreo dessert from Sunday’s dinner was a recipe that 6-year-old looked up and made herself. It was dairy heavy but tasty, and she was proud of it.

Sewing adventures continue:

The youngsters both want me to make them a pair of pajama pants of the same style that I made myself, so they picked out fabric over the weekend:

I will be making the pants this week. It’s good practice for me because I have seen a couple of patterns of other things I want to make for myself.

One of our older girls also made a pair for herself when I made mine, so she’s making two  pairs as well;  for her twin and older sister. The plan is for all 5 of them to be able to wear their pajama pants for their Friday movie night.

There is also the project I’m working on for our homeschool home economics class. I’ve been falling behind on that because I spend that time helping the little ones with their needlework. As a result I have decided that this will be a sewing week for me. I’m kind of looking forward to it.

I am learning that sewing, while a useful  and fulfilling skill, isn’t always the most economical clothing choice if you can find ready to wear that fits well. Even accounting for modesty, which isn’t something we’ve had a huge problem with in the stores either.

Nevertheless, Hearthie turned me on to this blogger:

Erica B.’s D.I.Y Style

I think she’s a little older than me and she completely encpasulates the kind of style I hope to be able to achieve as I wrap up the heavy lifting part of child rearing and homeschooling in 10 years. She makes most of her stuff, and it’s beautiful

And yeah, I plan to be in that good of shape at 50 as well! I’m well on my way. Which is my cue to head out for a run.

Happy Monday!

So…what’s cooking on your home fronts?

Valentine’s Day: Because I Just Gotta

The husband and I are what you might call Walmart avoiders. When we must go however, we avoid the general displeasure of the typical Walmart experience by going very early when very few people there. Since we were up and alert at 6 this morning, having  been up since 4:30, we made a run.

I’d never been to Walmart at 6AM on Valentine’s Day so I wasn’t prepared for the store filled with a completely different demographic of shopper. The shoppers were disproportionatley male and in almost every buggy was a bouquet, candy in heart shaped boxes, etc. It was quite a sight and we found it all very amusing.

After leaving there we stopped by Publix and there was more of the same. One young husband -I assumed he was a husband- was standing in the middle of the Valentine’s Day offerings looking both overwhelmed and distressed so my husband ribbed him when their eyes met: “This is what happens when you wait until the last minute.”

The poor guy laughed briefly and replied: “It’s not too late. She’s not up yet. I just need to get back home before she is.”

Ahhh…love. So beautiful… so care free… so expensive.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

P.S. We did buy each of our girls a little stuffed animal. Their daddy likes to do a little something for them. We’re not completely immune to the madness.

 

Fit Friday: Pre-Valentine’s Edition

It’s just February 13 and I’ve already had at least one piece of chocolate. This is a bad sign for someone who doesn’t even particularly care for Valentine’s Day, as I noted yesterday.

This is a post which will cover a lot of ground in a little of time with no editing but since I didn’t do a Fit Friday post last week, I thought I should.

Exercise recap:

• Monday- 1.3 miles run
• Tuesday- 1 mile run, weight training  (Tuesday is not a scheduled run day)
• Wednesday- 1.5 miles run
• Thursday- Weight training
• Friday- 1.5 miles run

The runs are short, primarily because up until this point I was following Coach’s run/walk plan to help me build endurance and this week I started doing runs with no walking intervals. One of the things I notice consistently is that running in the mornings is much more enjoyable, and I don’t get as tired as I do if I sleep in and run later in the day. Circadian rhythms or something, I suppose. I am without question a morning person.

Eating recap:

This week was the first week in a long time where I stuck to the 16:8 eating schedule. I also made a point of including a fruit and a vegetable with each of my days’ two meals. That reminds me: Thanks to those of you who offered the tip on keeping salads crisper longer in the fridge. It was a tremendous help.

The scale rewarded me for my efforts. It wasn’t a great reward, but it was a reward nonetheless. 10 years ago, if anyone had told me that losing 20 pounds would be this hard I’d have thought they were insane. How hard can it be? It didn’t help that I gained weight over the holidays. Had I not, I would be attempting to lose 15 pounds now instead of 20.

Body image stuff:

One of the things I want to do here is be honest about my fitness level because I don’t want y’all to read my posts and envision a skinny mom who has no idea what it’s like for those of you who have had a few kids and are struggling. To be sure, I am one of those people who is hard on myself, and not particularly sympathetic to the fat acceptance movement, but I’m not skinny either. Not even close. The 20 pounds are clearly visible, but I keep working at it because I want to be healthy and strong. I don’t believe that entering my 40’s means that I have to be fat, that I have to be tired, and that my husband has to live with a fat, slovenly wife.

This topic has weighed on me a little every since I read a couple of recent post from Hearth on the subjects of body image and feminine style and  individuality. I wrestle a lot with the mental energy I spend on my fitness and appearance. I am not a big shopper, I don’t spend a lot of money on salon and spa treatments, I’m not in the gym hours a day, and my days are not spent in large measure on self-care. But I do care about what I look like and more than that, my husband is very up front about the fact that he cares what I look like: “I take good care of you, and I expect you to look like it”. I wonder how Christian it is and if it detracts from time better spent cultivating the right heart.

The conclusion I reached is that when you take good care of yourself you don’t really have to spend as much time worrying about the rest of it. It almost takes care of itself. Just some food for thought.

Goals for the upcoming 2 weeks:

• Cut out the sugar. Gradually, but I need to cut it out. It is a major issue in our baking saturated house.
• Run, run, run!
• Drink 80 ounces of water consistently because when I miss out on that I cramp when I run.
• Up the vegetable intake

So…how fit was your week?

“You’re telling me he never gets on your nerves?”

I was asked that question and was almost slack-jawed. My answer:

“Of course he does on occasion, but what would be gained by telling you or anyone else about it? He doesn’t do that to me. Besides, I’m fairly certain though that such instances of ‘him getting on my nerves’ are much fewer and farther between than what the average wife, including you, would report.”

I thought about this conversation when the man and I were working on something the other day in the house. I was tired and more easily able to be short-tempered. I guess I had one of those “nerves” events. But he laughed at me, and before I knew what happened my whole mood changed, I totally forgot about what had struck the nerve, and the words that came out my mouth were, “Aw man, I love your smile.” Instead of an event (and he could tell a story or two about my irritable “events”), we had a moment.

It is the nature of human beings to focus on the negative. It’s like second nature. I do it too. I issue challenges to myself to go for extended periods without uttering a complaint, or even an “observation” that could be construed as a complaint. I often fail miserably, but I’m getting better every day.

We allow the negative moments in our day to outweigh all but the most life-changing positive moments in our life. And that only if we’re fortunate and conscious. What’s more is that we tend to enjoy swapping “war” stories. Misery loves company and all that good stuff.

I am suddenly wondering if Heather has a “Someone said…”  parallel verse for that saying, misery loves company. I also wonder what might happen in our marriages if we kept a record of rights instead of a record of wrongs. By that I mean things our spouse does right, not rights as in our entitlements. Scripture says we are walking in love when we do that:

[Love]does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered 1 Corinthians 13: 5

As it happens, I have already tested the theory of what happens in a marriage when one makes a concerted effort to count the good things rather than the bad, so I can keep this one short by simply offering the link to that post. An excerpt:

Because 1 Corinthians 13 admonishes us that love keeps no record of wrongs, we have become accustomed to viewing keeping score in a relationship as in inherent negative. I challenge you to reconsider that idea. If you can keep a record of wrongs, does it not follow that you can keep a record of what is right?

Conventional wisdom dictates that over time the spark of a new relationship must give way to the mundane existence that comes with being very familiar with one another. I don’t deny the truth of this. A long term marriage does not have the same level of excitement and infatuation that comes with the discovery which characterizes a new relationship.

However, this shift is not what causes marriages to die. It’s our ingrained tendency to take for granted those things and people closest to us. We are perpetual malcontents and the only way to avoid allowing this evil trait to infect our relationships is to actively fight against it. This conscious action will revolutionize almost any marriage. Living intentionally is work however, so commit to vanquishing the comfort of mental and physical laziness.

Go on. Go read the rest.

I do appreciate that lovely woman for asking me the question.

What’s cooking on the home front #11

Food things first:

• Sunday~  Stuffed bell peppers, french bread, white chocolate cake
• Monday~ Hamburger stroganoff, pan sauteed collards
• Tuesday~ Slow cooker teriyaki chicken over rice, garlic green beans
• Wednesday~ Broiled tilapia Parmesan, Caesar salad
• Thursday~ Roasted chicken thighs with mustard sauce, new potatoes, broccoli
• Friday~ Burgers (topping TBD)

Sunday night the husband and I happened to be out for a bit so the girls made the stuffed bell peppers, and they were delicious. The eight year old made the cake and it was perfect; rise, texture, she nailed it. With a little help from her older sisters of course, but she did most of it herself. She also didn’t like the plain white so she decorated it with some blueberries on top.

Sewing update:

I am making you all, many of whom grew up sewing, suffer through my rudimentary sewing skills as I learn how to make something more than a pillow sham. This week I made pajama pants. They turned out well with one little problem. I followed the pattern sizing instructions (measure my hips at the widest point, LOL), and the pants turned out way too big. I measured carefully but they are in definite need of altering, which I will do, but for now here’s what they look like:

 

I guess I’ll add a close up for the real sewers to see how unskilled I actually am:

The little ones want me to make them each a pair of character pajama pants so that’s my next little project now that I have figured out how to use a pattern, even though I need to figure out how to make adjustments so I’m not ending up with garments 1 and 1/2 sizes too big. But Hearth is gonna help me out with that.

Homeschool notes:

Sewing is also taking up residence in our education curriculum as I have partnered up with two other mothers to meet once a week and teach our kids basic homemaking skills. Each one of us will be in charge of planning projects and execution of the things we are best at.

This month is sewing and we’ve started out by having the younger kids hand stitch fabric yo-yo’s. Actually, we’re all going to do them. Even my older girls have thought of projects they can use them on so everyone is sewing yo-yo’s which they will then use to put on a tote, pillow, or some other item they will make.

The girls are loving it. I’m having to make sure that they keep up with the yo-yos which can be found in various rooms of the house, along with little bags of buttons as they pick out decorative buttons to place in the centers. Fun stuff.

So…what’s cooking around your home fronts?

 

Learning How to Love

I don’t hold grudges. Ever. I used to tell myself that I brush off hurts and slights easily because the early years of my life were so full of real trauma that to get all in a huff because someone said something nasty to me just seems silly by comparison. There is a grain of truth to that, but in recent years however, I’ve learned that low investment is low risk and this is the real reason that I can so easily brush off words and people and keep on moving as if nothing ever happened. With the exception of the bond to My Father, followed by my husband and children, I realized that I never really learned how to love. I mean Christian love in action, as defined in Scripture:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;  not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;  rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.  If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:9-21 NASB

When I took a hard look at my life using this passage as a mirror what I found was that all the things we are called to *do*, I was good on.  The things we are supposed to *be*? Not so much. I was rarely ever devoted to anyone, and I certainly didn’t hold out hope that anyone would do right by me, usually waiting expectantly for the other shoe to drop. Haughty in mind? Wise in my own estimation? Check. I had the kind of attitude that made it easy to “forgive”, but for all the wrong reasons.

I have been blessed to be joined to a husband who is outwardly stoic, but whose actions and attitude demonstrate a true understanding of what it means to love others. It occurred to me as I watched him,  that when you know who you are in general, but particularly in Christ- you are much freer to give of yourself. It’s much easier to be free of the needless worry of “what if they let me down?’ Just freer, because you know who you are and in Whom you have placed your ultimate faith and fate.

Some of it just personality I think. Confident people are just confident people and they have their own struggles with accepting the limitations of control they have over their own lives. And those of us who, for whatever reason, always feel a slight sense of unease about our level of control have our own stuff to deal with. Thankfully God has it all covered. For those of us who are not quite as strong as we’s like to be (or as we pretend to be), we can learn for Paul:

 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

So I’m on something of a journey now. There’s always a new journey it seems. Some call to grow, stretch, trust. Some admonish to purge, change, or crucify.

Is it okay to admit that sometimes you just get tired? People like the hare always get tired don’t they? Slow and steady wins the race. That’s what I keep telling myself. Well no, not really. This the internal chant, but you know what I mean.

I’m just gearing up for this new leg, which seems to be crowded with…other Christians, LOL. Something I foolishly thought I could avoid.

Good Women Still Need Good Men

This series of posts from Mr Price at the Spearhead (h/t Alte) got us to thinking and sparked a lively conversation:

Setting things straight

A commenter gets it

Balance- not equality

Equalists vs. Realists

Mr. Price is not a Christian nor a Christian writer. Despite his secular take I find his perspective a useful one in the current climate.

After our conversation, I decided to combine my thoughts from that conversation into one post since I currently have nothing pending and even less ruminating in my head. Too much life happening at present. My thoughts:

I agree with Mr. Price and when I said that men and women are not equal I pretty much meant that we aren’t the same. However, there really is an argument to be made for the fact that we’re not and never truly have been equal either.

Societies have always been built in such a way to protect women: from the harshness of the elements, from strange men, and from ourselves, because we need the protection. Partly because we are the bearers of life but mostly because we are simply and truly are “the weaker vessels”.

Is that to say that the feminine is inherently inferior? Well no of course not. There’s a reason why men crave the company and solace of women; they need us too. But we are weaker, and attempts to diminish, downplay, or discard that reality only serves to cause men NOT to cherish or protect us. In that same way,  painting our more delicate nature as inferior serves to cause some men to abuse it, such as you find in Muslim society.

That song released in 1973 (It’s Cheaper to Keep her)? There was some serious truth in that song. It is a major reason why men who wanted to leave didn’t leave prior to the advent of no-fault divorce and the resulting chalimony that made it possible for women to bail and not end up destitute.

Of course, the rationale behind this (if you can call it that) is that a woman could leave an abusive marriage and he’d still have to take care of her. Except that now we rightly lock truly abusive husbands up -which means they can’t pay- so the very women whom these laws purported to protect are the ones who end up destitute. And the women with mild mannered, hard working and faithful yet “boring” husbands are free to go off in search of…fulfillment while keeping one hand in his pocket.

And then there the men who want out…for fulfillment or happiness [or younger tighter hotter].  Many of them have good wives who want the least amount of upheaval or trauma for their children.  Many of those wives happen to work full time and because of that, said men can use the “equality” the thrown open workforce has bought to pay as little as possible because that wife doesn’t need protection and she is capable of protecting the kids too.

Feminist/leftist logic for the win!

So while feminism may indeed have bought women more rights, and it certainly offers protection to the slutty/narcissistic/family destroying type woman, any woman worth anything at all is shut out and left in the cold under feminism unless she is married to a very good and honorable man.

Well look at that! Good women still need good men. The bad ones do too, of course. They just are under no obligation to provide sex to them.

 

These ramblings are my contribution to a fast and furious conversation, so if they seem unwieldy in any way, then you see in effect how I view leftist/feminist thought. Incoherent and unwieldy. It incentivizes bad behavior while offering no incentives for honorable behavior. This if course is the ultimate end of any ideology which seeks to implement equality and freedom void of responsibility.

It’s one of the reasons I seethe and cringe when I hear Christians of all people, bristle at the notion that duty and honor are a part of love regardless of how we feel. I don’t know about your Bible, but mine is a book about the love of God for a rebellious, sin-laden people. And yet, there is no mention of rights, only our duty to love, and what that looks like. There isn’t any talk of rights.

Or did I miss that book?

What’s Cooking on the Home Front #10

This one really is confined to what’s cooking:

• Sunday- Roast with root veggies, green beans, mixed berry tart
• Monday- Crispy mushroom, spinach and avocado quesadillas (picutred here) with a tomato, corn and black bean side dish
• Tuesday – Slow cooker vegetable curry, slow cooker beef and vegetable curry with Sunday’s leftover beef tossed in, rice.
• Wednesday- Pasta and meat sauce, salad
• Thursday- Blackened tilapia over rice, broccoli
• Friday- Submarine sandwiches

The quesadillas I’m making for meatless Monday are a recipe I found at the link provided which I’ve never made before, but they look delicious, no? I’ll let y’all know whether the recipe is a hit or miss.

I use two slow cookers on Tuesday. The larger one for the beef dish and my smaller one for the curried vegetables without beef that SAM will eat.

So…what’s cooking around your home fronts?

What’s Cooking on the Home Front #9

The menu for this week is only half done, but here goes:

• Sunday- Steak, baked potato, salad
• Monday- Black bean soup
• Tuesday- Oven fried chicken, steamed asparagus, whole wheat rolls
• Wednesday- Some kind of fish entree

But I did make an apron this weekend for the only one of my daughters who, for reasons I cannot remember, didn’t have one of her own. And here she is in it:

 

Side view:

I’m trying to flex my creative muscle somewhere other than in the kitchen. To say it is amateur work would be a gross understatement, but I’m proud of it nonetheless. My husband liked it too, which is always incentive to grow challenge, and improve upon what I’ve embarked on.

Speaking of around the house and husbands, this seems like an excellent opportunity to plug Mychael’s post, “There’s something about a man around the house”. The picture of her husband greeting their kids when he got home from his deployment is worth the click, but her post resonated with me. My husband doesn’t travel as much now as he did a few years back, and I’m very thankful for it. But I remember what it was like and commented about it on Mychael’s post:

This is true. As much as I’d like to pretend I am a woman of such excellence that I keep everything in tip top shape in my husband’s absence, I don’t.

It’s not that everything goes to heck in a hand basket. It doesn’t. Some things just have to get done no matter what. But the order (and resulting peace), the diligence (and resulting feeling of accomplishment) are missing when he is missing.

Once again proving that I fail as a strong independent woman. Le sigh.

So…what’s cooking around your home fronts?