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A simple compliment and my heart smiles
Have you ever thought about how far a compliment can take someone? A couple of weeks ago my parents were visiting when one of them made the simple but genuine statement, “Leanne, your house is always so clean.”, and the other was quick to agree. Now let’s take a step back. From my perspective, my house is not clean. There are four boys (five including hubs). Weekends and evenings involve soccer, homework, Legos, Hot Wheels, running, jumping, playing. Although all of us are involved in one shape or form in keeping the house tidy (to the extent it can be) I am the cleaner. and cleaning is just not my thing. I love a clean…
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On Your Way to a Smooth Move: DoD Roundtable
It is that time! PCS season is upon us and many military families are negotiating orders and beginning the process of planning for a move. With that in mind, I had a great chance to listen to and speak with Barbara Thompson, Director, Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. We all know that a PCS can be an amazing adventure but also an incredible stressor on families. I have an example for you; in the late 80’s my family moved from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida to Keflavik, Iceland. Can you say, “Change of scenery”? In the end the move to Iceland was…
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Raising a Generation that Loves
Today Newtown, Conneticut will bury the first of their children. Noah Pozner, age 6, will be laid to rest at 1:00pm. (Newtown shooting victims: First funerals to be held) Then there will be 19 more funerals for children and 7 for adults. Oh deep sorrow runs through my blood. My husband, the level headed soldier who has seen more then I would like to imagine, came home on Friday and immediately turned on the news. He watched for a quite a while, standing there stunned. Then the man who is never sick complained of a headache the rest of the night. I don’t know if it was a headache as much…
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Going to Bat for the Bullied
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. A great time to educate yourself, empower yourself, think about how to handle future bully problems in your own children’s lives. Stopbullying.gov is a great resource, as is StompOutBullying.org. I’ve written about my own experience with bullying once before and I stand by my thoughts, “Bullying and our Military Children“. But amidst all these awareness programs an article caught my eye :Dad Takes on School That Suspended His Son for Being a ‘Bully’A normal first assumption is why would Dad be upset with the school for punishing his son, the bully? Why would his dad be upset that his own kid was throwing punches, kicking…
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The Cost of the “Five Finger Discount”
It was a simple project: put on the new grill flame covers purchased at a big box store. The old ones had rusted and worn out and these replacements would “take a sec to put on ” and including time to wash and clean the grill … 15-20 minutes in a busy schedule. Sounded simple! Flame covers that were maximum protectedThen came the packaging material on each of the four flame covers – very tough garage scissors were required to cut through the plastic on each one. It was not a simple process and each one seemed to take an hour to open to just remove the product. Then the…
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Dedicated Dads and Moms and the Month of the Military Child
April is Month of the Military Child and it is a very appropriate recognition: therefore, a big shout out and thank you to these patriots! They have certainly served our nation in their many sacrifices and the challenges they face as children of active duty, reserve and guard parents. So just before that month of recognition I thought maybe we should recognize another group of folks that are rarely mentioned in the media or at the Department of Defense. In fact, unless there is a tragedy it is a like a silent majority type of group. The parents of our soldiers, airmen, marines, coasties and sailors have raised children that…
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Operation Purple Camp and your Military Child
Flashlights, extra socks, money for the Canteen, shoes that can get dirty, a bar of soap (that may or may not ever get used), a sleeping bag… all the makings of great memories, new friends, growing older. My nine-year old is registered for a week long summer camp. His first time away for an entire week, away from home, away from family, away from /mom/. (Emphasis made my mom herself) Can I tell you how excited he is? He is pumped!Operation Purple Camp is accepting applications. If you have a military-brat between ages 7 and 17 jump at this chance. They are accepting applications from now through April 19th. This is a great chance…
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Tragedy in Chardon – Talking about Emergency Preparedness with Children
Sunday night we were at the kitchen counter and my boys said something to the effect “I wish we could blow up the school.” I stopped. It was typical school-age conversation. If there’s no school they can stay home and play all day right? This was their logic. I was immediately taken to Columbine, Jonesboro, even Virginia Tech. What came out of my mouth was a stern but caring “We don’t joke about that.” Kind of like you don’t joke about firearms and terrorist activities standing in line at the airport, you don’t joke about guns, bombs or other activities of that nature in relation to school. It’s not funny.…
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Roots and Wings
We have an interesting phenomena going on in my house. We have an 18-month old and an 18 year old (and two other brothers in between). My husband and I often laugh with each other over the fact that we are the “young parents” with *J* (at sporting events, parent-teacher conferences etc etc) and we are going to be the “old wiser-parents” with *L*. There are times when I just want my 18-month old to grow up. I want him to communicate (although this can be hard even for an 18 year old); tell me his favorite things; share his deepest wishes; form an opinion that doesn’t involve whining; meet friends;…
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The Dandelion & The Military Child
A few years ago, a debate emerged on an Internet newsgroup for military brats about what kind of flower military children of military parents were most like. The consensus became the dandelion.Continue ReadingbyUnknownonThursday, February 02, 2012Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestMilitary Life:children,Leanne,Military Brats
