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A Moment Out of the Norm: Dog Show
A moment out of the norm. “Grinda” is a rescued pup. She is a hoot! She is a Welsh Corgi Pembroke. She has short legs and long ears. She also has our hearts and pride of ownership streaming all around her. Yesterday was her moment to shine. Well, we all take that idea differently… the car for example shining moment would be a wax job. The house’s shine would be a spring cleaning. The shining moment for our dog Grinda: an entry in a dog show. No kidding!Mrs. Becky Kissinger, teacher at Christian High School in Grand Rapids, MI, led an interim class on the subject of ‘dogs’. The class…
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‘Muffins for Mom’ and the Super-Teacher
This morning I had the distinct pleasure of joining my 1st grader in his class room for ‘Muffins for Mom’. A Mother’s Day celebration with his classmates. What an honor! We walked down the hall hand in hand before the school day started. We enjoyed muffins and juice (my juice of choice was coffee), artwork and tic tac toe, smiles and hugs. A mother could not ask for a better way to start the day! Let me tell you about Mrs G, C’s first grade teacher, a beautiful example of a teacher there to help her students shine. Before the first grade year started an acquaintance and I were at the park talking. …
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Halloween on a Budget
Autumn has begun and with that come thoughts of beautiful shades of leaves, pumpkins, apple picking and more. Many families begin to decorate their home with the season’s decor. It is so much fun to walk the aisles of our local Target or eXchange to see the latest Halloween decorations; lighted jack-o’-lanterns, black cats, funny graveyard markers, skeleton-bones and zombies everywhere. It is fun to look at but a family on a budget needs to do more looking then putting in their cart! How do you save this time of year? I have a few suggestions. To start with, I love the change of season. I love to decorate the house as we…
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Week in Review: May 15 – 22, 2011 (Military News) #MilitaryMon
Popular Military Family Articles for the week of May 15th – 22nd on MilitaryAvenue.comThe Vietnam Wall and future generations: Memorial Day is approaching and this year my eight-year old will have a very tangible memory of what the day is about. The Vietnam Wall. *C*, 6 years old, Hubs moving at *C*’s pace, and my dad pushing the stroller with Baby *L* were ahead of us. The area was crowded. It was full of school trips and tourists. But there was a lull from the usual noise of a ‘touristy place’. *E*, 8 years old, picked up on it right away and our pace slowed. This, I think, is the…
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Father’s Day and a Military Deployment
Three quick things: Father’s Day is just about a month away and if you have a deployed-father in your life /now/ is the time to get shopping, boxing and shipping! If you are looking for some care package ideas be sure to check this blog out: Father’s Day from Afar: A letter from our oldest, 14; Some pictures from our 3 and 5 year older from their “Write from the Heart” books; My 5 year old made a ‘dot to dot’ for Dad. I’m not sure it actually makes a picture – but he sure enjoyed doing it and that is what counts!; A copy of my 5 year-old’s preschool…
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The Many Benefits of a Garden
We had our first taste of spring here in Northeast-Ohio this week. Windows cracked, doors open, breathe in that fresh air! With this taste of weather to come brings thoughts of my summer garden. I have bought the seeds, diagrammed what and where I am going to plant, and dreamed big thoughts about this upcoming summer’s produce. The Garden, my passion, on so many fronts. It embodies good health, good stewardship, and good eats! Emotional Have you ever picked up a hoe and pounded the dirt? Got down on your knees and ripped out weeds with gusto? Cut flowers from around the garden for a beautiful bouquet in your kitchen?…
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Deployment and Finances
Deployment … Changing of the Guard … Total upheaval … “Change” doesn’t even begin to describe what deployment was for my family. I was juggling so many balls while my husband was gone for a year that they could have put me in the circus… (or possibly the funny farm?) One of those proverbial balls: Finances. The family budget and bill paying are somethings that my husband does for the family, and he does it well! Bills are paid on time, the budget is allocated correctly, and interest-payments are kept to a minimum. So what was one of my major stresses in the months before and after he left? How…
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What a journey!
Today is *C*’s last day of preschool! Wow. For five years now I have been bringing a young ‘en to “HT Preschool” in the morning and picking him up a few hours later. For five years I have heard about what the class learned, did, made them laugh, songs they sang, computer games they played, what they did on the playground. I learned all this as we drove home, his little mouth chattering away in my rear-view mirror. *E*, 7 years old now, was the school’s inaugural preschool class. He was almost three when the doors to the preschool opened. *C*, now 5, was still a baby in a baby seat…
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Happy Mothers’ Day
Happy Mom’s Day to all of the moms out there in the blogging-world! I am the very lucky Mom of 3 boys plus one on the way in August. (Yes, 4 boys! plus hubs who can sometimes act like a boy … makes for 5. I am THE Queen of this castle 🙂 There is *J*, my 16 year old step-son; *E*, my 7 year old; and *C*, my 5 year old. *L* (Surprise!) will arrive around 8/9/2010. Our house is bustling as I trip over legos and balls – Baukegan and Transformers – plastic Army Men and Star Wars Figures – wherever I go! …But tomorrow isn’t all about…
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Calgon Take Me Away
Today was kindergarten-screening for *C*. I started off the morning with the thought that my ‘baby’ would be entering kindergarten in the Fall just as the newest member of our family, Baby Boy, would be entering the world. *C* is going go to lose his ‘baby-status’ in so many ways… This of course brought tears to my pregnancy-hormone-filled-eyes. Sigh… That is just one of those pregnancy moment … it isn’t where the Calgon comes into play. In typical Leanne-fashion I procrastinated. I knew where all the documentation for *C’s* screening was. SS card and birth certificate locked-up in our firebox, proof of residency in the office-filing cabinets, report from preschool teacher in his…
