A Rant

Just so every knows first hand this is going to rant about a few things, but it is time to get it out of my head.

What is with the way people drive? I have never seen so many people run red lights when they clearly should have just stopped. I never feel safe proceeding through an intersection without pausing first to see if idiot is going to decide to make a run for it. People seem to believe turn signals are options they did not know came with their vehicle. Yesterday, some guy was go impatient he drove the wrong way just so he could get into the turn lane to wait to get into traffic. WTH is that all about?

Another issue lately here is entitlement. If you have read my posts you know we were in a bad place with no where to go and if it wasn't for the help of a Veterans Program we would not be where we are today, enough said. Even in our situation we never felt entitled to a handout, a shove in the right direction is what we were looking for, and we are grateful. We are still not out of a danger zone since we only received a partial disability for his combat related health issues, so now we are waiting, again. We were told recently to apply to SSI since we have a disability determination from the VA, but I am not sure we will. Yes, I know we have paid into the system but again, there are others in greater need. We do not feel we are entitled to much, but there are benefits we have earned, there is a difference. My husband earned his VA disability.

We get Food Stamps because we do not make enough money, plain and simple, and I am not too proud to talk about it. I am a smart shopper, we go to the meat market for a freezer pack every month before we buy anything else. Then we are off to Costco, with a list.

Why people need to turn everything into a political debate is beyond me and I find it frustrating. Those are the kind of topics we should be putting on our personal FB pages not in a group setting.

Ok, my rant is diminished now. Happy Saturday!!!

Trust

There are times I am amazed at my lack of trust, but it is never a complete lack of trust, not 100%. Actually, I am on the fence most of the time having about 1-2% keeping me from the whole piece of mind, which comes with 100% trust.

I am not even sure where the lack of trust comes from other than mixed messages we have received throughout our lives. The best example of those messages is "God helps those that help themselves." After doing some digging I have discovered this is not in the Bible but probably developed through a mixture of actual verses. Follow the link above and check it out.

I know first hand what trust in God can do~we would not be as comfortable right now if we had not trusted in God to help us through a difficult time.

The verse for the week from Dandelion Seeds and A Clean Heart is: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

Thank you Lord~For what You have provided us with even when we feel unworthy.

First Friday of the New Year

So here we are at the first Friday of the new year. As of right now the kids are working on school work and we are close to wrapping it up for the week. It has been a little challenging to get and keep kids on task after a two week vacation. We have gone back to setting an alarm to get up in the morning.

As for the organizing that I have begun we are actually on task and for the first time in a long while the laundry is folded after coming out of the dryer. Sometimes I amaze my myself! The new chore list is working as well with daily tasks and a different room everyday. We are going through and working on getting the whole house organized one step at a time.

I have also started to put together a Home Management Binder. The research alone on this has been mind boggling. There is so much to be found on this subject. I used different things from different sources and then made a few of my own. This is really a work in progress but is coming along just fine. Yesterday I made a cute cover for the binder. I have found a font I REALLY like and that is what I have decided to use throughout my binder. As this project progresses I will post some links and thank yous on here. In the mean time Pinterest has some wonderful resources as well.

Binder Cover

Family Chores

Enjoy!

Happy 2012

Hard to believe it is 2012! I really enjoy a new year with new beginnings and the fact spring comes next, like a rebirth. So glad the holidays are behind us. There is always so much stress and tension it makes it challenging to try to be together.

We enjoyed a great New Year's Eve with friends here at our house. The 5 kids played Nerf Guns EVERYWHERE...I think there are still bullets under our bed. They had so much fun. The kids were starting to get tired (and so were the Moms) we tuned into the New York Ball Drop Party and the kids saw that. They were so excited to watch the ball drop but bummed they missed Lady Gaga's performance, pretty funny coming from a bunch of 10 year old girls.

Looking forward to tomorrow and getting back to our schedule with school. I am lucky and have one more week off before my last two classes of my associates degree. Pretty excited!! Right now I am working on putting together a Home Management Binder to get better control of our life. I will also be putting together all important papers, documents, etc just in case of an emergency. I actually feel like a grown up.

End of the Year

Here we are, New Year's Eve morning, hard to believe we are about to enter a new year. This is the year that comes with both comfort and some confusion. 2012. If we are to follow the Mayan calendar there is a change happening, what that change could be is really up for God to determine. Am I scared, no not really, but I am not going to sit here idle either. We have been talking about developing an emergency preparedness kit and we are going to start putting that together. We live in area where earthquakes happen, we need to be prepared.

My hope for the New Year would be to leave all of last year's GARBAGE behind. I know there are some pieces which will continue to carry forward but not by me. I leave it all in the past and I hope others will too.

I don't like to make resolutions, they are so easy to break, but I have some goals in mind.

• I need to get my life organized
• I want our family to get healthy
• I want to be more patient

I realize these may not seem like much but they are enough to get me in the right direction at the moment.

Taking the advice of a fellow wife of a veteran with PTSD on Family of a Vet, I wrote my husband a letter for Christmas letting him know the reasons I still love him even with all of the PTSD troubles we have been facing. Sometimes it is hard to look at a person and remember why we married them in the beginning when life throws troubles our way. This was a wonderful exercise for me and for any married woman to remind herself and her spouse why they got married in the beginning. My husband and I have gone through A LOT of bad times but we never let those get us down. Those times always brought us closer together, which is our goal for our marriage in the future.

I remember many times of happiness in our 15 years together. We have watched our own family develop and grow as well as our extended family. We were still in the early stages of our relationship when my oldest niece was born. He was amazed at how a family came together for this one event and he wanted to be part of that family, he never had anything like that in his life before. He was so scared to hold this tiny bundle but his face lit up when he did and the family was so encouraging to him then.

When we had our own child, our son, everyone came to the hospital again. These are times of celebration and when you discover the true meaning of family. Family should stick together even when they have differences. Differences should be discussed to be resolved.

That sense of family I have talked about is gone and I would love to have it back but that will probably never happen now. This makes me sad but my life is with my husband and children and it truly is a wonderful life.

Happy New Year one and all and may the new year be everything you wish it to be.