Not just a new chapter, but a whole new book!

I'm here.  I miss you all.  I miss myself.  I'm asking forgiveness for being a bad follower of all your wonderful blogs and posts!  I gave the blog a new look to reflect our current deployment :)  

Something happened today that really made me realize how much of an outlet blogging was for me.  I had a very long conversation via Facebook with another military spouse in another state whom I have never even met.  I helped her out with photos and ideas for her brand new garden.  I referred her to my blog for some photos of plants for beneficials and an hour later I started wondering why I stopped blogging.  I didn't have a good answer. I'd lost my passion for awhile I guess, or it just had to be put on the back burner for awhile.

The past year has been pretty stressful and packed full of change for me.  Not necessarily for our household, but for me definitely.  Hubby has been deployed a very long time, we are at 9 months now.  While not his longest yet, it is approaching that!  During that time my kids have grown, WOW have they grown.  I now have about one night a week that I'm not shuttling them somewhere or otherwise performing some function for their team sports or school activities.  My gardening has come to a complete halt as I start removing garden beds instead of creating, preparing for upcoming military orders and turning over our house as a rental home.  All being done alone, while we wait for the current deployment to end.  Dealing with a few other issues that have come up that I can't go into detail about now, suffice it to say this past year has been a real challenge financially, but a challenge I am prevailing over.  Details will follow on that in a few months but be assured nothing bad has happened to anyone in our family - everyone is healthy and happy in that regard :)  

Changes since I last checked in:

Loch has ditched the fiddle and now plays the cello.

Winter Swim Team finally ended, although Summer Team starts next month!

Where did those muscles come from?  Loch has "wings" now! 

Winter has been tough all over, but seriously…. Virginia Beach?!

The kids are now attending school on Saturdays making up for all the snow days.

I now have a new title:

There's a sport I never even really gave thought to.  When dad left it wasn't even in Finn's mind, but not only is he on a wrestling team now, he loves it.

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I rejoiced when swim team season was over and I no longer was a stroke and turn judge for every meet and could just fade into the background…. 

um, I decided the wrestling team needed a team photographer.  Uh, huh.

With some generous Christmas gift cards/cash from relatives, I decided to buy that dream camera and actually learn how to use it.  As if my goal of "not using the auto function" wasn't lofty enough - I pick fast moving kids in sports as my learning subject?  Clearly I am insane.  But fun-insane.

The last change for today is hubby actually getting to enjoy himself a little.  He had the good fortune to score a few weeks' worth of work off the ship in Saudi Arabia.  Enjoying himself immensely over a platter of goat with the locals, who were very hospitable.  My husband is never one to hide out and eat in a hotel room - he gets out, meets people and gets the full experience wherever he goes.

one more thing ...

We have big news.

We ARE moving.

To Maryland.

I'm pretty excited about it in spite of the cost of living and all the issues involved with our house and kids and schools and on and on.  

It's time.

I can't say when deployment ends, but it won't be much longer now.

I'm still here… and thinking of the big changes to come!

I feel kind of silly with a garden blog these days with no gardening going on, but I guess that's part of the "military homestead"… every now and then you gotta shut it down and carry it somewhere new and set it up all over again!

I love you all, I hope you are still there :)