I entered my doggo in Dogster’s online competition for America’s favorite pets!
Little did I expect him to do as well as he has so far! He is 23rd in his category. But I do gotta admit he’s loveable ❤️
If he reaches one of the top 15, he’ll be featured by the site. Come check out his profile at the following link and look at all the cuddly doggo photos submitted around America. Cast your vote for your favorites. It’s fun!
Here is the link:
by J. Speer
SSgt Miller took the overnight flight home.
It was a grueling flight much like the desert sands and blazing heat of the Middle East.
It had been a long year since he’d seen his children, now 14 and 8 years old.
The gym was a packed house.
He stood in the hallway in uniform near the school trophy cases.
Filled with deep emotion inside, he appeared calm and collected on the surface.
The school announced a special guest of honor over the intercom.
His daughter was on the Varsity team playing basketball.
She was a guard on the court.
The team was 7 and 2 this season.
It was something that together they discussed frequently over the long-distance phone calls at night.
He had taught her how to play ball.
Years ago in the driveway of their family home, they shot hoops together and played horse.
Countless hours.
He told her how to hold the ball just right for free throw shots and how to release it into the air.
When the school principal motioned him to enter the gym, his heart skipped a beat…
As did hers when she saw her father across the court.
She ran to him.
He held his arms out open wide.
His hat was in his left hand.
Her little brother and the soldier’s wife were already moving towards them from the stands.
Tears welled up in the faces of many nearby in the crowd as father and daughter embraced.
He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair.
He held her tight.
She looked up at him smiling.
“I love you, Dad,” she said softly and shyly so only he could hear.
“I missed you.”
“I’m home,” he said with heartfelt gladness.
His son hugged them both.
The boy was grinning happily as he pressed his head against his father’s side.
His wife stood close by allowing her children this moment with their father.
She was crying tears of joy as well.
The crowd smiled and clapped loudly.
Home.
He was finally home.
My daughter brought home some baby chicks from science class. We went to Tractor Supply Store and put together a makeshift brooder.
To take care of baby chicks, you need to keep them inside until their feathers get fluffier. You need a plastic tub filled with pinewood shavings at the bottom. You will need to replace the shavings every 4 days to keep them from getting damp. Use a waterer that is shallow so the baby chicks do not drown. Put little pebbles at the bottom if you have to. Use a feeder and fill it with medicated starter feed. Also, buy a heat lamp and bulb. Make sure the heat lamp is not too close to burn the chicks but also not too far away that they freeze. Then, just wait for them to grow. Check them throughout the days. Make sure they are okay.
We have 2 black chicks and 2 yellow chicks. They are adorable and soft. We named them Ace, Sabo, Lucy, and Luffy from an Anime show. We will transfer them to a chicken coop in the yard when they are ready this summer!
I really like the Bon Jovi song called The Story of Love. Here is a link to it on Facebook. I sent this via text to my brother, sisters, parents, and my children. They all seemed to like it too.
This morning, I asked my Facebook friends to tell me their new favorite songs/albums/or singers. I told them I like a diverse mix of music. Kindly, about ten friends replied with these great suggestions. I’ve been spending this evening going through each suggestion as a mini concert at home. I’m delighted by the songs they shared. Quite a few are Christian songs, probably because it is Sunday. Here are some from the list:
They were all great. I liked the mix. This one was my personal favorite:
They decided on the trip together. Usually they always spent Christmas with family but this year they wanted to try something different. Christmas was usually spent listening to Aunt Gabby’s cat stories or watching the family open presents one by one slowly. Mom usually made a big buffet and Dad usually always got a hunting gift. The grandkids would run around the house and someone would setup Christmas music on the TV. There would be hugs and family photos with ugly Christmas sweaters or Grinch pajamas sets. Generally, there would be some games…board games, card games, gingerbread house competitions and such. It was always great fun but also a little awkward at times with the big family reunion. There were lulls in conversation or points where one had to be tactful and polite, particularly in regards to political topics. And, hectic…it could be hectic too as the family packed up all the presents in the car. She’d fuss over everything especially the smashed bows on the presents or whether the tree lights should be left on while they were away. She’d always be the last to the car. The kids would be crowded together and arguing, nit-picking each other. He’d get frustrated and beep the horn.
Yeah.
Christmas with family…..
This year would be different. They talked about this months ago when she had received a great price deal on roundtrip tickets. She had stared at her monitor at her sales cubicle. She studied the advertisement photo of a beautiful lit-up Eiffel Tower on a starry night. Come spend Noel a Paris, the breath-taking City of Lights…that’s what the picture caption read. Usually she skipped these promo ads but this one for some reason had caught her eye.
It had taken some convincing for him. A couple of dinners together at night. She approached the subject each time after their kids had excused themselves from dinner. She talked to him while cleaning up dinner plates and putting food back in the fridge. Eventually, with some reluctance, he was on board too. It was probably the cheap airfare price that did it as he was an accountant by profession and nature, preferring to limit extravagant spending.
The day they left the kids at Grandma’s, it snowed a heck of a lot. The kids wished them a great trip. They hugged each one and told them to be good. He struggled to get the car through the growing snowdrifts and she watched the kids with her parents through her rear view side mirror on the passenger side until they were too far away in the distance.
The ride to the airport was blustery and cold. He had to keep the wipers and heat going on high mode. In comparison, the climate in Paris outside the terminal after their excruciatingly long flight was sunny and much less calamitous.
They managed to get to the hotel through the kindness of Parisian pedestrians and a taxi driver that pointed the way in English. Their understanding of the local language was beginner level at best but they did manage “merci” and “bonjour” from time to time.
They stayed at a four story hotel off the Champs Elysee and close to the St. Antoine de Exupery street where she’d read the couture shops were located. They ate French croissants for breakfast and wandered the streets of Paris for a day or two. They visited art museums and strolled past trendy boutiques for fashion. They went up the Eiffel Tower together and took many beautiful pictures of all of gorgeous Paris, the statues, the buildings, the homes, and the people.
It was super fantastic until Christmas eve around five o’clock. Suddenly the bustling streets and walkways of Paris were very quiet and empty. Everything had shut down…the shops, the restaurants, and all the other businesses. They walked together in the growing darkness on the still streets. They passed many brightly lit homes. There were people greeting each other happily on front steps with packages. Inside some cheery and warm homes, they could see people happily gathered in comraderie. They began to feel homesick and that feeling grew as they ate cheeseburgers at Planet Hollywood, the only place in Paris still open. They wandered back thoughtfully to their hotel room. They each got their small gift for one another. They sat on the bed and exchanged them. It was nice but the moment ended quickly and they looked around the room wandering what to do next. They ended up watching TV together and went to bed early. As they changed into pajamas, he looked at her and said, “ I kinda miss Aunt Gabby’s cat stories..”.
She smiled, relieved he felt the same way she did in that moment. She laughed, “Yeah, I miss them all too…especially the kids. I miss them so much tonight. Christmas isn’t the same without them….without family.”
They smiled and sat on the bed together. They called back home to Grandma’s and were happy when one of the cousin’s picked up the line. They spent a good while wishing the bustling and noisy household at Grandma’s a very Merry Christmas.
And that was the last time they skipped out on family time at Christmas.
I’ve been reading some online articles about the experiences of many people that have gone through the physical and emotional symptoms of testing positive for Covid. There is much written about how to avoid exposure. However, I could not find a lot of material written about enduring the experience itself of finding out you or a loved one or your whole family are affected by this disease. I wanted to help out any reader that is looking for some advice on how to deal with it. This is what our family did to get by. Maybe some of these suggestions will work for you. Maybe some won’t. Take what you want and leave anything that doesn’t apply behind.
My husband and I tested positive for Covid with rapid Covid tests about one day after the other. He was showing many symptoms and is older and diabetic. I, on the other hand, was mostly asymptomatic. I waited in my car outside the urgent care clinic after my swab and was surprised when the nurse called me in and said quietly, “Yes, you also are positive. It is a good thing you came in to test yourself, Mrs. Speer.”
Our kids were subsequently tested the next day and were both negative to our happy surprise. However, we were all going to be in quarantine together. We live in a long ranch home. So, the kids stayed on the south side of the ranch house in the bedroom areas and had their own bathroom. My husband and I chose not to sleep in our bed, due to the cough and the phlegm in our respiratory systems. So, we holed up in the living room and kitchen area on the other side of the house for most of the quarantine. The kids put together a makeshift kitchen in their area with plenty of microwaveable food and snacks and bottles of water. They had their video games and books and remote learning school activities set up in their rooms. They could also watch TV or Netflix. We bought them a few Play Station gift cards at the beginning, so they would be happier.
Ok, so here are some things we did that might help if you are in a similar circumstance:
Ok, that’s probably enough advice. Hope some of these ideas will work for you. Just remember, to take it easy on yourself and your family and trust that good things will happen for your family. Keep the faith.
Lots of love,
Janea
Due to social distancing, we had to skip our family vacation to Maine. The kids started back to school online yesterday and along with that, I found some travel videos for them to watch.
We make a game out of this.
Ella and Drew pick one travel destination in the entire world and I find the videos beforehand. Each school day, I pick 6-8 really short YouTube videos that I pre-screen for entertainment and value. I filter them to make sure they are about 4 minutes or less long. I hand the kids a list of 6-8 videos and tell them that they only need to pick 3 of their own choice. Then, Ella and Drew sit down for 10-15 minutes a day and just watch 3 of the videos together to learn about that place.
Yesterday, they had chosen Orlando, Florida. Listed below are the 6 videos I found and the kids picked three of these videos to watch. They picked the Disney and Universal Studios ride videos, of course.
I have found with teenagers that it is much better to give them choices so that’s why I pick 6 and let them choose 3 only. And I limit this whole thing to about 10-15 minutes tops. I learned from the military a long time ago the acronym “KISS.” This means keep it short and sweet or as they say in the military with PowerPoint presentations, “Keep it Short, Stupid.” No one likes to sit through more than 15-20 minutes of video.
I’ll admit, my kids grumbled quite a bit at first but seemed to actually like the videos once they saw them. This was our “family vacation” experience Monday. Drew picked the Pyramids of Egypt for Tuesday.
Creative Content 