If anyone says deployments are easy, I think they are “lion.” It feels more like a “zoo.” Things come flying at you and you just have to “duck” when the punches come. It’s “dog”-gone hard! Some days, the pressure gets so intense you wonder if you can “bear” it. But then, you take some time to “horse” around with your “herd” because you remember that the only way to eat an “elephant” is one bite at a time. That “seals” the deal. It’s a “wild” ride and can be a “jungle” out there, but victory is here… and homecoming will (eventually) arrive.
Charis has decided that this year for her birthday, she wanted a party and to invite some of her classmates. But the rule at our school is that if she invites one, she has to invite them all. (GULP). Since we won’t live in the same small town where we grew up where everyone knows everyone, (there are 4 kindergarten classes at her school) I had to get a bit creative with the birthday invite. So I enclosed the following letter with her invitations to her 14 (!?!) kindergarten classmates. #PrayForMe#YeaThoughIWalkThroughTheValleyOfTheShadowOfChaos#IWillFearNoBirthdayParty
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Is it just me, or can birthday party invites for our kids can be kinda awkward? It’s weird, because our kiddos spend five days a week together for months, develop friendships, learn and grow together, but us parents barely cross paths.
My daughter (Charis) is a classmate of your smallish human, and she wants to invite her friends to her 6th birthday party. So here we are.
Since we don’t know each other yet, and it can be a little bit uncomfortable showing up at a semi-strangers house for what I lovingly call “mandatory fun,” let me tell you a bit about myself.
My name is Sharita. I’m 33 years old and originally hail from Kansas. We are military family and have been stationed in El Paso for about 9 months. I’ve been married to my beloved husband for almost 9 years and we have two kids, Charis (obviously) and a 2-year-old boy Malick.
I’m a huge fan of Jesus. I’ve never been to prison. I’ve gotten one traffic ticket. I like to write, workout and nap (in Parenting Pretendland). My favorite color is teal and puns make me laugh.
If you decide to allow your child to attend the party, our house will not be spotless. (It’s not for lack of effort, but see the note about the 2-year-old boy). I am not above occasionally bribing the kids to make things happen (“Just help me find the TV remote and you can get something from the treat box”) and I still don’t understand why 90% of parenting is looking for lost shoes and telling kids to stop climbing on the counters/please don’t put peanut butter on the dog/and yes you have to wear pants to leave the house.
So, if I haven’t fully scared you off yet, Charis (and I) hope to see you for her birthday party on March 16, 2019 from 4pm-5:30pm. (I know, it’s Spring Break. But Grandma will be in town, and I could always use additional adult supervision for party-throwing during deployment season). We will have cake and play some games. I’ve also heard rumblings about a piñata. #ButOnlyIfSheCleansHerRoomFirst
PS: Gifts are not required. But if you are feeling salty, Charis likes things that deal with princesses, glitter, animals, crafts, etc.
PSS: Please don’t give her glitter for her birthday. Seriously. I would rather us be friends and my house is already riding the struggle bus on that front.
Ballet/tap class was cancelled super last minute (as in, we had already dropped off Malick at school, arrived at the facility and Charis was dressed) so Flat Daddy took us on an impromptu date for pie and coffee/chocolate milk. His spontaneous fun game was on point today because I totally forgot today was “pi” (3.14) day until after we devoured our piece of French silk chocolate pie!
PS: As far as my W30 journey: Def still doing it about 95% of the time. But starting to dabble and practice with my eating boundaries. I think the buzz words are something about “intentional” and “moderation.”
Today’s mission was apparently to provide unintentional comedic relief to all those in the vicinity of the Dollar Tree parking lot. I was battling the El Paso wind trying to shove 20-something helium balloons in the car… by myself. I told Flat Daddy he should “lend me a hand” but he just stood there looking pretty. ? A random passerby took pity on me and helped me get them in the car, although the result was me temporarily trapped in the backseat with all of the balloons after she shut the door. I climbed over the seat to avoid losing any of the precious birthday party cargo to the endless El Paso skies. Sure, I was sweating, but $1 helium balloons to keep with our birthday tradition of the last 4 years was a must. Mission accomplished.
We rocked the birthday chaos! Such a great turn out and I thought Charis was gonna break her face from smiling so hard when 38 (?!?) people gathered in our kitchen to sing her happy birthday (and my heart was about to bust with joy too!) 21 Kids, 17 adults and no major disasters in spite of some unanticipated helium balloon massacres and swinging of a piñata whacking stick. So grateful for our tribe.
PS: I also learned that “Nerds” are the glitter of the candy world.
Whole 30 Food prep, week #11: This week is large quantities of one-dish meals. And yes, once again I could have passed by the food prep process since Gma Lex is in town(!!), we will be traveling/adventuring for a couple of spring break days and Aunt Susanand Uncle Dennis will be dropping by!! (I also had birthday party prep yesterday, but know that meal prep is important to making semi legit choices).
From top left: Spaghetti squash meatball marinara (I wanted to keep things simple and get store bought meatballs, but they were all full of extra hoopla like dairy, soy and wheat—so I had to make them from scratch), baked salmon with poached eggs for breakfast, a huge batch of chicken fajitas for salad/lunch, roasted cauliflower, roasted broccoli, guacamole (to go with fajita salad and salmon/poached eggs), lime-cilantro cauliflower rice (to go with fajita salad). Not pictured: large crockpot of beef roast with carrots, mushrooms, celery, onion and baby red potatoes.
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Deployment Log, Day 160:
1. It’s interesting. Most deployments I have puh-lenty of time to mess around on Facebook. These days? Nope. (It’s probably a good thing really).
2. A lot has happened since my last update. I had a good time with Dad while he was here. Wonderful for my heart…
3. …Even though things didn’t go quite as planned (See also: Clogged saliva gland/CT scan debacle from my last post). Then on Monday last week, Dad got a stomach bug that put the whoa on our adventures. BOO!
4. But we rallied the next day and were able to do more exploring. Las Cruces is very cool. Highway 28 drive (so many pecan orchards!) and the Farm and Ranch museum (with lots of “moos” which Malick appreciated!)
5. Did I mention simply Dad’s presence was good for my soul?
6. He departed Wednesday (sniff!) and apparently, that was the day the airlines lost their minds from the recent grounding of all the 737s. His trip home was quite the hoopla. His flights were delayed, missed his connection in Dallas and after standing in the customer service line for over two hours (!?!), he snagged the very last flight of the evening to KC. He made it home at 2am. Gross! (But grateful he made it!)
7. Malick had a brief illness (again!) but it thankfully wasn’t “showstopping” magnitude. Respiratory something. Gross cough. Snot. Random 2-hr fever at night (that’s never happened?) So we had a few rough overnights but I think we are already on the other side of it, praise God. (That makes round #11 of sickness in our household since 5 Jan. It’s kind of to the point where it’s almost comical. ALMOST.)
8. I had a spit-gland-infection follow up doc appt on Wednesday. My sinuses were still very painful and infected too, so a steroid shot in the tuchus was the ticket. Charis was with me and she was glad it was me and not her. I agree. I think.
9. The doc also gave me a new antibiotic for my sinus infection since the other two from week prior didn’t seem to work on the sinuses (but spit gland is good to go now). Long story short: I had an unexpected allergic reaction. So we can now add 48 hours of itchy hives to our deployment accomplishments.
10. GRANDMA LEX IS HERE!! (cue angels singing)
11. We crushed Charis’ 6th birthday party. It was epic levels of chaos I’ve never witnessed in this house. But by some miracle, I didn’t stress out. We just rolled with it.
12. No one ended up bleeding, nobody got hit with the pinata stick and no one needed to go to the ER. IT’S A DEPLOYMENT MIRACLE! That is pretty impressive for the 21 children and 17 adults in our hacienda (most of the kids were boys. Very “active” boys. Apparently “helium balloon massacring” is a hobby of their’s which I was previously unaware. Glad I bought extra balloons).
13. My new class starts today: Crisis and Trauma in Counseling. I think it is going to be interesting, but obviously a bit heavy. I have already learned I probably shouldn’t read my textbooks before bed… Because they will show up in my dreams. Yikes.
14. No group projects for this class! #DodgedAnotherBullet And the prof seems super legit. That’s always good news.
15. Overall, I think we are doing pretty ok. March is flying by and I am now taking applications for visitors for the 2nd week of April anything through 3rd week of May. Free lodging, lovely temperatures (mostly) and epic levels of entertainment. All you can walk-on sand in the kitchen too.
16. I’m not kidding. Come visit. It helps us to embrace the suck a whole lot more (and makes time fly).
17. Oh, Charis’ favorite gift from her birthday party was a ukulele. The kid has barely put it down since Saturday– only to sleep and go to church.
18. So my latest deployment hobby includes learning how to play the ukulele so I can teach the kindergartener how to play the ukulele.
19. I have the greatest tribe on the planet. So many people to text and check on us, blessing boxes continue to show up (!?!?!), a church body who prays for us, and home group that is literally like framily and makes us laugh as we talk about the book of Acts every Sunday (and many other ridiculous topics). I am so grateful. Oh, and wonderful extended family that makes spending time with us a priority even though they have a few thousand miles ahead of them to get home (Thanks Aunt Susan-Bean Lacey and Uncle Dennis!!)
20. Prayer requests: HEALTH. IN. THIS. HOUSE. And for us to have a wonderful time adventuring with Grandma Lex over the next several days. Of course, continued prayers for my Beloved husband (160 days since he’s tickled his kids or I’ve felt his strong arms around me– GAH!)
21. Parting thought:
“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.” ~Psalm 71:14
I feel like my ridiculously huge grin says what my heart is feeling. Here’s to AH-MAZING family who loves on us, makes us laugh and helps us in the challenging seasons of life. I am an extrovert through and through. And these folks sure fill up my cup! 
PS: Can we just take a moment to recognize that EVERYONE in this picture is looking at the camera AND SMILING?!?!
PSS: The tiny dog doesn’t count. (Not for the picture looking anyways. She counts in general…)
