Alright everyone, I know I have been slacking and haven't posted in about a month, but now that things have calmed down a lot, I am ready to get back to it. This last month has been pretty crazy. I have been traveling, working out in one of our yards doing some manual labor, spending time with great people and have awesome conversation with my husband. The last month of so has been drastically life altering, but also very fast paced. I have no idea how many weeks I have been here now, but I can tell you I have about six weeks left! So here we go!
Physical: Ok, so this one is disappointing. I missed the Army ten-miler here in Bagram. It was actually this morning, but I didn't know until 1500 yesterday afternoon (not enough time to recover and hydrate properly). Plus, I ended up getting a killer headache last night. So that little nugget has fallen through. I have been working longer hours again, which was sacrificing my PT time by a lot. So I made a new routine. Now, instead of trying to go in the morning or evening, I go in the middle of the afternoon when I have down time. I think I am going to try to keep this up when I get back to Fort Carson by going to the gym during lunch. Before I left, I would travel back and forth from home multiple times a day. To help save on our budget (updated financial goals), we are looking for ways to cut out the little things and this is definitely one of them. Plus, it has the added benefit of me getting a good workout in during lunch. I have a PT test in a few weeks as well, and my goal is to get another 300 before going back home and eating really yummy food again. But we will see how it all falls.
Financial: My stocks are doing really well. I am currently holding two of them that have provided some good gains for me. Both are kind of plateaued, but they plateaued high enough that I am just keep them. Right now, I have basically made 50% return on my initial investment. I could definitely see myself doing this some more, but I haven't had a ton of time to devote to it. I need to start looking at some potential new buys before the next set or quarterly earnings comes out. Aside from that, Kevin and I have made some new financial goals. We just bought our first car together (a 2014 Ford Escape Titanium, which we love!) and have decided we will probably not be moving again next year. There are several factors going into that decision (like the new car!), but also the fact that I haven't really got to live in my house (or any place) for very long and I would like to take the time to start a garden, redo gutters, redo cabinets, plant some bushes and so on and so forth. And I don't want to be rushing to do that before next spring. So Kevin and I have decided to just say in the house we are in and try to get that paid off as quickly as possible. We are also looking at ways to reduce our budgets. Aside from trying to drive less, we are also looking at ways we can keep costs down and try to basically live on one income, with the other completely providing discretion to pay extra off the house and do projects and vacations and things. Basically, we want one income to frame our spending and the other income to frame our saving in such a way that we can give money away, invest and just have fun.
Mental: I finished my Lean Six Sigma project!!! Can you believe it?! I ultimately reduced my standard deviation (Six sigma) and shifted my mean (lean). It is now being submitted, and once that is done, I will have a DA 4187 with my skill identifier saying I am a certified black belt for the Army. Now I just need to pull my project off my computer so that I will have it and all of my reference materials and I am done!!!! Aside from that, I have been playing more with Microsoft excel and even with macros. I think I might keep studying excel a bit because I am learning some really interesting things. I am also going to try to spend the winter reading up on building my first green house and learning some fun gardening tips and tricks. I think the fact that I haven't seen much green here has given me a very strong desire to decorate my house with lively plants. I also have a desire to do some manual labor (building cabinets and trying to do gutters and small projects ourselves) after spending the last 7+ months sitting behind a computer. I really enjoying working with my hands and haven't gotten to do enough of it here. Plus, I enjoy working on our home. Kevin has had a new garden window installed and we are having work done on our patio in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to get home and join him. And I look forward to starting new projects and learning new crafts!
Emotional: So this one has been going pretty well. I think Kevin and I have been connecting so much better as we have started discussing our plans for the next year or so. Truth be told, earlier in the month, we were in a rather depressing rut and neither of us could really tell why. I think Kevin just didn't like the sound of two more months and truthfully, I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the idea of making decisions again. There are limitless possibilities for the future and what is coming next that I felt kind of overwhelmed by the idea of preparing to face it. But as Kevin and I started moving forward (Kevin got our new garden window installed on the house and is having the patio done next month), things started getting easier. That's why we decided to by the car (which we are so excited about) and start making plans for what the next year holds. And things are really starting to come together. Kevin is loving his job and I am loving mine. And though there are definitely no concrete plans right now, there is a pretty good likelihood that I might stay in the Army for longer than my contract. We have a lot to figure out on that path, but we have decided to wait until I get home and see how I am feeling six months from now before making too many decisions. For right now, we are both giving up control of a lot that we like to hold on to just to imagine the world of possibilities. We have decided that both of us are going to stop worrying about what we "should" or "shouldn't" do and start focusing on loving God, loving each other and loving others and living a life that is going to bring him the most glory.
Spiritual: Well, obviously this one is tied to my current emotional state as well. Basically, the idea of giving up control of what I want versus what I think I should want has been very relieving. Telling Kevin that I might want to stay in the Army was very difficult, but mostly because of the church, not because of Jesus. I feel like within Christianity, we tend to limit the roles for women into what we see as best for her family or manageable. Telling women I am in the Army is usually stomached in the same manner as me saying I'm sick or I have cancer. They want to tell me that's horrible (and some do) and that they can't wait for me to get out. Even my most well intended friends ask me about deploying and having kids to just get out of it. It is inconceivable to them that I love this. It's even crazier to them that I am really good at it. But I let myself fall in that box too. I told myself I couldn't stay in and be a good wife and mother. Every day, I think that is less and less true. Would there be hard parts? Yes. Is moving around all the time easy? No. But would my kids and husband get to experience things that others might never get to? Yes. Can we use it as the opportunity to bring our family closer together? Yes. But most importantly, does it bring more glory to God to live the life he first put on my heart as a twelve year old girl and has reaffirmed many times since? Does it bring more glory to God for me to live my life in such a way that it ties together the unique characteristics God decided to ordain me with? And does it bring God more glory when I live out the things that interest me and help them to grow and develop my family? It might seem simple to just say yes and move on, but I am spending time with these questions. I am leaning more towards them than I am away. I am breaking down my own religious rules and trying to find the truth in the center of the Gospel. I am done telling Christ how Christians are supposed to live. When I look at biblical women, I see women who work and serve. Ruth was a laborer, Esther was into politics and the proverbs 31 woman ran a very successful business (and all in the Old Testament too!). Maybe my primary job can be wife and mother even if I don't spend all my time doing those things from home. I don't know. We have a lot of exploring to do, but I figured I would share with you where we have explored to thus far.
Physical: Ok, so this one is disappointing. I missed the Army ten-miler here in Bagram. It was actually this morning, but I didn't know until 1500 yesterday afternoon (not enough time to recover and hydrate properly). Plus, I ended up getting a killer headache last night. So that little nugget has fallen through. I have been working longer hours again, which was sacrificing my PT time by a lot. So I made a new routine. Now, instead of trying to go in the morning or evening, I go in the middle of the afternoon when I have down time. I think I am going to try to keep this up when I get back to Fort Carson by going to the gym during lunch. Before I left, I would travel back and forth from home multiple times a day. To help save on our budget (updated financial goals), we are looking for ways to cut out the little things and this is definitely one of them. Plus, it has the added benefit of me getting a good workout in during lunch. I have a PT test in a few weeks as well, and my goal is to get another 300 before going back home and eating really yummy food again. But we will see how it all falls.
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| Our new 2014 Ford Escape! |
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| Our new garden window! |
Emotional: So this one has been going pretty well. I think Kevin and I have been connecting so much better as we have started discussing our plans for the next year or so. Truth be told, earlier in the month, we were in a rather depressing rut and neither of us could really tell why. I think Kevin just didn't like the sound of two more months and truthfully, I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the idea of making decisions again. There are limitless possibilities for the future and what is coming next that I felt kind of overwhelmed by the idea of preparing to face it. But as Kevin and I started moving forward (Kevin got our new garden window installed on the house and is having the patio done next month), things started getting easier. That's why we decided to by the car (which we are so excited about) and start making plans for what the next year holds. And things are really starting to come together. Kevin is loving his job and I am loving mine. And though there are definitely no concrete plans right now, there is a pretty good likelihood that I might stay in the Army for longer than my contract. We have a lot to figure out on that path, but we have decided to wait until I get home and see how I am feeling six months from now before making too many decisions. For right now, we are both giving up control of a lot that we like to hold on to just to imagine the world of possibilities. We have decided that both of us are going to stop worrying about what we "should" or "shouldn't" do and start focusing on loving God, loving each other and loving others and living a life that is going to bring him the most glory.
Spiritual: Well, obviously this one is tied to my current emotional state as well. Basically, the idea of giving up control of what I want versus what I think I should want has been very relieving. Telling Kevin that I might want to stay in the Army was very difficult, but mostly because of the church, not because of Jesus. I feel like within Christianity, we tend to limit the roles for women into what we see as best for her family or manageable. Telling women I am in the Army is usually stomached in the same manner as me saying I'm sick or I have cancer. They want to tell me that's horrible (and some do) and that they can't wait for me to get out. Even my most well intended friends ask me about deploying and having kids to just get out of it. It is inconceivable to them that I love this. It's even crazier to them that I am really good at it. But I let myself fall in that box too. I told myself I couldn't stay in and be a good wife and mother. Every day, I think that is less and less true. Would there be hard parts? Yes. Is moving around all the time easy? No. But would my kids and husband get to experience things that others might never get to? Yes. Can we use it as the opportunity to bring our family closer together? Yes. But most importantly, does it bring more glory to God to live the life he first put on my heart as a twelve year old girl and has reaffirmed many times since? Does it bring more glory to God for me to live my life in such a way that it ties together the unique characteristics God decided to ordain me with? And does it bring God more glory when I live out the things that interest me and help them to grow and develop my family? It might seem simple to just say yes and move on, but I am spending time with these questions. I am leaning more towards them than I am away. I am breaking down my own religious rules and trying to find the truth in the center of the Gospel. I am done telling Christ how Christians are supposed to live. When I look at biblical women, I see women who work and serve. Ruth was a laborer, Esther was into politics and the proverbs 31 woman ran a very successful business (and all in the Old Testament too!). Maybe my primary job can be wife and mother even if I don't spend all my time doing those things from home. I don't know. We have a lot of exploring to do, but I figured I would share with you where we have explored to thus far.
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