Happy New Year! I can’t believe 2019 has already come and gone. I hope each of you had a great year filled with sweet memories, wonderful days, and memorable nights, and I hope that 2020 is your best year yet!
The new year brings lots of new beginnings for us! Brandon has been deployed and finally got home a few days ago! We are so excited and thankful that he is home! We have missed him so much, but we are so thankful my Dad was able to come and visit us while he was gone.
We also have some more exciting news! We finally have PCS orders to move! I know everyone was waiting to hear last year where we would be going next, but we decided to stay one more year in Okinawa! We were surprised with orders to Germany! We are so excited about all the new adventures that are ahead of us this year! We leave in February so I have been keeping it a little bit of a secret.
This has been such a great year for us! We loved going to Korea to see all the beautiful cherry blossoms, and finally making it back home to Texas after being gone for three years! We hope to be home again this summer after we are all settled in Germany!
Here are some of my life lessons from 2019!
- Life with kids goes by so fast! Enjoy every minute! I have really noticed that this year as my boys are becoming less dependent on me. I still have Colt and I find myself holding on to every bit of the child in him.
- Be prepared to modify your plans! Last year, we couldn’t wait to find out where we would move to next. We even began to prepare for the move and sold one of our cars. However, we found out we were staying and decided to make the most of our last year here and move off base. That has been an amazing experience…we will miss waking up to the Pacific ocean every morning! And then being surprised with early orders to Germany while Brandon was deployed! It’s been quite a year for a change of plans!
- Be Kind…for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about! My grandmother used to tell me to never judge someone unless you have walked a day in their shoes. You just never know what someone is going through. If you choose to be kind that is the greatest gift you can give someone!
- Sometimes you can’t do it all…Ask for help! This is a big one for me. I think a lot of military spouses feel this way. We have been through so many deployments and get used to doing everything ourselves. I have learned this year that sometimes you just need to ask for help and thats ok!
- Experiences are so much greater than things! We have definitely learned that from living overseas and taking so many adventures. we are making so many memories with our boys that mean so much more to them than something we buy for them. You don’t have to take a big fancy vacation…just find something to explore near you and go!
- Be kind to yourself and give yourself grace! Take time for yourself. If the kids watch a little too much Tv thats ok. Don’t be so hard on yourself for trying to be the perfect mother. No one is perfect!
- Option B: If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. If your option A does not work out as planned…you have to make the most out of Option B. Because we can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it! I also highly recommend the book The Knock at the Door. Everyone at some point in their lives gets a knock at the door they were not expecting. It’s a great book on overcoming grief and how to get through things that happen in life that we were not expecting.
- Life is precious: Be sure to tell your friends and family how much they mean to you every chance you get!
Finally, I want to leave you with the same quote I do every year because its my all time favorite. It’s from the movie Hope Floats! “Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most…try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up…and it will.”
So as we welcome 2020…make the middle count! I love y’all and I am so thankful for you! XOXO
