Friday, August 10, 2018

My Office Has Arrived!

After years of dreaming, planning, and saving ideas for my "future office," the time has finally arrived! My middle daughter graduated back in May, turned 18 in July, and has moved from my house into my rental house to "live on her own." That means......

I have an office!  Woohoo!

My youngest daughter moved into the bigger of the kids' bedrooms, and I staked my claim on the smaller of the rooms. I've spent the last few weeks working on my off days to paint both rooms, reorganize, clean out closets, and create my writing oasis. It is a room of my own to close myself off and focus on just writing. I've even hung a little chalkboard sign on the door that will inform others to NOT come in when I'm working (unless it's a matter of life or death, of course).

I used my grandmother's old sewing machine as my laptop desk.

My husband built me some new shelves and helped me move a bookshelf from the bedroom to the office. I had to order a valance for the window (because I like the sunshine, but still need a window treatment) and wait for it to arrive. I moved some of my aloe vera plants into the office because they were overflowing in the kitchen.

I have filing cabinets and the printer set up in the closet, along with storage for office supplies and reams of paper. I have room for more detailed storage in there when I have time to get a little more "fancy" with it... at a later date. Right now I just wanted to get into my office as quickly as I could.



I'm sure I'll be tweaking this room over the next several months to find my just the right way of doing things and storing items to make it the most beneficial to my productivity, but in the meantime, I'm really enjoying having my own space.


The animals seem to like the new office also. Especially in the morning when the sun is shining into the room, making nice, warm sleeping spots. LOL!

Be sure to stop by the Facebook page for a lot more pictures from beginning to end.  :)


Sunday, August 5, 2018

Army BCT Graduation

Or for those who don't know, my oldest daughter has graduated Army Basic Combat Training!

She surprised me one day late last year by coming to me and informing me that, at the age of 21, she would be joining the US Army. As a shocked mom of said child who has never been interested, even remotely, in anything physically strenuous, all I could say was, "Excuse me?"

She had already spent four years in three different colleges (two years as a dual enrollment high school student), and changed her major no less than three times. I understood that she was lost and didn't really know what she wanted to do with her adult life. Not to mention, she was extremely overwhelmed by simply BEING an adult. And me, trying to be the supportive mom, asked all the "Are you sure," questions, and even threw out the, "I'll stand by you in whatever you choose to do, even if I don't like it."

Nonetheless, I cried on May 15th as I watched my eldest daughter walk out of the MEPs office and toward the bus that would take her to the plane that would eventually land her 14 hours away from home for no less than two months.

Over the course of those two months, my daughter and I wrote letters to each other, with the random quick phone call about once every three weeks. In those first few letters, she told me of her trials, pains, disruptions, and unhappiness. Then the mood of her words improved and she was telling me about her triumphs, the friends she was making, and the fun she was having (leave it to my kid to say she was having fun at basic training! LOL!) while learning new skills that would take her far in her newly chosen career.

After months of planning, waiting, tears, worry, tracking my mail deliveries daily to see if she had sent a new letter... graduation day finally arrived!

My husband and I left at 3am on Wednesday morning to drive 14 hours from Georgia to Oklahoma in order to spend a total of 19 hours over the course of two days with our daughter to celebrate her graduation.

She looks so spiffy in her uniform! :D


It was an amazing experience, and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip, but that didn't stop the tears again once I had to tell her good-bye again so the Army could ship her off to her next station for more training and education. She is truly happy, especially now that basic training is over and her body is starting to heal from all the pain it was put through, and I know she will be a great success in her new career choice.

She has been at her new station for over a week now and it has been so much easier on both of us. She's finally able to keep her phone at all times and texts me every single day now. It makes this mom's heart happy to hear from her babies, and especially when they are happy with their choices!

I hope all of my wonderful readers are having a great weekend, and make sure you hug those loved ones even closer.