Home Sweet Furniture

Admittedly I am somewhat materialistic. I enjoy name-brand things and wish I could afford more of them. But what I'm about to discuss is something completely different. This is about MY things. Some of them are name-brand; some of them are hand-me-downs that have been through 4 or 5 different homes; some of them are hand made; and even some come from trips to other countries I've never even seen with my own eyes; but what they all have in common is that they are mine. That's right, our household good are here!
No more air mattress. No more of the same 5 shirts and pair of shorts(I'm exaggerating...sort of). No more basing our dinner choices on what cooking utensils we brought with us. No. We now have all of our things- even things we haven't taken out of their original boxes from our wedding gifts!  I have found reason in the past week to use our new hand mixer at least twice! Today we had our neighbors over for brunch just to have reason to use the waffle maker. Needless to say I am feeling quite materialistic as I am deriving my happiness from kitchen gadgets, bed sheets, and sofas.
The catch of course is that as I look around this 2500 sq. ft. home I realize that John and I do not have near enough furniture to fill this home. We come together from two tiny apartments; one of which the occupant would have been happy sleeping on a mattress on the floor (one guess which of us that is...). Every time I walk through the front entrance I am reminded of our fledgling status as a married couple and the obvious upgrade we have made in moving in to this home. We do not even own enough furniture to fill two of the rooms in the house. We are using our kitchen table pulled out to it's largest size as our dining room table, and have left empty the kitchen space meant for the kitchen table just so we can utilize the dining room.
But the thing is...
These are the days we will laugh about later. These are the days where we truly know what it is we "need." As we begin to purchase items to fill this house and daydream about the pieces we will have "one day" I am met with a feeling of contentment. I don't need all of these things. We can survive on far less than we have; even if what we have is far less than what is necessary in order to fill this house. Patience. The day will come when I look around and realize that whatever home in whatever town in whatever state we find ourselves will have every room and wall filled with my things. Today is not that day and tomorrow won't be it either. But for today I am happy knowing that the things we have are our own and that I am at home with my husband.

Things I Wish Someone Had Thought To Tell Me (the mil version)

Every day I am finding out that I am learning something new (that's the point of this blog, I know). But with every new realization I really wish someone had thought to themselves, "this would be good to tell someone who is new to the base." It is likely they assume I learned these things at our previous base but let's be honest, not everything runs the same at each base! For example, at our old base they played Retreat and the National Anthem at 5 o'clock every day and if you were on base you had to stop (even if you were driving) and wait until it was finished (those in uniform had to face the music and salute). At our current base however they play the Air Force song at noon and Retreat and the National Anthem at 5 every.single.work.day. Being new to the military life and new to this base I only learned this unique quality of our base purely by accident when I walked out of a building one day and noticed that the world around me had come to an eerie halt. It is difficult enough to move to a new area or start a new job but it puts things at a whole other level when you find yourself in the military; it becomes a whole new world. My husband had the fortunate ability to go through ROTC and literally learn these things in a classroom; I, however, am learning them as a go: day-by-day. If only there was a class for me, too! It is for this reason (and for every day I learn something new the hard way) that I wish there was someone who would reach out to me, hand me a packet with all those "things your spouse doesn't think to tell you" and fill me in on all the little ways that make this (military) world tick. If you were creating this packet what kinds of things would you think to include? What have you had to pick up (hopefully not the hard way) along the way?

A Lesson Learned From Poorly Written Literature

One of my many joys in having "down time" is getting to take scores of books out of the library. I love being able to (literally) judge a book by its cover. I pick up a book from the shelves, glance at the cover and inside sleeve, and decide if it is worth my time; and because library books are free I feel no guilt in tossing it aside after 8 or so pages if I decide I don't want to read it. Since moving to Virginia I have a lot of "down time" and was fortunate to recently find that a branch of the local public library is only a three minute drive down the road. Nine books later I came home with a mixture of Agatha Christie mysteries, a Dean Koontz, and a slew of books authored by the disreputable. It is from one of these books that I take tonight's blog post.
The impression left on me by this book comes from a section referencing the "story of the five balls." It is likely that someone reading this has heard this story in some form or another but the gist of it is this:

In this life everyone has to learn to juggle a total of 5 balls.

The 5 balls include family, friends, work, integrity, and health.

Four of the balls (family, friends, integrity, and health) are made of glass and therefore, if dropped, can be scratched, chipped, or even shatter.

The fifth ball,work, is made of rubber. If it is dropped it will always bounce back to you. 

The moral of the story (if you haven't guessed) is that one must take care when juggling the 4 glass balls but that we should always remember that the rubber ball, work, will always return to us.

This is a lesson that has always been hard for me to keep in perspective. Even now when I have time to enjoy these judgmental literary endeavors I am continuously concerned with when I will get a job; why I haven't gotten a job; IF I will get a job in Virginia; and whether or not I am going to have to begin applying to McDonald's in order to feel as if someone is interested in me. I have never been one who is comfortable staying at home; I have always had to be involved in something (which is what has led me to volunteer in an office on base within the first 5 days of arriving here- but that is another post in and of itself). Despite the fact that we have been here just barely over two weeks I feel anxiety over having not found a job yet and fear over the ambiguous future of my professional career. Having read the poorly written book I took this lesson from (and yes, I did end up finishing it) you would think I would be relieved of my anxieties and fears; but this is not the case. I am still anxious and still consumed with thoughts of where to look for job openings and if and when I will get hired. But I suppose at the very least I must realize and also admit that a part of my daily thoughts are now occupied with the lesson learned by the story of the 5 balls. I will get a job. "Work" will bounce back to me. It is simply the rest of the 4 life aspects, the 4 balls, the 4 important parts of my world that need my energy. It is this I now choose to focus my time and efforts; and when work is ready to come back to me I will be there to catch it.