tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27800517832733805222022-10-17T23:41:34.047-10:00JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.comBlogger1241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-32931749247482591982021-03-22T09:39:00.004-10:002021-03-22T09:42:36.823-10:00

A friend of mine reminded me that this space still exists. I hadn't really forgotten, but I also hadn't really thought about it in a few years, either. And I feel like this belongs here. We had to say goodbye to Jeb last week. I promised SoldierMan I wouldn't write a 10 page eulogy, and that's not what this is. But the blog post telling the story of how we got the dogs is still on my "most

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-68806771819205748712018-03-11T12:20:00.001-10:002018-03-11T12:41:02.537-10:00

On Friday nights, I AWANA. I’m with the k-2nd grade group, and it’s a fun class. Especially the kindergarteners. They’re sweet kids who get super motivated and competitive about those little plastic “jewels” they earn from memorizing Bible verses. Anyway, the lesson one week was about Jesus’s “Parable of the Sower.” Now, if you grew up in church at all, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-55132666281187436242017-12-29T10:25:00.001-10:002017-12-29T10:25:04.968-10:00

I won’t claim to be an expert, but I will tell you that I’ve honed a system for meal planning that has taken so much stress and frustration out of my routine. And yes, it does involve getting set up for the entire year. Don’t feel overwhelmed – an hour or two of time the first week of January is all it takes. If you’re interested in giving it a try this year, read on: Step 1: Choose your

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-82956321852766607892017-08-08T09:49:00.001-10:002017-08-08T09:51:20.264-10:00

And if you don’t think that’s a sexy title, you’ve got rocks for brains. Ladies and gentlemen. It is here. I scoured the interwebs, I tested recipes and variations of those recipes. I went to multiple stores to get just the right ingredients. I sighed. I (nearly) cried. I bashed my head against the steering wheel. I drank a real coke. They said it couldn’t be done. They said “nearly” was “

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-60419112354255330502017-01-11T12:34:00.001-10:002017-01-11T12:34:33.148-10:00

Honestly, there’s nothing really exceptional about this recipe, except that it works. I don’t make my own bone broth or my own noodles or anything. But, if you want a solid go-to chicken noodle soup recipe, this is the one. It’s really easy, and when Miss G gets a bit older, it’ll be a good one for her to help me with. I tend to make my chicken noodle soup more stew-y than soup-y, so bear that in

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-82733477962262777512016-10-19T16:18:00.001-10:002016-10-19T16:18:49.671-10:00

Not “final” because I won’t talk about them again (you aren’t that lucky) but “final” in that this is the conclusion/culmination of near 18 months of reading, watching, talking, praying, and, yes, listening. I think unless you’re a hardcore partisan, everyone would admit we have some really horrible choices this year. And I mean of the candidates actually on ballots, not the wishful thinking

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-77877744215972522822016-07-28T09:52:00.001-10:002016-07-28T09:52:55.451-10:00

It’s a testament to how deeply ingrained the Harry Potter universe has welded into my adult life that I always seem to find a relation to it for most situations. I just got around to reading a little about Ilvermorny, the American wizarding school in the Potterverse, because my life revolves around youtube nursery rhymes these days and things like that tend to become very Last Week by the time I

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-55688957062550847342016-07-28T09:47:00.002-10:002017-09-18T11:08:04.276-10:00

It’s a testament to how deeply ingrained the Harry Potter universe has welded into my adult life that I always seem to find a relation to it for most situations. I just got around to reading a little about Ilvermorny, the American wizarding school in the Potterverse, because my life revolves around youtube nursery rhymes these days and things like that tend to become very Last Week by the time I

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-80936175081700895162016-05-13T08:54:00.001-10:002016-05-13T08:54:01.674-10:00

This post contains affiliate links but I didn’t receive any special favors for writing it. The FCC makes me say this because God forbid blogging happen without federal oversight. In April I was having a slump, so I decided that I’d order a new Stitch Fix to cheer myself up. It had been a few months since I had gotten styled, and I thought, even if I only get one new thing, it’ll be a nice pick

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-56158215317879619612016-04-23T14:11:00.001-10:002016-04-23T14:11:23.870-10:00

I just put the question mark there to pique your interest. There’s not actually a question mark in the original quote. Also some random pictures just to break up the text. Any time some new hot topic floats to the top of the internet, it’s like there’s a contest among internet theologians to out-love each other, as publicly as possible. And I’m not saying that’s bad. God is love, and to be

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-32704250876102341672016-04-04T15:11:00.001-10:002016-04-04T15:11:43.899-10:00

I got to participate in our church’s Easter choir last month. It was awesome on multiple levels, at least because it gave me the chance to stretch some old muscles. But also it was exciting because it was Easter. Christmas would be wonderful, too, of course. And I love show choir. But Easter is special. It’s the biggest, most important day of the year. Or, it should be. That’s a thought for

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-1791227508292673912016-04-01T15:14:00.001-10:002016-04-01T15:16:48.168-10:00

April 1 is my officially stated blogaversary, and today marks 7 years of sitting down to write something not in Word. I feel like the day needs to be acknowledged. Even though I haven’t been here in a while. And I don’t know when I will be again. Geez, I never thought I’d see the day. Not the 7 year mark (I always intended to blog forever and couldn’t imagine a scenario when I wouldn’t) but the

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-13457080168967610092016-02-04T10:22:00.001-10:002016-02-04T10:22:27.630-10:00

The swells have been rolling in the last few weeks, so we went to the North Shore to try and see some of the massive 40 footers they were forecasting. I think the day we were there, they were clsoer to 25 feet. Still impressive. The beaches were still roped off at that point so they could search for the crashed Marines I still can’t believe that was only a few weeks ago. FYI, the local

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-56701847986153693142016-01-20T13:37:00.001-10:002016-01-20T15:12:47.049-10:00

Towards the end of last year, I bought the Give Me Jesus journal from Life Lived Beautifully to use in my daily Bible Study. Prior to this, it was just me and my Bible when I could work it into the day. I’d tried doing formal study workbooks, and I like them, but I have a hard time keeping up with those without some kind of group accountability. I’ve followed lifelivedbeautifully on Instagram

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-30394262432942781022016-01-18T22:27:00.001-10:002016-01-18T22:27:52.489-10:00

We've had a nice, easy 4 day weekend around here. Friday I made ice cream and we watched a lot of TV. Saturday we drove up to the North Shore, the first time "for real." We drove through when my parents were here, but this was a deliberate trip. Post and pics to come. Sunday, everyone overslept. Normally we go to church, but both the dogs AND the child let us sleep until nearly 10. Usually they

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-68976354339453780992016-01-13T21:01:00.001-10:002016-01-13T21:01:47.781-10:00

It’s only January, so this isn’t a late post or anything. :p Being in Hawaii and effectively on our own for Christmas had intimidated me all month. My goal was to keep activities going as much as possible, so that maybe we wouldn’t notice it was just us. It generally worked. The days leading up to Christmas were filled with lots of shopping, wrapping, and baking (pics to come). Baby G loves

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-49540772707168739212016-01-11T20:58:00.001-10:002016-01-11T20:58:51.111-10:00

Of course one of our Aloha Bucket List items is a whale watching cruise. This is the time of year they migrate south, so we took a 3 hour cruise to see what we could see. Now, my friends know that I have a (mild) case of cetaphobia. We saw Finding Nemo in theaters, on the front row, and I about came out of my skin at that scene **SPOILER** when the whale swallows Marlin and Dory. IT’S COMING

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-81857306262657434592016-01-09T11:17:00.001-10:002016-01-09T11:18:16.470-10:00

I wonder when the day will come when I don’t see anything regarding this story pop up every time we get online. Because, even if you haven’t watched it, you know it’s everywhere. Can’t stop thinking about it because we won’t stop talking about it. I don’t know that I have anything new to add. But maybe if I put it all here, I won’t feel the need to go jumping into every facebook/twitter/

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-34843518549613673722016-01-04T23:40:00.000-10:002016-01-05T12:07:56.781-10:00

2016 is (at least on paper) already very different from the previous three years. No PCSs in sight. No lengthy separations. No new family members. Just a regular year of living (army) life with us, the kiddo, and the dogs. It’s a weird feeling, like I can let myself really settle in, finally. Not finally, of course. You know what I mean. While considering all this the last few weeks, the concept

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-547343206016378522016-01-04T05:03:00.000-10:002016-01-04T09:42:04.161-10:00

As much of an adventure just getting to Hawaii was, getting settled in Hawaii seems like it was equal, if not more so. Before we left the mainland, we had settled on buying a house. There were multiple reasons for this: We have two large dogs, and the person I spoke to at housing said that they wouldn’t give us a fence if we lived on post (some houses have fences, some don’t, if we got one that

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-71534674113184367552015-12-28T21:46:00.001-10:002015-12-28T21:48:46.794-10:00

My rough bullet-point list of 2015 is very rough. I think because so much happened and yet so much of it feels like a blur. BUT – I managed to crank out 15 things that happened in 2015 - We had Baby G’s formal dedication at our church in Arizona - We moved to Hawaii - We took Baby G to Disneyland, which she LOVED - We’ve been to two Hawaiian islands (Oahu, obviously, and Kauai)

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-51992648680106176122015-12-09T07:23:00.000-10:002015-12-09T07:23:00.127-10:00

Last week, the president of a university back east made some pretty, shall we say, stunning comments regarding carrying a concealed weapon. First, he announced the university would be offering a concealed carry qualification course (which is only good and right) and then – among other things – made what I presume to be a joke about “what was in his back pocket” and “can I pull that out in here?

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-61167754239490134292015-12-07T11:09:00.001-10:002015-12-07T11:09:19.893-10:00

November, the beginning of the season of gluttony. We had an awesome Thanksgiving with friends and food and football. Oh my gosh, so much football. But it was fun and tasty and lasted all weekend, as it should. I walked some, not as much as I intended, but still got out there and moved. And moved other ways, too. Baby G keeps me on my toes, AND my feet. And all in all, I lost ~ 2 more inches

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-28036360298321565672015-12-04T11:09:00.001-10:002015-12-04T11:09:07.547-10:00

When we moved off the mainland, one of the things we decided to try was cutting the cable cord and just living with internet and cell phones. No cable, no landline, no DVR. This was six months ago, and with a few exceptions, it actually hasn’t affected us that much. It turns out, there’s a LOT you can stream out there, with the right subscriptions and devices. We bought a Roku and got

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2780051783273380522.post-42270536469792063642015-12-02T10:45:00.001-10:002015-12-02T10:45:11.176-10:00

I haven’t done one of these in a long time, and this seemed like a good milestone to mark down. Baby G is awesome and is doing awesome. Walking and talking (babbling mostly) and coloring with crayons and using a fork and all kinds of good stuff. She likes to help me do the laundry and set up her high chair and helped me stir the casseroles for Thanksgiving. She’s happy and affectionate and in

JGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116405895683599572noreply@blogger.com0