I know what you are thinking. How does he do it, living full time as a military spouse in a tropical paradise with a beautiful wife and charming daughter?
It was not always this easy. I remember the times before the red carpet.
So this week I took a step back to return to the basics. To get in touch with earlier days. To remind myself to focus on the important milestones.
This week I:
. . . baked four more loaves of banana bread to add to the 10 I already baked for the welcome gift bags for newcomers. We have had at least fourteen new families arrive in the neighborhood and it just did not seem fair to say “Sorry, Coast Guard families, no banana bread for you. It’s a Navy thing, you wouldn’t understand.” Because it’s not a Navy thing, and they would probably catch on.
So full of life . . . must give away quickly.
. . . bought 21 orchid plants with our Hospitality committee. A committee of two if you include me. Orchids are the national flower of Singapore and a nice plant is inexpensive and thoughtful. Particularly if we give them away quickly, because apparently the Hospitality committee is all black thumbs when it comes to gardening.
My daughter will thank me later for these photos, right?
. . . accompanied my wife to a prenatal visit and my daughter to her dental appointment.
. . . went to the pool with my daughter. I pretended not to see her blow her nose in the pool a second time, another parent felt confident that her daughter did not pee in the pool, and a third parent politely asked her daughter to stop drinking the water. Next week we will change roles.
I also tried to plan a birthday party, a cooking class, and started to work with the board of our military spouse group to plan two bus trips, a potluck, and Bunko Night.
No good deeds went unpunished. For one thing, the day I handed out birthday party invitations, my daughter’s good friend gave out invitations for her party scheduled at the same date and time.
Ah well. It is almost the weekend and we have big plans. A play-dough play-date with a Coast Guard family.
I hope they share their banana bread.
