Follow Up

Almost two years ago, I wrote about my son Zach and his struggle in college.  At the time, I was so discouraged and sad about what was happening.  I saw it as a missed opportunity for him - a door closing with no hope in sight of a "worthwhile" one opening.

As usual, God had a plan that I could not see!

Since junior high, Zach had said he wanted to join the military.  At first it was the Air Force, both of his grandfathers had been officers in the Air Force and, because of his love of all things aviation, he dreamt of being an Air Force pilot.  That changed slightly when he joined JROTC - ARMY JROTC.  His First Sergeant "brainwashed" him - changing his loyalty to the Army and becoming a helicopter pilot. 

All along, we assumed he would graduate from High School, go to college on an ROTC scholarship and then join the Army as an OFFICER.  After all, this was his legacy.  But, as I said earlier, God had a different plan. 

Enlistment Day!

After Zach left college, he came home and began working part time at the mall.  After a few months, he began the to explore enlisting in the Army.  His plan (Zach is good at planning....) was to enlist as a helicopter mechanic and then apply to warrant officer training to become a helicopter pilot.  However, the Army had a different plan.  Helicopter mechanics are typically selected from reenlisting soldiers, not new enlistees so his plan wasn't coming to fruition.  After many months of waiting, avoiding, lying and stagnating - something snapped.  It might have had something to do with my ultimatum - enlist or move out!

As with Zach - once he decided to do it - he did it all the way.  Zach enlisted, signed up to ship out within a month and signed up to be in the Infantry!  

Now, he is a Private First Class in the US Army, stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.  He is training to be a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) gunner on a Fire Team.  That means he carries and shoots a large automatic gun (kind of like a machine gun) to cover his buddies as they "go in". His brigade may be deployed in 2013 which is fine with me because it is a long way off.

I am so proud of the man he has become, and I see once again that God has a plan for us - the perfect plan for us - and we often have no idea what it is!  Zach is happy and confident where he is - he is successful and able and that is all we should wish for our children.

I Cherish Thursday Nights

Thursday nights are my favorite night of the week these days.



It's the one night we are all here for dinner - even Zach.  It's nice to sit at the table, eat dinner and talk as a family.  It's a big part of what I call "bonus" time.

When Zach graduated from High School and went to A&M I thought we'd never be together again as a family.  While I would much prefer that he were still at A&M, it's nice to have him here too.  I think of this time in our lives as "bonus" time with Zach.  He is becoming a wonderful young man and I love having him around these days.

When he was in High School, life in our house was not so pleasant.  He was an angry, oppositional kid.  He knew he was not living up to his potential and he became defensive.  It was not a fun time.

Now, it's different and I'm so glad for this time.  It's erased all of the horrible memories I had of the time before he went off to A&M.  He and Clark get along so well now - it gives me joy to watch them interact.  It gives me hope that they will always be close and be friends.  I so want that for them - I don't want the patterns their grandfathers developed with their brothers - I want my boys to always love each other and always be a part of each others lives.

So - while sometimes I worry that Zach is still here and not in school or on his own, I also cherish the time he is here and thank God that he wants to be.  He could be like so many other kids before him and want out of the house as quickly as possible.  Instead, he is here, bringing me joy and laughter and warming my heart everyday - not just Thursdays.

The Family Jewels

My favorite blogger @thepioneerwoman has been posting solutions to her jewelry storage dilemma on her blog.  I thought I'd show you what I did to deal with my jewelry.  It's a DIY that I talked about doing for a long time and finally did about a year ago.  I don't have progress photos because I didn't think I'd ever have a need to show anyone what I did.

I shopped around until I found a wall hung medicine cabinet that I liked.  I found this one at Target for about $50.

I set one shelf in the cabinet and measured the back wall and the inside of the door.

Using the measurements  of the back wall dimensions I cut thin foam core and covered it with thin batting and some left over black velvet I had.  I then covered the panels with solar screening (from the hardware store) that I had left over from when we replaced our screens.  This gave me a place to attach pins and brooches.  I glued the panels on the back of the cabinet using a hot glue gun.
For the inside of the door, I cut a thin piece of foam core and covered it with the velvet and screen, leaving out the batting.  This gives me lots of places to hang earrings.  On the inside of the door were screws holding the mirror in place.  I removed them, laid the panel in place and then screwed them back in holding the panel.  It took a little jiggering, but I eventually got it to work.

I then screwed tiny cup hooks on the underside of the shelf to give me hanging space for necklaces.

The final touch was to add a wire across the door panel for earrings with lobster claw type closures.  It was easier to hang these kind of earrings on the line rather than in the screen mesh.I hung it on the wall and viola!  A sweet jewelry holder with a mirror on front.

Now I don't have to look at the mess, I just close the door and its gone!  Perfect!!