Moran Family Fun

Just popping in to say that yes, it's been almost two months since I last posted. I set a goal to write more in 2018 and I planned to meet that goal by posting twice weekly. That's definitely a goal I need to revisit and revise because it may not be a goal I can actually achieve. It's not as if there's been nothing to write about since February - snow days, travel, soccer, and everyday life have made the days fly by with barely enough time to breathe some days. Last week was a busy week for me in the kitchen. I made meals for three different families, and throughout the week I baked bread, cinnamon rolls, corn muffins, five batches of strawberry jam, and a couple kinds of cookies. I love working in the kitchen but it's been something that I haven't had time for in the last six months or so. On Saturday as I was cleaning my berry-stained fingers I suddenly thought, "Man, I've missed my life." Since the beginning of this school year, I've bee...

Birthdays are markers in our lives. Moving from one decade to another is a milestone that is not marked by an accomplishment or an important decision, but simply your age. That's something you can't control as time keeps moving forward whether we're ready for it or not. I can honestly say that I'm not bothered by turning forty and that I still look forward to my birthdays. But there's no denying that those milestone birthdays (you know the ones, they end in zero) are a big deal. A time that, for me, leads to some looking back to see if I've accomplished anything worthwhile in the previous decade of my life or in any of the decades of my life.  So I found photos of myself at all those other ages that end in zero. Maybe if I take it a decade at a time it will be easier to see what I've learned? Seriously, whose dog is this? Italy, 1981 Okay, this first one is already breaking the rules as it's not from a milestone birthday. I have two pictures...

Jared came home just over two weeks ago and it was both the best day and the worst day I've had in a very long time. You see, the military doesn't give you lots of notice before transporting people home after deployment and the Air Force somehow chose the busiest day in a super busy week to send the love of my life home to us. There were appointments and commitments overlapping each other the entire day. But I was determined to make it all work because this was going to be the best day! My schedule for the day of Jared's return. Non-stop competing committments all day long. Things were looking great until we got about four miles down the road from our house. I was waiting for a green light so I could turn into the main gate of the base. The light changed, I put my car into first gear, I heard a POP,  and the car wouldn't go anywhere. It's like the gear shift was a giant joystick and was just moving in circles but would not engage in any gear. Our car woul...

Since I've been lucky enough to move every few years for as long as I've been alive, I've made a lot of friends in my life. All that moving means that I've also said goodbye to a lot of friends over the years. It's not easy to sustain a friendship when you live in different states or on different continents, you know?    Larisa Kennedy is one friend who I've managed to keep in touch with and our friendship has actually become deeper and stronger in the fifteen years since we actually lived near each other.  I'm so grateful for her friendship - it's a huge blessing in my life.  As the saying goes, it takes a long time to grow an old friend. We're going on eighteen years as friends now and I can't imagine my life without Larisa. One thing I most appreciate about her is how comfortable and at home I feel when I'm around her. No matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, we can instantly pick up as if nothing has changed ...

Being separated from your husband for six months isn't the best thing in the world, but it has been a great excuse to take almost monthly getaways to Sicily. After four trips to visit Jared over the last six months I've come to know the island a little bit (and at this point, I'm also very familiar with the airport in Catania as well as the London Luton airport) and I'm going to miss my mini vacations. A couple of weeks ago Abigail, Samantha, and I boarded a plane to Catania and set off for one last Sicilian adventure!  These two hadn't seen their dad in five months so they were excited about this trip! We arrived around midday and spent the afternoon relaxing, working out, and getting the girls oriented to the base. That evening we headed into Catania for paninis, which is usually Jared's Friday night thing but he made an exception for us. The girls weren't sure about them, but I think they were surprised by how delicious a sandwich from a sli...

Deployment is one of those necessary evils in military life. Luckily we've not had to deal with it very much over the past twenty-one years. We're just one month away from the end of deployment number two. For those of us who have been left behind at home, it's actually been a pretty easy deployment. You'd have to ask Jared whether or not he'd say the same thing! The fact that Jared is in a location where he is not harm's way every day and that we can visit has certainly contributed to that feeling. I'm currently in the middle of my fourth and final trip to Sicily and am typing this from the comfort of Jared's hotel suite, his home for the past five months. Despite the differences between Jared's first deployment and his current one, the emotions that I've cycled through during his time away have been surprisingly similar both times. It starts before your spouse even leaves with good old fashioned stress because there's a lot to do and a lo...

The transition from vacation to real life was swift and we weren't all the way ready for it. All the girls were at home at the beginning of the week and then suddenly all the girls weren't here because Madison left for Utah and everyone else went back to school. Well, not everyone. Emily was sick so she spent most of the week sitting in the same spot on the couch alternating between napping and complaining about how sick she felt. During that strange week between Christmas and the new year, I decided that I wasn't going to go grocery shopping. There was enough food in the house as long as we used some imagination with recipes. By Monday we were scraping the bottom of the barrel food wise and we really needed to buy some groceries. I didn't realize that everything would be closed on New Year's Day - even the stores on base. So we paid way too much for six eggs at a gas station and had waffles for dinner that night. Tuesday I was determined to find actual grocerie...