...the life of a Navy dog

Fair winds and following seas to my dear deployment dog.   For fourteen years you have been by my side.  The never ending deployments, the deployment where we didn't know when it would end, the deployments that I didn't expect to be the way they were, the deployments that we didn't expect and then there was the shore duty that turned into "det" duty with a critically ill child.  Jax joined our family in Japan during Glenn's first sea tour.  Over the 38 months that we were there Glenn was gone 9 out of 12 months and we had two very small children.  Jax was always there.  Cleaning up dropped cheerios, little faces that needed wiping, gold fish, sushi, you name it.  He was there.  He always had an idea of who was okay and who was not...who should come near his puppies and who should not.

The first thing that he did was bring a smile to the face of my 15 month old who didn't understand why his father was gone...and we had no idea when he would be home.  Those many nights when I was up with sick children and my husband was deployed, he was there.  Regardless of how many times I got up in the middle of the night, he was there.  The time period of Rachel's critical illness and endless breathing treatments around the clock, he was there.  When I was trying to learn how to nurse a baby, exhausted in the middle of the night, he was there.  When I lost the baby weight and cast off postpartum depression, he was my constant running partner and was always there for a run.  Over the past few years he has slowed down a lot but he was always happy so we kept him going.  Of late, his spirit was still willing but his body had quit.  Now, he isn't here. 

Dogs, especially retrievers, embody everything that Christ tried to teach on how to treat others.  They achieve it with little to no effort because they are pure of ill intentions.  They just want to be with their person, to be there.  Good bye old friend, we gave you the best day your body could handle yesterday.  May you be pain free in a field with endless tennis balls to retrieve, squirrels to chase, a never ending sun patch for lounging and no kitties to boss you around.


His Japanese Kennel Certificate as a black lab and was originally named Beam of Shonan Kanezaki born 10/25/2002.  I always thought this was cool as it is mostly in Kanji and the names are a bit entertaining. 

how home schooling has brought peace to this military family....

We made the choice to home school 5 years ago but continuing to home school has not been so much about perceived failings of the public school system but more about the needs of our family.  This is not about how one way is better than any other and it certainly won't convince someone who is committed to a public school education to commit to home schooling.   Although, I pray it might pique their interest.  This is about how home schooling has brought peace to our military family.  My mission as a mom, like all moms, is to raise educated, intelligent, respectful, responsible world citizens who seek to follow God's word.  Taking absolute responsibility for this in the midst of deployments, moving cross country and overseas or dealing with multiple school systems in one school year has brought peace to many stressful areas of my life.

Did we start home schooling because I knew or suspected that it would bring peace?  Nope.  Not at all.  We started home schooling for the same reason that many do.  We were unhappy with the exposure our children were receiving in school.  Once we left, I discovered many things that fell in to place.

1.  Transitions (ie the human version of playing pickup sticks).  If we had stayed with public school our children would have been to five different schools in four years.  With each change they would have had different teachers, different systems, different standardized testing preparations, different school cultures and expectations.  These changes and the ability to adapt is part of what creates an amazing military child and along with you I celebrate these successes!  However, I saw that we didn't have to do that to raise amazing military children!  With home schooling, they have one curriculum, one set of teachers and moving from school to school is as "simple" as moving from house to house.  The quality of education do not change with each move.  Have you wondered why math is so much easier for your child at duty station X than it was at duty station Y only to find out at duty station Z that it was because the quality of education was less and now your child has to peddle hard to catch up.  Continuity through transitions brings peace to this concern.

2.  Records.  Who has moved from school system to school system in the middle of the year, particularly high school, needing to bring old text books, syllabi, course standards etc so that the receiving school will grant appropriate credit?  Who has stressed about their high school student not having credit accepted at the receiving command's school?  Who has sat in the Base School Liaison Officer's office realizing that your child's academic relies on the decisions of others?  Me too.  There is plenty of paperwork with home schooling but the variables do not change with each move. 

3.  Where are we going next?  How many of us have had a conversation with our military spouse pleading not to go to Duty Station Outinthemiddleofnowherepleasedonttakemethere because the schools are awful?  This completely removes that conversation and frees the military member from that one VERY important consideration as we are the first and best teachers for our children. (oops...I said I wasn't going to try and convince you to home school)  Home schooling makes the human version of pick up sticks less stressful and more fluid.

4.  Consistency.  I do believe that exposure to different people and different expectations are good for a child.  Military children are exposed to this effortlessly as they move from school to school.  Sometimes, this is good and sometimes not so good.  I can recall one school district that insisted they only did Gifted and Talented testing in the spring.  Since we had arrived after testing had occurred in late May, we would have to wait until the next Spring for testing and then my students could join GATE their second school year in that district.  Um.  No.  We were only going to be there for 2 school years and after that go through the whole process again.  After many meetings and a few temper tantrums I got them in the program right away (using squirreled away test scores and papers from previous schools...see #2) but who needs the stress?  It shouldn't be so hard to maintain a consistent level of education. 

5.  Standardized tests.  Wait.  I home school AND believe in standardized tests?  Yes, yes I do.  Each year my children take a standardized test from the same company and the same set of standards.  So, if their test scores wax and wane I do not need to wonder if it is due to a different test or a different curriculum it is an actual indicator of their learning and sets training points for the future.
As an added benefit, I found meaningful, fulfilling employment in the home school industry and am able to pursue a career at home.  Since then, I have met many home school moms who work in their area of expertise (including my primary care physician) while home educating their children.  So, this isn't a choice that excludes individual pursuits of the one who educates and can be a blessing to the whole family.  

Over the next few weeks, I am conducting a series of webinars on this topic through Landry Academy and encourage you to check here for those.  I will address;

1.  5 ways home schooling has brought peace to our military family

2.  Moving/PCSing while home schooling?  Here's how.  

3.  Home school record keeping for the military family (or anyone changes their home state) 

4.  Home school success and deployments 

More later...I am really excited about this project!

CrossFit, Obesity and Rhabdo

I had a blog post come across my feed about the dangers of CrossFit.  The first thing that came to mind was...haters gonna hate.  Then it was, this isn't the first time nor will it be the last time.  Then...I had something to say.

The article had two claims against CrossFit, the dangers of Rhabdomyolysis and the lack of form due to the high intensity of the WODs.  That ticks me off.

High Intensity and Form.  Most awesome CrossFit gyms utilize a detailed fundamentals class that goes through ALL of the movements, form, pillars of fitness AND stressing the need for personal responsibility.  Personal Responsibility.  Let me say that again, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.  If your gym doesn't utilize this...RUN AWAY.  I am asked to think, be a part of the process and communicate.  Then there is an on ramp time frame with shorter workouts and lower weights to accommodate those who are building up to greater levels of awesomeness.  Our gym has a 5-6 hour program that is REQUIRED for membership before the first WOD.  The beauty of CrossFit is that everyone, despite ability level, can get an awesome workout doing different levels of the SAME workout.  Good form is a process.  No one is perfect the first time.   When an out of shape person or new to CrossFit person joins; there is going to be a time frame of learning how to do the movements while minimizing the risk of injury but capitalizing on the greater activity to gain a greater level of fitness.  CrossFit is not a government funded health program where everything is provided to the athletes (read this post on personal responsibility) if it were, it would be easy, we would be given  a trophy JUST for showing up AND would be worse off than when we started.  Plus a GMO laden corn syrup covered cupcake.  I want excellent health and I need to work for it.  Nothing worth having comes easy.

Rhabdo is nasty business.  However, obesity is a greater risk.  I am not a Doctor but could <loosely> qualify as a mathematician so I am going to stick with numbers.  There are many causes of rhabdomylosis.  Crush injuries, drug abuse, alcoholism, kidney disease, flu etc etc etc.  I searched and searched for a percentage of US deaths by Rhabdomylosis and as it turns out...1 in 5 deaths in the US are from obesity related illnesses but no numbers for Rhabdo.  Specifically no numbers for exertional related rhabdo.  I read the National Vital Statistics which doesn't specifically list Rhabdo...my guess is that it falls under "Kidney Disease" but again...not a doctor and honestly I lost interest as I was scrolling by; heart disease, stroke, diabetes which are all linked to obesity.  However, please note that the big blue chunks on the right.  Obesity has been linked to cancer as well as heart disease which comprises half of the deaths in the US.  Type 2 diabetes deaths are also linked to obesity which is the icing on the cake of death.  (chart stolen without shame from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_06.pdf)

So...what is my greater risk?  Purely based on numbers (BMI and body fat) I am still (as of today 11/4/2014) considered to be obese.   I would attest that CrossFit and healthy eating are a cure for obesity and as long as I communicate with the coaches and listen to my body I feel my greatest risk statistically is obesity related illnesses.  So...those who want to waste their time trashing CrossFit, marathon runners and other people who are working hard to be healthy need to do their research and stop taking pot shots for grins and giggles.  Stick with the real risks that align with math and science.

Double Grace for time anyone?

****Please excuse my lack of APA/MLA citing...this isn't a paper and I forgot about that stuff the minute I got my grad degree.

Slaying the beast...CrossFit Style

In CrossFit...we have a rope that hands from the ceiling for climbing.  It is the same as the ropes that hung in elementary school gyms of my age and even though I could climb it (without feet) back then it has been a struggle for me to get up that rope now.

For many months it has mocked me.  The voices of my elementary (okay..middle and high school too) peers have (mostly) long been silenced by academic and career milestones achieved.  It has been replaced by my own inner voice which at times betrays me.  Up until this morning...it came from the rope in the back of the Box.  It mocked me with all of those things I used to tell myself...all beginning with can't...won't...never will be.  When I would pass the rope to use the restroom (like as the coach started to say we were going to start the WOD...oops...Gotta PEE!!!)  I would look at the rope and say...one day...you will be MINE.  Today...those sounds were silenced.  I climbed the freakin' rope.  Take that sucka and keep those thoughts to yourself.  Now, it is the rings...muscle ups next?

Eggs...slight rant.

I think companies that use marketing schemes that fatten their pockets by taking advantage of shoppers are bottom feeders.  I stumbled on one today.

Chickens are omnivores.  Mature egg laying chickens need about 16% of their diet to be protein.  Given their choice...this would be bugs and meat (think of animals they can kill and eat; mice, snakes, skinks etc) if they can get it.  So...if your eggs come from vegetarian fed chickens where do you think that protein comes from?  Soy.  What agriculture product in the US has the most plantings of highly genetically engineered product with herbicides (roundup) and insecticides??  Soy.

Where can chickens get their protein?  Soy, meat products and alfalfa meal.  I am sure there are others...but those are what I researched.  Most commercially prepared chicken feed uses soy for the protein.  Most organic feed...uses soy for the protein.  So, chickens who live in little boxes and do nothing but eat and lay all day...they eat a commercial type feed.  So, what does this mean?  Aha!  Those chickens are vegetarian fed too. 

Chickens little bodies (like ours) are designed to filter out toxins.  Since eggs are not a waste product...they will have had the benefit of the chickens cleverly designed filtration system. 

So, if you want to spend more money on eggs or are concerned with how chickens are treated..please choose cage free or free range.  Don't waste your money on vegetarian eggs...the biggest contributing factor to the nutritional value of the egg comes from the health of the chicken.  Chickens living in a box aren't going to be as healthy as a cage free chicken.

Disclaimer thoughts...There has been a hubalub about chickens in mass farms being fed the culled older chickens to give them the protein they need.  I believe...that most of the byproduct goes towards dog food and such these days but couldn't find any sources to the contrary.  However, chicken tidbit, chickens will kill and eat each other in the free range environment.  I have also seen them eat a mouse and a snake.  Then a day later fight over a skink.  No joke.    

When you see 'no animal byproducts' on the package...recycling chickens who aren't producing is what they are referring to.   Also, the vegetarian eggs pictured above...do not say that they are cage free or free range.  So, those chickens who are being fed a vegetarian diet were living in little shoe boxes laying and eating all day. 

1.5 pood baby carry ...

53# kettle bells are also referred to (by the informed Russian set...you know who you are) as 1.5 pood.  Every time I hear that I think of the past tense of poo...that would be a lot of poo.

This week in CrossFit we had a WOD that involved carrying a 53# kettle bell down the parking lot while your partner slogged away doing pushups and then switch until 200 pushups were achieved by the team of 2, 300 pushups for a team of three or for the super awesome 300 pushups for a team of two.

As I was carrying the 53# kettle bell down the parking lot I thought of this picture below of me carrying an extra 50# of body weight.  The equivalent of what I was at that second carrying a 53# kettle bell. 

 

When these pictures were first taken..I was so annoyed at my husband for taking them with me in the picture.  In my mind the pics were all ruined.  Because I was in them.  Ouch. 

While continuing to chip away at the WOD...remembering back to the day when I saw those pics contrasted to now...I came to a few conclusions.

1.  This picture is of a woman who fought to keep her youngest alive at the expense of her own health.  I sat up all night watching her breathe giving her treatments into the wee hours of the morning and then got up and went to work.  I ate horrible fast energy foods and had zero time for myself.  However, the Littlest Who lived and that is all that matters.  End of story.  I didn't ruin the pic...God working through me is the reason this picture took place.

2.  One short month after this, at that weight, I walked from the Radisson Hotel in Seattle to the SeaTac airport, not a great distance, with the little red head (30#) on my back, a computer backpack backwards on my chest (15#) pulling a big suitcase (not doing the coefficient of friction math) and directing Andrew and Katherine to stay on the side walk.  That lady is strong and determined.  A wise friend told me that we should strive to be like a force of nature...guided by God and unstoppable.

3.  Clearly I should have been carrying the 2 pood bell.  Say that without giggling.  I can't.

4.  Thinking like this during a WOD probably contributes to why I can't count reps.

What does this all mean?  I have no idea.  One thing, military wives do stuff like this all the time and are awesome.  I am also thinking with those numbers in #2 that I need to be squatting and dead lifting more and perhaps I shouldn't try to think of profound things while starving myself of oxygen during exercise. 

You raise chickens? In your yard? HOW?

Since I talk so frequently about my chickens I get questions and odd stares (I assume those are the judge-y types) but most are like, "hey...do you sell your stuff?  I want in!"

Our yard is mostly cleared and the house sits closer to the street than to the back property line and the yard is completely surrounded by a wooded area.  I can only see one neighbor's house from the backyard and she is an older lady that throws scraps in her backyard as she likes to watch my chickens roam through her yard.  My ladies are happy to oblige.

We have both meat birds and egg birds.  Meat birds are bigger meatier birds that get big really really quick.  Our lesson learned is that meat birds reach sexual maturity and begin crowing before they reach maximum dress weight.  Lesson learned...only hens next time.

Our goal is raise our own chicken meat and then have enough eggs to sell to pay for the rest of the operation.  This started as a project business for the kids in budgeting and responsibility.  They all have an active part in some function of the process and eventually will reap part of the earnings to add to their allowance. 

This is a panoramic from our back door - the green dome in the right middle is my greenhouse.  More on that later.

When we get new chicks (meat or egg laying) they start off in the garage or the shed in a chick playpen.

Nifty Playpen

At this age it is important to keep them free from drafts and predators.  They are supposed to be kept at 90 degrees for the first week.  I don't do that.  Actually...I am not careful at all.  I didn't wash my children's binkies when they fell to the floor either...unless it landed in something worse than their mouths.  Which is pretty hard to find.  I watch the chicks to see if they are all clumped up trying to get warm...if so I turn the light on.  If they are gathering under the light I lower it until a few are escaping the heat of the light.  Which is at about 82 degrees for about a week then we only had the light on at night.  

Baby chicks are about as helpless as a toddler.  They can feed themselves, walk around, play and hurt themselves pretty easily.  Tidbit: baby chicks can also drown in their drinking water. 

Looking back up at the picture of our back yard..after they leave the playpen they go to the romper room which is the green 'tractor' that can be moved around for them to have fresh grass for scratching and to keep disease out of the picture by them not walking around in their own poo.  A 'tractor' is any portable chicken enclosure that can be moved to provide fresh grass to chickens.  The 'romper room' also has a heat light built in to the lower back part so they can have heat at night.

Romper Room

Inside "Romper Room"

After the romper room...meat birds go to the flat which is the second from the right.  It is a flat box that is 12*12 with food and water.  Half of it is covered on top and about a quarter has blocked sides to provide them a place to sleep where predators can't look in.  I followed the Joel Salatin model.  Interesting tidbit...meat birds aren't supposed to roost as they are too big and it leaves bruises.  The flat gets moved around the yard and they scratch, eat the weeds and poo.  Which fertilizes the ground that I plant grass seed on right behind them as I move the 'tractor'.  Pretty simple operation.  Meat birds eat a lot as they go to 10-14lbs (undressed) in 80 days.  I raise Red Rangers as they are "more" of a heritage breed than the Cornish Cross and they take longer but it is a much more humane process.  In my opinion.

"The Flat"

After the romper room for egg layers they go to the condo which is second from the left.  They have a roost and two levels for sleeping and hanging out during the day.  It is covered as well.  The ladies in the picture below are about 6 weeks old and will move in a few weeks to either 'Momma's Coop' or 'Pax Pullum'.

"The Condo"

Right now the condo is full of egg layers.  They will be moving to Momma's coop (to the right of the shed) and "Pax Pullum" all the way on the right.  Momma's coop is the one I built for our Hen who hatched out eggs from the Amish man in the Spring.  You can hardly see it from the house.  Good design, eh? 

"Momma's Coop"

The Big House. "Pax Pullum" which took us almost 8 months to finish in between gutting the kitchen and living room of our house.  The run is about 135sqft which they spend the morning hours in before they are let out in to the yard to free range.  If you lay an egg... and I like you...you have the privilege of living here.

Last but not least.  The "Penalty Box" or the "Broody Buster" as the "Chicken Chick" calls it.  It has one occupant in it right now.  I let her out every day (she has food and water in there) and she goes right.back.to.the.egg.box.  So far she is on day two...I am hoping she will give up soon.  The cool air is supposed to return her body temperature to a normal level and then she will stop being broody.  Supposedly.  I think she is just looking for a baby daddy.  Clearly, she doesn't read my blog.  If she did she would know all of the roosters are in the freezer.

This was our first hen house and since then we have used it for an injured hen that we nursed back to health and trying to unbroody hens. 

That is it.  We pray one day that we will be blessed with the stability of living in the same place long enough to purchase 20+ acres for a real farm!