just another day at the Actually house
May 31st, 2009
Not a lot has been going on around here lately. Sure, we met friends for lunch and discovered a new park when some other friends invited us to join their playgroup for a birthday party, but mostly we’ve been having a lot of stay-at-home kind of days. That leads to something of a conundrum for me. Being boring does not make for good blog posts.
But the main reason I blog is so friends and family who are far away can stay caught up on our lives, and right now one very important person is far away from us: Troy.
I thank God every day that I am married to a sailor at a time when things like email and cell phones and the internet exist. I have a soft spot in my heart for snail mail, and when Troy is gone on long deployments I do send him tons of postcards and letters and care packages. But the immediacy and instant gratification of email is such a blessing when I don’t know exactly where Troy is or how long a letter will take to get to him.
Troy will only be gone a few more days, and then he’ll be home again. It’s not like a few days without talking to each other will kill us, or that he’s going to forget what his child looks like if he doesn’t see photos of her for a week. And as I said, it’s not like we’re doing anything all that exciting around here.
But I want to be in the habit of documenting small moments. When Troy’s ship deploys this summer, they’ll be gone much longer than a few weeks. When people are gone that long from home, working in a place so far removed from their normal way of life, I think the “boring” moments are the ones they want to hear about the most. Like, say, that Annalie asked to water the plants all by herself and then proceeded to do: finding the watering can, turning on the water, filling the can with the hose, carrying it up the stairs and watering all the pots.
Or about how Annalie, who usually has to be bribed to wear so much as a clip in her hair, requested ponytails the other day and then told me while admiring herself in the mirror, “You know, I used to not like ponytails. But now I think I’ll wear them every day. They’re so FASHIONABLE!” (She has only permitted ponytails once since that announcement, though.)
Or maybe it would be nice to tell the story behind this photo Annalie took of me. By herself. With the heavy, expensive D40. I could tell about how she bossed me around, telling me, “Mom, I want to take a picture of you by the lemon tree. Go stand over there!” And how when I placed the camera strap over her head and tried to remind her how to take a photo, she impatiently waved me away saying, ” know, I know! Turn this thingy to zoom, and push the silver button!”
Or I could simply let the world know how our child-labor program is coming along (nicely).
Or maybe just a photo of Annalie pretending a stick is a flute is enough.
I sometimes feel like I must be overloading you guys with information and photos. It’s like I’m the annoying person at the party, blabbing on and on about how great my kid is and showing you zillions of photos that—oh! I just happen to have in a mini-album in my purse! I worry that even the real-life friends and relatives who read this site will get sick of it.
Here, once again, I must proclaim the beauty of the internet. Those of you who are getting sick of it can just click away when you don’t feel like reading without fear of hurting my feelings. (Honestly, even if I knew you were clicking away I doubt my feelings would be hurt. Why would I want you to read something you don’t want to read!?) And those of you who can’t get enough (Hi Mom! Hi Carol!) can keep reading. And if you do, you’ll be rewarded sometimes with photos like this one.
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i really like annalie’s blue skirt! it fits her so well!
when i’ve been on a mission trip (for one year), i longed to hear all the “daily, boring” news from my family and boyfriend….unfortunately they tried to tell me all the fancy new stuff going on…..but after a few months i asked them to write me letters telling me about the little things; i loved that!
and no, you’re not boring and i’m not sick of reading daily happenings…..actually, i prefer reading stories about children than anything else….
have a great week!
Where can I sign up for the child labour programme (enjoying the spelling? ;-)) I have some filing that needs doing.
I enjoy reading all the little things that go on when I’m not around. It really does help make the away time less difficult. In some ways it can make things harder by seeing what I’m missing, but I think that is overcome by keeping up to date, sharing the daily life and seeing pictures of everybody. I have been truly blessed on all of my deployments with the instant communication of e-mail (sometimes even e-mail chat!) and your love of writing. The blog (and flikr – when I can get on) just takes it to the next level. Thank you for doing this… Bethany.
I don’t think your blog could ever get boring! :)
I could never get sick of your photos and cute stories! Keep ‘em coming!
i love reading about your daily life, especially the small moments. thank you for sharing them with us bethany.
oh, and you know i LOVE that last photo of annalie. what a character she is! :)
not annoying at all, those moments are lovely. great pictures too – having read your blog for a while, I can see how fast Annalie is growing up…
I echo your sentiments about electronic communication.
It’s funny…when Chris was on the trident… he was gone 3 months, home 3 months, gone 3 months, home 3 months…it was a pretty set schedule. I never heard from him though. They didn’t have e-mails on board. I had to use the familygram method of communicating. You know the drill… only a certain number of words could be transmitted, etc. I only heard back from him if someone visited on board and carried off mail… or they pulled in somewhere.
Now he’s on a fast attack and pretty much gone ALL THE TIME. Yet… I hear from him way more now than I ever did before. He sends e-mail every day. I like it because it feels like he’s just down the road, and I get to hear about his adventures. Suddenly the seperation doesn’t seem too horrible because I still get emotional support, loving words, and get to hear about his day. I still rather he was HERE but this is better than nothing. It’s definitely better than how it USED to be on the other boat.
Wishing your honeybuns a speedy return!!
I think that the internet is AWESOME for this very reason. When I was growing up with a Dad in the Navy, he’d be gone for months at a time and all we had were “family grams,” basically we got something like 140 words a month to tell him that we loved him. It was rough, so post away! Thanks for being a military family, it’s a hard job sometimes.
I like reading and seeing photos of your small moments. I’m feeling very nesty right now and not crafty at all so reading homey stuff is nice. And I like seeing what you guys are up to, even if it’s watering the plants.
And what Troy said makes me tear up. Well actually almost everything does right now. :)
I completely agree b/c the things I find so funny and cute about my niece are the little things. I’m not around to hear her talk and do everyday things so I love when my bff posts just anything about Sam! plus someday you will be living somewhere different and doing different things and it will be nice to remember the day to day things :)
The small things are the ones that matter. The little things that you miss when you’re gone.
And isn’t that the beauty of the internet? If somebody doesn’t want to read or hear something, they don’t have to! Marvelous!
You know, I’m 21 and my mom still doesn’t let me take pictures with her D40! lol. Well, okay, that’s because she hates having pictures taken of her and she knows that’s all I ever do when I get my mitts on her camera!
I echo the sentiment of Lauren, Annalie is getting big! The small moments are the ones that are hard to capture, because words don’t, and pictures can’t quite. But, it’s better than nothing. Cute batch of pics!! I love that Annalie uses your camera so well.
It’s cool to hear you still send postcard and care packages. I love email and the quickness of the internet but it’s great to have a physical thing sent from a loved one. Printing out just is not the same as receiving a specially picked out postcard in the mail.
Annalie is simply adorable in all of her pictures and I admire her for helping out so much around the house. Quite a responsible little girl!
That is a pretty awesome reward photo =)
I’m glad that Troy will be home soon. Enjoy the reunion!
I’m still reading! I was telling Kristen the other day how I feel like I talk to you a lot, but really I’m just reading your blog and forget that you don’t get many updates from my end. BTW, Ang got an offer on their house so they should be outta here July 1. I need new friends! Maybe I should get a letter of reference from you about what a great social director I can be. I haven’t been to P & P in months….they must miss you almost as much as I do!