Via email:

Our Military Kids applied for a grant from the Pepsi Corporation called “Refresh Everything”. In 2010, Pepsi will give millions of dollars to fund good ideas that make the world a better place. Our Military Kids applied for a $50,000 grant award to provide grants to cover fees for enrichment activities for children of members of the Armed Forces who have died while serving our nation. Our Military Kids receives many requests from the families of these fallen service members, but to-date, our organization does not have the funding to award grants to these children who so richly deserve our support.

The good news is that the Our Military Kids’ idea for a grant to fund this new project has been accepted by Pepsi. Now Our Military Kids needs your help in order to receive the grant. Starting on March 1, you can go to the www.refresheverything.com site and vote for the Our Military Kids project to support the children of fallen service members. You will find the Our Military Kids’ logo, a picture of one of our grant recipients, a You Tube Video about Our Military Kids, and a description of our proposal which begins with, “I want to help children of fallen soldiers deal with the loss of their parent.”

All projects will be eligible for a public vote and the projects that receive the most votes will be awarded grants from the Pepsi Corporation. Please vote for our project and vote often. You can vote once every day during the month of March.

The children of fallen service members who died while serving our country definitely deserve our thanks and acknowledgement for their sacrifice. Our Military Kids can fund a new experience that will offer them excitement and joy. It may not take the pain of losing a loved one away, but it will assist children through the healing process. With your help we’ll be able to show them how much our nation appreciates them. Thank you for your support of the Our Military Kids program and the children of our fallen service members.

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My family received over $1500 from this organization last year, which went to pay for fencing and ballet for my children. Their funds are for families of deployed soldiers who serve in the National Guard and Reserves. I am pleased that they would like to include children of fallen soldiers as well.

If you go to Pepsi’s site, you have to click on the $50,000 amount to find their listing. Or you can go here for a direct link to their ballot. You can vote for 10 different organizations per day.

Do you use a mop? I have always washed my bathroom and kitchen floors the way my mom did: on hands and knees. I think this is a superior method, especially at detecting and cleaning random sticky spots or the debris that collects along cabinet bottoms.

However, this new house has a lovely stone tile that goes from the front entrance, down a hall, into a bathroom and a laundry room, and then covers my generously sized kitchen, eating area and family room. I think there is more square feet of tile in this house than there is total living space in my house in New Jersey. I have washed this floor on my hands and knees, because I do not own a mop. And I have concluded: I need to own a mop.

But the choices are overwhelming. Do I go retro and use a cloth string mop that needs be be hand wrung? Do I use a modern version of the same with a built in wringer? Do I use a sponge mop? How about these disposable swifter mops?

I’m all about learning from other people’s experiences. I don’t want to waste my money only to be disappointed. If you mop, tell me what you like and what works well.

BBC News – Peanut allergies tackled in largest ever trial: “Twenty out of 23 sufferers in an earlier study became able to eat more than 30 peanuts safely.”

I think, as a mom, to not have that fear lurking whenever you try a new food or eat at a restaurant or party would be worth using my child as a guinea pig. Imagine if in 5 or 10 years most children entering kindergarten were “cured” of peanut allergies? What a wonderful thing.

Several times this past week, my husband had to attend rehearsal for his change of command ceremony. Day One, he told me how he forgot his “snivel gear.” Snivel gear is that which you wear to keep from sniveling at the weather: long underwear, ear muffs, rabbit-fur lined hats, battery-heated socks. Day Two, he told me how the snivel gear he wore was insufficient and he needed to wear more (ear muffs are not Army-approved, just so you know).

This information churned in my head for several hours before something finally occurred to me:

“Hey, are you saying that the change of command is outside?”

Apparently, changes of command are almost always outside. My husband sometimes forgets that I’m not in the Army, too.

Yesterday, I dug out gloves and hats for all the kids (OK, honestly, I had Fritz do this while I patiently and calmly removed tangles from my daughters’ hair…OK, honestly, I had Fritz do this while I not so patiently and calmly removed tangles from my daughters’ hair). I made sure everybody had their winter coats ready. One argumentative child felt that his fleece jacket was sufficient.

“I’ll be fine, Mom,” he said. “It’s nice outside.” And it was nice: nearly 50 degrees and sunny.

“Yes, it’s nice for running around and playing. It’s not so nice for sitting still on metal bleachers for an hour. Wear your coat, ditch the ball cap, and bring your gloves and knit hat.”

He argued; I insisted. He argued, and I said he wasn’t coming if he didn’t dress the way I told him to, end of story. I’m all for having children learn life’s lessons naturally, but this was not an occasion to deal with a sniveling child. Snivel gear (anti-snivel gear?) was mandatory. I even brought a blanket for Mary.

I left early to make sure we were early, and I had enough time to run into the grocery store for a few things. As I dashed in the warm sunshine, I thought surely we were overdressed. It was so pleasant in that parking lot. The sun was bright, and there was no wind. It was a beautiful day.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the field for the ceremony. I left my own gloves in the car, because it was so nice. We walked around the covered seating area to find my husband, and then IT hit me: the wind.

I swear there was a special wind making machine facing the bleachers. The windless parking lot of the grocery store felt wonderful. But this place was frigid. I couldn’t believe we were in the same zip code (and we were perhaps 4 blocks away). I immediately sent Fritz back to the car for my gloves (I guess he was glove boy yesterday, poor thing). Oh, and the bleachers were in the shade, too.

And that argumentative son? Right away, he said, “You were right, Mom.” But not totally right. “You should have had me wear BOTH the fleece and the coat.” He was right about that.

Average temperatures for this area in February are in the mid-sixties. So far, we’ve not been anywhere near that. I’m not complaining, really, I’m not. I’m just thankful I don’t have to sit in shady, windy bleachers every day. Keep me on the leeward side of buildings in the sun.

I’m reading the local, quarterly magazine for this small town in which I live. I think the content is interesting, and I’m happy to see the ads of local businesses because I like to support local businesses. But I’m not impressed with the writing. Every article has exclamation points. Wow! I didn’t know how exciting the material was! I’m so glad they are helping me!

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Although I like to shop locally, I’ve made a few trips to the shopping centers that are a half hour or more away. Have you ever been to a World Market? Please don’t tell me that this stuff is made with slave labor.

A few days ago, I combined a trip there to buy a coffee table with a drop off at the Salvation Army. Now, if you were to guess which part of a small city had a Salvation Army, would you think it would be in the ritzy section? Of course not. I found myself locking the doors and being thankful it was a sunny day. The kids kept asking me questions and I kept thinking, “Please stop distracting me. I don’t want to get lost!” (Exclamation point added so you know how urgent my thoughts were.)

Later I told Bill if we had any more drops offs, he could do the errand. But this morning I saw an ad in the poorly written local magazine that a thrift store was coming soon. Thank goodness.

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Last weekend, Bill was driving us on one of the long stretches of straight, flat roads with a strictly maintained speed limit. We are so used to areas where the speed limits are considered “guidelines.” Here, though, either the people are very obedient, or the police are very active. Either way, we are driving much slower than normal.

“It’s a good thing we have cruise control,” said my husband.

“My car has cruise control?” I asked. We have owned this van for four years.

“You mean you drove all the way to Georgia without using the cruise control?!” (Exclamation point included so you know how incredulous he was.)

Georgia? GEORGIA? How about: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, KANSAS…

“My car has cruise control, too,” he added.

“Really?” We’ve owned that car since 1997.

So I’ve been learning how to drive, again. It’s fun to learn new stuff! (Really!)

Bill and I were browsing online different outdoor dining sets. The vast majority seat a maximum of 6 people. The ones that seat 8 are pretty expensive.

So, I’m proposing this expanding Amish table. It seats 22. It should accommodate us for a while.

Is It Time for a Catholic Tea Party?

I really like Deal Hudson.

We made it until February before getting sick this winter, so I can’t complain. Everybody seems to have stuffy noses and scratchy throats today. And we’re cranky. And tired. I lay down with Mary to take a nap and only got up because the older kids were fighting over who got to pick the next video. I’ve been trying hard to get the house in order this week, so we can get back to school next week. Lack of routine generates bickering and complaints of boredom.

We’ve been here less than a week and we’ve already attended baseball tryouts for the boys, Little Flowers for the girls, and hosted friends returning home to Virginia from vacationing in Florida. No, the friends were not too eager to head into the Snow Capital. I think what I miss most about our own vacation is the lack of commitments. But then again, that simple lifestyle might get old after a while, too. We do enjoy doing things.

My hope is that hubby can set up my computer for me soon (today?). It’s unpacked, and I suppose I could hook it up myself. But I enjoy letting him spoil me. Besides, I have a garage to sort and two missing lampshades to locate. And I have to figure out what to do about storing all these toys. I think the Salvation Army may have room…

There is currently a 69 degree difference in temperature between where I live in GA and where my sister lives in AK. Of course, she will be comfortable this summer while I am wilting.

Northern VA is expecting another 10 to 20 inches on top of the 30 they got last weekend. I can not claim sadness at missing out on that disaster.

Unpacking is my life right now. The kitchen is almost done, although I cannot find a few key items, and I am waiting for a door mounted spice rack I ordered from The Container Store.

The school books are still boxed, as is my computer. Today I must focus on my bedroom and unpacking clothes. The recycling center is open today, so I can unload one huge stack of cardboard. I have about 8 loads in my garage after that, plus what I add today. Once I empty the garage of flattened boxes I can try to sort the garage which is one huge dumping ground.

Unpacking is the hardest part of moving.

Amazingly, nothing from the kitchen was broken, but the packer did not tape items shut, so I had things like cornstarch everywhere. They did break one table, which was broken on our move to Kansas as well. I need to Google furniture restoration. The restorers in KS did a great job, so I only moan over the inconvenience of doing it and the hassle of getting reimbursed.

All in all, things are going well. Bill has started work, so we missed having him around. Jenny fell off her scooter twice yesterday and scraped herself pretty badly. She was crying for Daddy. I am now chopped liver.