Like a Water Buffalo in a Pansy Bed

Walt Henrichson from discipleshiplibrary.com has an excellent sermon on the roles of husbands and wives under his "Pillars of Discipleship series". While discussing mens' responsibility as head of their homes he emphasized daily martyrdom coupled with leadership. He used the above simile to describe a man who solely exercises leadership without personal  sacrifice for his wife and family. It stuck with me as I was mixing up my chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. How very blessed are all us wives whose husbands both understand and make those Bible passages their lifework. I sometimes think submission is difficult, but only until I read what a man's role in marriage is.
Back to the truffles...anyone who knows Louis well knows that he ONLY eats chocolate ice cream, pure and unadulterated as a dessert. Sometimes chocolate ice cream can get a little old for me, but it is his favorite thing on earth next to pizza and a good Italian sub...and Chinese food. So, I was surprised and excited to find him eating Cadi's cookie dough truffles one afternoon at the Vances' house. And yes, he loves them! So, I had an inspiration for Valentines Day. They have the recipe on tasteofhome.com and no, there are no eggs involved. And yes, it does taste like cookie dough, as long as you don't attempt the homemade sweetened condensed milk recipe that our family used to use for our coconut macaroon recipe. Excellent in the macaroons, terrible in these truffles. So, now it is past 11pm and they are chilling in the fridge. And will until morning, because my creative spirit is waning. I'm going to package them up and surprise him when the 4 day weekend starts-now only the entire world will know....but him...
Lou was supposed to have an entire week of out in the field experiences last week, but the cadre didn't want to spend the nights out in the cold with the men so they were kind enough to let everyone go home for bedtime. It was great because he was only 2 blocks away from the house shooting at one of the many ranges Benning has. Tonight however he is spending in the field and most likely tomorrow night as well. Today has been cold and rainy- this morning started with an 8 mile ruck march. While I was lying in bed silently complaining to myself about my shin splints, I was convicted of my complete selfishness when I pictured Lou out in the rain at 5am rucking for 8 miles. His captain does have a fine sense of humor though and told Lou if he kept pace with him the entire way, he could have Friday off...which would have been nice except that they are already promised Friday off. So, he arrived home with mega blisters and hobbled through his morning routine. The blisters are rather amazing!
Blisters to blisters, he actually started the collection Saturday morning. He bought a new pair of boots on Friday and decided to do some breaking in Saturday so we went on a ruck march together- 4 miles. He is a trooper. I am a weakling, I have decided! I carried nothing but a water bottle while he had his 40 lb. pack but I do have legs that are half the length of his so that must be part of my excuse. I kid you not, I had to jog to keep up with his paces and then in running I simply didn't keep up. Oh well, we took the RiverWalk which runs from Fort Benning proper along Lumpkin to the Infantry Museum outside the fort and beyond to downtown Columbus. I was told by a soldier in the post office that it has "alligators along it and so you have to be careful" and that started a lively conversation between the post office employee and the post office walls in general on the safety of jogging with alligators, her proclaiming loudly,"I wouldn't go where no alligators are running loose, you'll be running faster than ever before..." and then some. I reported the conversation to Lou when I got back to the truck and we jogged along "Alligator Alley" but didn't have the luck to see any. How disappointing after all that buildup!
Saturday night we spent a good evening at the McGinnis' house, the pastor from Westminster Presbyterian Church. Good food and funny conversations punctuated by their 2 year old daughter Abigail's protests for attention! Such a funny little cutie! I made the mistake of teaching her the "high 5" routine and then was called upon to repeat it millions of times. They have three kids, two boys and Abigail. They are all like a picture-very distinctive but look nothing alike. Luke, the second one reminds me of a browny-red Dennis the Menace. Full of mischief!
I have volunteering tomorrow at the post thrift store- from 9-2. I started last week and am busy mastering the art of tagging clothing in the prescribed spots- differs from shirts to pants and all is inspected by the head show runner with many critiques on my placement and/or speed (or lack thereof). She is very concerned with the flap-doodle way in which some of the volunteers operate and eyed me with suspicion when I arrived there last Wednesday morning. After spending some time watching with a hawk's eye and correcting my errors, she came to the conclusion that I was almost as Monk-like as herself in matters that involved: clothing hanging all in the same direction, pants together, shirts together, no clothing left on the floor, like colors in the same place...etc etc. We are both, in a (hyphenated) word "obsessive-compulsive". So, now we are friends and will get along famously, I think. Her 70something mother also works there and is the sweetest lady alive.
I had so much more I wanted to tell you all about but I spent all my day's allotment of brain cells on grocery shopping and exercising, resume writing and listing on craigslist, and can't remember half of the interesting news I have to share. Bleah, as Charlie Brown would say! Well, I'll update you when I regain clarity again!