There’s an Army Chaplain on the cover of the May 7, 2007 issue of Newseek. You can read the articles online:
How Chaplains, Soldiers Keep Faith During War
Chaplains: The Calm in the Chaos
One Flag, Many Faiths
In God They Trust
Please check out the articles and related videos and let us know what you think. I’ll try to post my comments later.
Thanks to a gift certificate from Mom and Dad, I just received a box filled with eight different varieties of green coffee beans.
My first selection: Sulawesi Grade One Toraja
When roasted at Full City or darker, Sweet Maria’s describes this coffee as “deep-toned character, low-acidity, syrupy body, funky foresty note.”
I roasted this one first because I prefer the low-acidity and had no idea what ‘funky foresty note’ meant. It gives off very little chaff which to you non-roasters out there means: it’s not as messy when roasting.
This is a great cup of coffee, hot or lukewarm… which is how I usually end up drinking my coffee since I’m easily distracted. It needs no cream or sugar. I used to think that I take my coffee with a little half&half but actually, I take bad coffee with half&half. Good coffee is just fine black.
[Note to self after third cup: Order more of these beans!]
In addition to writing about my ‘morning cup’ I thought I’d throw in a bonus and share my morning read too. But I couldn’t link to the articles at ArmyTimes because a subscription is required.
So I’ll just tell you, instead of tossing up some generic, “God fix that whole Iraq thing” prayer. How about specifically praying for these people:
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P.S.
If you have an Army Times subscription, read this article about Rahim. Chaplains might be interested in this article about saving military marriages.
Joel came home for a couple weeks of R&R. It’s SO nice having him here. It is a little odd though. One minute it seems like he never left. The next moment I’m wondering how in the world a woman survives sharing a small bathroom with a man. Not to mention sharing the car. The man has hijacked my car.
My car. I failed to tell him that it sometimes doesn’t start. I completely forgot to mention that it dies at traffic lights sometimes. I didn’t want to worry him while he was off doing much more important things… like War. Well, he noticed and he seems a little worried.
Despite the bathroom and car takeover, I’m so happy to have him here. I’d write more about his homecoming but it’s 5 am and I can’t find my glasses. Besides, I need breakfast and a good cup of coffee.
I thought I better post something so people don’t start worrying about me.
We’ve had lots of exciting blogworthy events in the Maxwell household. But you’ll have to wait to hear about them.
OPSEC. 
I’m not very good at gift giving. My son has a birthday party to attend this afternoon, we still haven’t purchased a gift. We will hastily pay for something at Wal*mart and throw it in a cheap gift bag.
I don’t do much better for my own friends. In fact, I do worse. I never really know what to get anyone. I guess I just don’t have the gift giving gift. It is a gift, you know. Some people have this amazing ability to come up with just the right present that not only says, “I remembered your birthday.” or “You are loved.” But says, “I know you.”
Hillery often gives me these kinds of gifts. Yesterday I got a grocery sack FULL of wonderful New Mexican foods. Jars of salsa, Ol’ Gringo Gourmet Green Chile Sauce, fresh roasted green chile, tortillas and pecans. Mmmmm! It’s like a big paper bag full of ‘home’. Completely making me forget the fact that I never actually lived in New Mexico. Regardless, I sit here enjoying a breakfast burrito smothered with green chile sauce and I think, “well… I Should have lived in New Mexico!”
The really amazing thing is that Hillery is not my only talented gift giving friend. I have several. They shock me with their sheer talent.
I wish I were better at this. Unfortunately, just picking an interesting looking gift card stretches my gift giving abilities.
Hello frequent visitors,
Occasionally one of you will comment with a link to your own blog. And I discover that I either didn’t know about it or I had neglected to subscribe and haven’t been keeping up lately.
I’d love to compile all of my reader’s sites into one list. Please leave your blog address in the comments. Go ahead and include a site description if you’d like. And tell us how you got here.
THANKS!
P.S. If you have a personal blog which you don’t mind me reading… but you don’t want to leave a link for the world to see… email me instead!
Side Note:
URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator.” That’s the address for a specific resource on the Internet… not the place you buy patches for your ACU’s…
Oh… ACU stands for Army Combat Uniform… which replaced the old BDU’s and DCU’s…
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seems to be a positive guy. These are just a few of the things that I’ve seen in the news lately:
Gates Says Diplomacy Is Working With Iran
Gates Says Iraqi Cabinet Shake-Up Could Be Positive
Gates says Iraq timetable debate may be helpful
Gates Says Surge In Baghdad Successful, So Far
My emails and news feeds say, “Gates Says” so many times a day, I think I’ll just subscribe to a Google News Search to gather all of these quotes in one place.
