Operation Shower Blog

We just wanted to take a look back at the 2009 Showers that Operation Shower had the honor of throwing this past year for some very deserving moms! We’re just full of the Thanksgiving Spirit over here at Operation Shower and it’s not even Halloween (yet)!

We love what we do and couldn’t do it without the support of our family, friends, sponsors and strangers. Basically…everyone!

Our first two (and first ever Eco-Friendly) showers were our Boxes in Bloom showers held at Ft. Hood Texas and Scott AFB Illinois. What a great way to celebrate the military moms right before Mother’s Day.  Read all about them here.

Then, of course, our recent fabulous partnership with the March of Dimes for our A is for Apple baby shower at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Thank you again to everyone who made this event possible. See the video here.

In addition, we have sent out individual boxes to many more deserving moms, thrown a small fundraiser, been featured in Woman’s World, Redbook, local publications to St. Louis, numerous websites and blogs and overall had a fabulous year thus far. It’s not over though.

I also wanted to give you a little more background on Operation Shower.  We are a very small organization doing very big things!  We have only a few of us that really do the brunt of the work, none of us are paid and two of us work full time at other jobs. We continue to work out of Lena’s basement as we pack the boxes and keep inventory.  As you can imagine, we are stretched very thin.  We have wonderful accolades and attention, but very few donations.  We are now at a point where we must raise significant money to be able to continue our organization and the meaningful work we do.

As you think of ways to give back this holiday season, we would love to be considered for your list. It’s truly an honor to celebrate these military families and let them know we appreciate their sacrifice. We don’t want to stop as we feel like we’re just scratching the surface of what it can be.

Thank you for your help.

In deepest gratitude,

Your Operation Shower Team

To donate: Click on Contribute on our website or the Donate button in the post below.

Don’t forget about our 2nd Annual Operation Give Thanks on November 7th.

This year’s event will be a cocktail party at Monarch from 7p-11p. Monarch has generously agreed to donate $1 per item from a very special Operation Shower bar menu.

Come join us and help us celebrate all of the blessings we’ve had this year and all to come in the next!

Cheers,
Your Operation Shower Girls

Gratitude Challenge Day 7:

Ok, so I am a little behind on the Gratitude Challenge, but I am still following the Challenge, I promise.  And it has been great for me.  Sometimes we really do need to just stop and “take note.”

My Day 7 challenge was to take a picture of a specific moment that makes me feel grateful.   I knew immediately that it would be the time when I pick my son up from school.  He always gets in the car with such great joy to see me and to share his day.  He has done this since he started school.

I know that it won’t last forever and eventually he may quit talking about his day with me, but I am hanging on and enjoying it for as long as I can.  I am grateful for this moment in time.

Gratitude Challenge Day 7

So I missed Day 6? I will backtrack. Practice selective amnesia with me. It’s all the rage.

Day 7 is to take a photo of something or someone that makes you grateful. Easy peasy. This picture on my desk of my husband when he was a wee lad + one camera phone = post.

So grateful this Ivy League boy grew up and waited for this Big 12 girl. Not only is he my best friend, he doesn’t really have a pesky college football team of his own to bring into the marriage and I now have a college hockey team to cheer on. Score!

For 21 days, we are accepting the Gratitude Challenge.   Join us in this and also in a night of gratitude at Operation Give Thanks!

Today’s challenge is to “take 5 minutes to write about how grateful you are for all the wonderful things that you currently have in your life.”  If any of you know me, you know I can’t do anything in 5 minutes (I am actually struggling not to make a list of the things I should do for this challenge — even though they already  told me what to do).  Anyway, so I am going to write for 5 minutes then that’s it. Here goes:

I am so grateful for the family I have –my husband and son who are virtually identical in looks and in spirit — and also my extended family and all its craziness.  And let me tell you we have a sitcom-ready family, but I am so grateful that we are not boring and that we love each other.  Crazy, yes.  Love, yes.

I am so grateful that I have been able to be a stay at home mom for my son’s life and that I have found a “calling” with Operation Shower.  I cannot believe the blessings I have found through this organization. The families I have met in the military have inspired me every day; the leaders who welcome us with open arms and love what we are doing and take the time to say so — the people I now work with in a common cause with joy and laughter every day.  They inspire me to be better than I thought I could be and to remind me of the importance of our mission.

I am so grateful that when I moved here with my 3 year old that I found a place where I could meet other moms and learn that I was not alone and that having to check my son’s breathing every night (still) — was normal (well, pretty normal).

I am so grateful . .

(ok, that took 6 minutes technically — and I ‘m so grateful that I could go on and on with this list .. . )

Day Four of the challenge is to write a short note of gratitude for something “negative” in your life. This one is easy for me. I eluded to it in my Alphabet. Thank you, Panic Disorder.

Let me stop you right here and let you know that I don’t want to offend anyone with this post, but I approach this subject with a little bit of irreverence. Having dealt with this for the past 16 years, I feel I’m allowed to talk about it however I want. If I want to say I have my own special kind of crazy, I can. If I couldn’t laugh…shudder…who knows how much worse this would be! Consequently, it drives me bananas when people use the phrase, “I had a panic attack” loosely. I get it, it’s just a phrase, but to anyone for whom this is a very, very real problem…yeah, that’s kind of annoying to say the least.  When you couldn’t find your keys and were almost late to work and had “a panic attack”, call someone else. When you can’t drive on the highway because you are struck with blinding fear that you will drive off the side of the overpass or you develop agoraphobia to the extent that you don’t leave your house for months or you could be the guest on a special “Inside Crazy Town” episode of Oprah, call me.

Since panic disorder came into my life there have been many things I’ve avoided. Relationships strained with my dependence on other people. Months wasted not living my life. Many tears shed and “why me?” questions asked. There has been depression and weight gain (which I lost, yay me)  and self-pity. Fear and loathing.

And gratitude. Yes, gratitude. I’m much more compassionate to people with psychological disorders. I’m more compassionate toward myself, too. I’m so much stronger from overcoming aspects of this problem and have realized what I’m capable of in ways I may not have if I wasn’t a little “special.” Grateful that I stuck to my decision to work this without medication. I think medication is an amazing tool and support those that choose it – it just wasn’t for me. It should make you feel like “you” again and that’s not what happened with me. I’m grateful for prayer in ways I may not have been. I’m am beyond grateful for having a sense of humor.

I’d love to say “I’m grateful for getting rid of Panic Disorder” but that is not the case. However, I AM grateful to say that my only real issue right now is driving on the highway. I had years where I had overcome that. But, like many people with this challenge, a bad life event manifested itself in panic and I’m back on the side roads again. I have been for about 3 years. Sure it poses problems. Going somewhere new is scary because I don’t know what roads I will face. Takes me longer to get anywhere. But that’s okay because I’ve come a really, really long way.

So, to review:

Maybe choose how you use the words “panic attack” because you never know what completely “normal” seeming person may go through.

Never doubt you can get through anything. Be patient with yourself. You are stronger than you know.

Call me if you need someone who understands what you are going through.

And, when you want to find 357 ways to get around St. Louis without using a highway, you can call me then, too.

For 21 days, we are accepting the Gratitude Challenge.   Join us in this and also in a night of gratitude at Operation Give Thanks!

Today’s challenge:    it’s all in how you look at it:

Today I cleaned house and purged a closet and organized and could not be more grateful. Do not adjust your screens. Yes, I am grateful I spent a portion of my Saturday cleaning house. Don’t get crazy now, it’s not that I truly enjoy cleaning house. Truth be told I’m not a big fan. It’s all in how you look at things though, isn’t it?

So, with iPod (grateful for that, too) set to some Mat Kearney and cleaning gear in hand, I cleaned house today with a new attitude. How lucky I am to have a roof over my head. To have all this furniture to dust. To have the money to pay that bill I opened. To have a husband that knows when the can of cleaner is on the shower floor it means, “this job’s yours, buddy” and who will skip around the house with me announcing, “we have flufffffy carrrrpet” when my work is done.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to admire my clean house while my co-skipper finishes dinner just in time to watch my beloved OU Sooners. Steak au poivre, rosemary roasted potatoes, asparagus, wine, my best boy and Sooner Football…..yeah, I’m grateful for that, too.

I am grateful for today. Today, we had beignets at our favorite local breakfast spot. I am grateful for traditions and places that feel like “our place.”   Today, we went to the Botanical Gardens and laughed and watched as our son painted a pumpkin, milked a  cow, had a red leaf painted on his face and took home llama hair (strange, but true).  I am grateful for the variety of things to do in our city, for the ability we have to do these things and for the joy we get doing them as a family.   Today, we took out Halloween decorations and hung ghosts from the trees and put pumpkins on our step.  I am grateful for Halloween, my truly favorite holiday, with no presents just our imagination to guide us.   Today, I have the time to think about what I am grateful for while my healthy son and husband enjoy time together trying on masks and being silly. I am so grateful for Today.

F - Friends and family that make me laugh and inspire me.

G – Growing older and realizing no one is perfect so get over it.

H – Husband. In particular, mine. He rocks.

I - Imogen Heap’s lovely voice.

J – Jon Stewart. He cracks me up.

K – Knives. Makes cutting things much easier.

L - Laughter.

M - Music. One of life’s greatest gifts.

N – NIA. Exercise that is as much for the mind as the body.

O – Operation Shower. The people I serve with and the people we serve. I am blessed by it daily.

P – Panic Disorder. Even though it can hinder me, it has also strengthened me in many ways and made me much more compassionate.

Q – Quiet time in the car on the way to the office.

R – Rain Showers on lazy Saturdays.

S – Sooner Football. Boomer Sooner!

T - Trust. If A is for acceptance that where you are is where you are supposed to be than T is for Trusting that you will make it through anything.

U – United States Citizenship. While we may not be perfect and we all may not agree, the simple fact of being born in this country allows a big portion of this list to even be possible.

V - Voices that my husband and I talk in that make us laugh.

W – wonderful women I’ve met online via my Stem Parties blog.

X – Wow. Xerox copier help desk support.

Y - You.

Z - Zeriously? I thought “X” was hard. Um, Ziploc baggies. Thank you for keeping my snacks fresh.