And so it begins...


Well, here I am. Here we are. Deployment has started and the countdown can begin. Yesterday with all the Facebook statuses flooding my newsfeed with lots of pics and quotes including, "Home of the Free Because of the Brave," I couldn't help but cringe a little. It's not that I'm not proud to be a military wife or family, but knowing your 5 kids will get to sleep after midnight only for you to need them to wake up by 2:30am feels more like- Home of the Free because of the "crazy." 😜

Sometimes I'm pretty sure my husband feels I'm heartless. Like when he texts me to make sure I'm easier on the kids the next few days... Just because I'm not crying on the outside doesn't mean I have none of my own feelings of sadness. This isn't the first time for me. We've been married 16 years and this is deployment #4. The first one happened just a few months after 9/11. He got home just before our 1st anniversary.

 Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to read more books or gotten into incredible shape. Oh well, I did work a lot, and we were able to save up and put some down on our first home together when he returned. 2nd deployment, we had a 7 month old, 3rd I was pregnant with our 4th child. And now for this 4th deployment, our family is complete with 5 children from 15 months to 11 years.

I've spent hours on Pinterest trying to figure out what will work for our crew. I'm sure you've seen the ideas about the hug and/or kiss from dad every night. I just can't bring myself to even try it. Pretty sure my kids would devour all their candy in a few nights and leave the foil all over the house. I've thought about the clocks with the 2 times idea, but then I think- nah- they can add the hours in their head and get some good practice with their time skills... Then I thought, Hey- why don't I just try to document this deployment a little. My husband can read what's going on with us, family can see a little more of our thoughts and feelings if they choose- vs being bombarded with "too much info" posts on Facebook. And maybe someone can look at this some day if she's going through something similar and feeling a little overwhelmed. Hopefully in the end, we all make it through without too much craziness.

There were a few stressors today, but overall- we did ok. My sister kept my youngest daughter and will bring her back when they come this weekend to help. It's funny how the dynamics can change with just one sibling gone. And my in-laws will be installing my new washing machine tomorrow. I'm so excited to have a working one again after a month without.




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