Daily life while your away...finding ways to make time fly while dealing with deployment

Life isn't always perfect.  Some time you have to be apart from your loved ones and it sucks, but that is when we hunker down and make it through.  Deployment is not a fun and free time.  There is a lot more that the ones back home are dealing with then just watching the kids or going to work.  I am a stay at home mom and find that this deployment is weighing on me.  I am dealing with so much more than I ever have before day to day I am the sole care taker of 2 kids.  They are temperamental and get bored easily which means they are cranky easily too.  I knew taking on 2 under 2 would be hard but I never thought I would be doing it alone.  Even though it is a temporary alone its the hardest part right now. So stress levels are climbing as Kenzi is wanting my attention and Gabe needs my attention.  I am cherishing my evening time when things are quiet because anyone who walks by my house or calls me at any given time will hear at least one of the kids scream.  Anyway, just to wrap up my point they keep me running all day.  Then add in at least 1 outing a week to get supplies and have adult conversation and the running around for bill pays and you have my life.  Its nuts right now and the time is truly flying.  Half way threw this deployment and I am longing for that homecoming, longing for my husband to get home and take back the things he took care of, like bath time. 

So lets see, my normal day stuff is cleaning, cooking, feeding, and putting the little ones to bed.  Now doing everything I feel like I am getting stretched in many directions but I am okay with that because I know he will (have no choice) but to take back his home duties, granted I don't think he will mind for some reason.  So on top of cleaning, cooking, feeding, bathing, bedtime I am also doing craft projects which I keep adding to but am not actually working on them, I am trying to organize our storage stuff and purge it. Staying on top of bills, keeping the house stocked with food, not killing the animals, and above all else not running myself to the breaking point.

One thing women seem to do a lot is give and give and give and not realize what its doing to them.  Many women, me especially will go out of our way to help our friends and family but when you are the sole care giver to 2 kids and taking care of a household that has to keep running you have to scale back and realize if you keep giving you will end up sick.  I started finding that I was exhausted by the end of the day and still was staying up late to chat with not only my hubby but my friends and family and when he told me that he wouldn't be on at night for a while I realized that maybe I should be taking that time to catch up on sleep since I was so tired.  I had even started to get sick and feel like I was moving in slow motion which are big exhaustion signs that can be damaging, so I scaled down and stopped my diet and gave myself a week of just relaxing and playing with the kids.  Minimal house work and just running my basic errands no window shopping or walking.  I am feeling better already and only half way through the week.  I think this exhaustion was just everything catching up to me.  I have been worried and stressed over the deployment (still am but I guess I am getting use to it) I was stressing over bills and savings, stressing that I didn't have enough time to keep my daughter learning at the right pace and care for my son who is now in the cling stage because his mouth is hurting so much.  I will be very happy when the tooth comes threw, plus he is getting mad watching my daughter run around him and he can't crawl or walk.  I feel that he will be mobile very soon because he is getting so mad about it.

Well, like I said we are working through this deployment with staying busy, though I may have taken on a little more than I should have with my goals. Guess I need to start working on getting the projects completed.  So this is me signing off and reminding you all to stay busy because that is what makes time seem to fly bye.

Stay tuned the next big post will be in a few days as I update everyone on Miss Makenzi's learning curve and how much she's grown.