(Photo Credits: Photo Pin)
We all have that little clock in our head, scheduling us out day by day, week by week to make sure we get done what needs to be done. Some families have a rather lackluster schedule with their internal clock… well-paced and on time for regular events such as bill paying, work, school, and even vacation time. For families like ours it may run a little different, we run on military time. Our military time includes all the mundane stuff in life but is oh so spiced up with a big dose of in-your-face military life at its best.
My military clock means sometimes it runs rather fast, as we speed up to play catch up on missed time together. Other times it runs quite slow, as we experience the all too familiar waiting game the Army loves to play. The particular clock mode and countdown I am operating right now is that one I enjoy the least. It is that countdown that will lead to me functioning as a single mom, my kids being without their dad, and my internal clock basically going haywire for a while before it regains equilibrium and is back to a new sense of “normalcy”.
On this particular day I am about three days and a wake-up away from my husband leaving for our third deployment. The first one was actually not too bad, however the second one was amped up and ready for revenge. I earned some stripes that time around and even have a battle scar from that deployment. Ok, well maybe not a battle scar, but rather a small scar from a very minor surgery. With this third deployment I am hoping for a little more calm and a lot less drama, I really feel like I am getting a little too old for this. I don’t know how my soldier keeps up with all he must do. I was enlisted in the Army National Guard for eight years… I do have a little sense of what he has to go through.
I suppose my job is made easier by knowing the flipside. This next year we both have difficult tasks at hand with this deployment, but I would much rather be the one at home… being able to see my kids and having the comforts of home. The main reason I didn’t reenlist was the thought of leaving my children during a deployment. I can’t imagine not being able to see their faces each day, give hugs and kisses, wash their dirty little feet and just be there for them. Yeah, I’m sure I can do my part again.
It’s crazy, the little things your mind starts counting down when you’re about to let that loved one walk away from you again… knowing full well all the implications that come with it. I often wonder if I’m the only military spouse who does these things. I mean who goes to the fridge to get the milk and thinks, “OMG this will be the last gallon we have with him here, the next one I buy will be just me, probably on a random run to the store.” It’s not just the milk mind you; it’s that last bar of soap he and my sons used, that last load of laundry with his stuff in it or that last morning he and I will enjoy a cup of coffee together. Crazy, right?
WHO thinks like this?
