Stick to it

The hardest thing to do while your love is gone is to remember that you still need to be taken care of and that it is not okay that your child hasn't been clothed in a week and you aren't even sure if they have bathed. Take your trash out, wash your hair (and shave I know we all hate it but seriously shave), do laundry, don't order out EVERYDAY, do your dishes and keep your house together. Both you and your child need stability in such and un stable time. Find a schedule that works and STICK to it. This helps to pass the time quicker, helps to keep from getting over whelmed and it honestly helps to keep you happy. When you sit around all day with no exercise, no sun light and no will to do anything you've got to make a change. Unfortunately this is what happens to a lot of military wives whose "whole" life has left. You have become lost, unconnected and un sure of how you will spend the next million days until he returns. It can eat away at you more then you could ever imagine.
On the flip side there is something else that happens to some wives. We know we have to get out of the house so what do we do and where do we go? To lunch and to Target (insert your most abused store here). We spend needless money, we start hiding the needless money we are spending so our loves don't get pissed and put us on an allowance, we eat out A LOT!
The second is what happened to me last deployment. From the moment I woke up until I went to sleep I was spending money, talking about spending money, complaining about spending money ect. When I wasn't doing that I was sleeping. I slept the whole deployment. I remember a day where I had the biggest head ache in the world and nothing was helping. I thought back to the last couple of days and realized I had slept 40 of the 48 hours. (I should tell you that my son was not home during this time) That is not healthy at all! That day when I also realized that I was going further in debt during a deployment that something had to change. Just in case you weren't aware in most cases deployment=money.
It was near the very end of the deployment but I decided to set a schedule like I did the past deployments and I would stick to it. I found what worked for me and my son and we survived much healthier and happier. I set things I had to do each day for instance cleaning a certain room each day, cooking schedule, actual bed time for the both of us, play time with friends ect.
I just want you to try and be aware of what you are actually doing each day and if most of that is shopping, sleeping or sitting on the couch watching your baby destroy a box of Cherrios you may want to make a schedule and stick with it. Time has started to move at a much more faster pace and we are only 2 weeks in. I know there will still be days where I complain about how slow time is moving but that is the nature of the beast and who cares. Point is if I want the time to go by as fast as possible I need to find positive ways to stay busy, focused and as normal as possible. I wouldn't have 3 weeks worth of dishes on the counter with him here I sure as hell aint while he is gone.