Deployment

When Your Spouse is Deployed and You Only Have Two Hands

This post is sponsored by Baby Tula! I was also provided free product for review. Whenever my husband was deployed, I hated going to the grocery store. I know there are more options these days such as grocery store pick-up or affordable delivery services, but back during our previous deployments, we didn’t have any of that. So, once I had three kids, it became a big issue. I could sometimes get around this by going to the grocery store when my older two were in school, or trade with a friend. However, there were sometimes when I still had to take all three and head to the …

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How to Celebrate Valentine’s Day if Your Spouse is Deployed

How do you like to celebrate Valentine's Day when your spouse is deployed?

It’s time for Valentine’s Day! The holiday all about love. The one where you feel the pressure to buy your spouse candy chocolates, or flowers, or teddy bears, and make plans to go out to eat on the most crowded night of the year. Super fun right? Or not… Maybe you think the whole thing is silly. A holiday made up by Hallmark to get spouses to buy cards for each other, and make more money. And with the lack of candy hearts this year, is Valentine’s Day even worth worrying about? (PS I did find some at Target a …

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When Deployments Don’t Get Any Easier

When Deployments Don’t Get Any Easier I couldn’t believe he was leaving again. Just two weeks before we had thought that he wasn’t going to go. Now he was and it was time to say goodbye. This time, he was leaving very early in the morning. We were all there, my three boys and I. We took some photos and said goodbye. Knowing that when he returned they would all be a little bigger. They would be doing new things and we would have made a lot of memories together without him. I knew this deployment wasn’t going to be …

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Twas the Night Before Christmas…Milspouse Style

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, no one was stirring, except one military spouse. She knew what tonight was, but wasn’t feeling the cheer, her husband of 12 years was simply not here. He was serving his country, on deployment #4, she simply couldn’t wait until April, when he would walk through the door. Her kids were in bed, excited for morning, they didn’t want to go, despite her stern warning. She looked at a picture, taken last year, when he was home beside her and she didn’t have much to fear. But this year was …

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When the Holidays Don’t Feel Like the Holidays

When the Holidays Don’t Feel Like the Holidays The holidays are here, and with this season comes decorating for Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate. This season means parties, and gift wrapping and baking yummy holiday treats. This season means being together with family, and being thankful for everything in your life. But what do you do when your spouse is deployed? When they are off in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, or some other part of the world too many miles from where you are? What do you do when you just don’t feel like doing Christmas? When you just …

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Surviving A Military Deployment

Surviving A Military Deployment

Surviving A Military Deployment I am sitting in my living room, in our 3rd-floor stairwell apartment in Schweinfurt, Germany. We just got back from the park, and my two-year-old is finally asleep. I am nursing my baby to sleep and will put him down in a bit. I plan to take a well-needed bubble bath once I do. It’s been a day. It’s been a week. It’s been a rough deployment.   And we still have so much more time to go…   Way too many days…way too long. And while every day is a day closer, the time ahead …

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How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers

How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers

How to Get Through a Deployment With Toddlers Deployment #2, my husband left, and it was just me, my two-year-old, and my four-year-old. A deployment with two toddlers. If you have ever had a toddler, you know how much work they can be. Toddlers are a handful, even the easy ones. And here I was home with two of them, with my husband too many miles away. I was a SAHM and didn’t have a spouse coming home at the end of the day. I didn’t have a spouse who could watch the kids for 15 minutes so that I …

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At the End of the Day, Sometimes You Just Have to Suck it Up

At the End of the Day, Sometimes You Just Have to Suck it Up Deployments are no joke. I hate deployments, and yet I know they are a part of the military life experience. And while there are so many ways to make it through a deployment, sometimes you just have to suck it up and get through the days apart, even if you don’t want to. The biggest thing is making sure you have what you need to get through the deployment. This is going to look different for everyone. Some people love wine, others, not so much. Some …

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When You Hate Deployments

When You Hate Deployments

When You Hate Deployments Our first deployment came about nine months after my life as a military spouse first began. This was after spending about 4.5 months apart waiting to join my husband in Germany. He left the following August, and that deployment didn’t end until November of the following year. That was such a long time to be away from my husband. Even now, all these years later, I can’t even believe we got through that. I had a baby during that deployment, a toddler, and lived in Germany, far away from family and what we were used to. …

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What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed

What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed

What To Do When There is a Natural Disaster and Your Spouse is Deployed I have been through my share of earthquakes growing up in California. Fortunately, I was never in any danger from any of them. After moving to the south, I have been through my fair share of tornado warnings, and fortunately, none of them have come too close to our house. The biggest issue we have dealt with when it came to weather when my husband was deployed was losing power during a storm, for about 37 hours. While we didn’t have any real damage, and USAA replaced …

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