30 days later my husband was overseas. Again, to the power of 6. We have thrived through many tough deployments, but that one nearly broke me. The stress was overwhelming. I was stressed, sick, and spiraling. I packed on 20 pounds. The kids were on a tightrope of confusion. I am the happy one. I am the enthusiastic one. I am the fighter. I was no longer that person, merely drifting and hanging on til the bitter end. The deployment literally ended with a bug infestation, Strep Throat for three people, and exhaustion. Six months later we moved. Still in CA, no longer in the clutches of Sweepers. {That is a post for another time.}
We are slowly finding our new normal. Our new way of life. The kids are in a fantastic school. They are in sports, and clubs, and excelling. We are letting go of old stress and embracing a rare new stress. If you are a fellow military wife you know the fight:
Shore Duty.
Ah, Shore Duty. The unicorn of the Navy Career. The 3 years your Sailor gets on dry land. Except they don't tell you where the dry land really is. Or that three years is slang for "occasionally" and shore really means "work even harder." I'm not saying Shore Duty is harder that Sea Duty. That is a beast all by itself. Sea Duty is not for the weak of mind or spirit. You must be prepared to find a balance of focusing solely on your mission at hand and loving the family you left at the pier. I am saying Shore Duty is not where you sit behind a desk, sipping your cappuccino, and go home by 3pm. That happens about 1 in 499 times.
So here we are: Accelerating our lives. Pushing on when we want to grind to a halt and drink a giant margarita. I need this blog as much as anyone. I need to share the bits and pieces of this life that shake me to core. Some places and people are forever impacted on my heart-those stories to come. Some places and people are imprinted in a way that makes me shake my head and laugh. Those posts also to come. Some bits are hard and make you cry. And that's what the Sisterhood is for.
