8 weeks. Unedited.

I probably shouldn't blog when I'm crabby... but it seems like someone should know how miserable I'm feeling.  And well... the internet seems like a safe someone to complain to a little at the moment.

I printed off some calendar pages this morning and started marking down all of the "stuff" we are going to do to occupy ourselves while Jordan is gone Round 2.  He leaves on Monday.  This second round hasn't bothered me as much because I keep reminding myself that he is only gone six weeks instead of eight like last time.  That's 14 whole days shorter.  Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

I started counting out the days, and it is in fact 8 weeks that he is gone again.  Eight.  Again.  Exactly the same as last time to the day.  How did I miss this before??

Anyway.  I did and I am crabby and I just want this part to be over. 

End Rant.

So Jordan leaves on Monday for 8 weeks.  He'll get home the day before my baby turns 3. :)  Then we will have about 3 weeks to pack up all things we deem necessary for living for 10ish months and drive to Texas.  We will live in a one bedroom {yes, ONE bedroom} apartment until February-ish and then move to New Mexico for some sort of other arrangements... who knows what they'll be.  {This is the military after all, let's not get too ahead of ourselves...}

In this time we will learn flexibility like none other.  We will no doubt be stretched far beyond our regular limits.  We will get to see new things and meet new people.  The girls will learn to share a bedroom.  We will learn to trust the Lord in a way that we wouldn't have to in the comfort of our own home with space and things and supplies and such.  We will start a homeschool preschool curriculum. 

Part of me is really excited.

Part of me is a little terrified.  I just can't quite wrap my head around the whole 22 hour drive to Texas thing with a one-year-old and three-year-old.  I need some help with this one.  The longest "road trip" we've ever taken was to Bismarck.  I kid you not.  That is not even 3 hours away.

And if I can't even wrap my head around the drive down there, how could I possibly envision living there for 5 months? 

OK people.  If you made it this far, I give you a gold star.  Because I've been kind of whiny, even after promising my rant was over.  So you must be a good friend to have read this far, and that means I need your help.  I need some tips, tricks, ideas, etc. for traveling with my two bambinos for a million hours in the car.  Snacks.  Activities.  Movies.  Anything.  Please help.  We own maybe 2 DVDs and Emberly is scared of movies that have any sort of action or plot.  We intend to buy a car DVD player... would love suggestions.  I wish we could check out DVDs from the Library, but alas, the whole returning them thing will be kind of tricky. 

I'm rambling.  You get the picture. 

Feel free to comment or PM me!  :)   
 

Forward Motion

I've been absent. I think I've literally been trying to soak up every possible moment with Jordan home that I can before he has to leave again.

We just spent the weekend at the lake. We got home this afternoon after half-naps in the car and my children started detoxing from the grandparent high. Parents know what I'm talking about. Where your children are so used to being held, talked to, played with, spoiled (in the very best and most sincere of ways)... and then you get home to bedtimes and rules and food that comes in the "take it or leave it" variety... it's harsh.

But it's 7:15 and Emmy has been freshly plunked into bed, and I'm currently rocking a very passed out Piper. It's like medicine to my weary soul. Sometimes being a mom is just plain hard.

You know, I think parenting looks kind of crazy to people on the outside. You choose to have these needy, helpless, crazy kids who do their very best to just suck the life out of you one demand, cry, whine at a time. They don't see the love behind it all. Let's be honest, sometimes I don't even see the love behind it all. I'm thankful for this picture though, it reminds me how I look to Jesus, offering absolutely nothing in return for His love... and yet I have it anyway. It is insanely humbling.

Anywho. Currently Piper crawls at crazy fast speeds and is literally all movement and no brains. She pulls herself up on just about anything and hurts herself getting back down just about half of the time. She sits at my feet with her hands raised in the air, whining for me to pick her up, and then as soon as I do, she digs her feet into my stomach (the one I have from carrying two bambinos for 9 months each, thank you very much), and cries and begs to be put down.

Emberly is just a bundle of emotion, motion, and words. She never stops singing or talking and she is always telling me about why some owie is hurting or why a rule that we are enforcing is making her "so very sad." She bounce-runs wherever she goes, and is day-time potty trained minus #2. Sigh, #2. I have literally never talked so much about bowel movements and urination in my life.

I feel a little bit like the day-to-day is on repeat. Like when you're listening to a good song on a CD so you hit the "repeat song" button and listen to it again and again. And pretty soon that song you loved is getting ordinary. Maybe even kind of frustrating or annoying. And I hate that. Because these little miracles are the farthest thing from ordinary.

Must be time to change the CD and ask the Lord for new perspective. I just plain forget sometimes. But looking at these beautiful faces, how is that even possible?

 

What do you do when you need new perspective?