Slice of Life (+ a Little Bit of Whining): November 13th, 2017

Oh hi, hello. 🙂 I hope you had a nice weekend. We did! It was a nice combination of venturing out of the house as well as much-needed time at home to tackle the list of things there always is to do, especially with a load of holidays and birthdays coming up. The highlight was running east to Lawrence (about an hour and 40 minute drive) to meet some of our relatives for the KU vs. Baylor women’s volleyball game.

To kick off the week, I thought I’d share a bit of what’s been going on in our little world plus a few “slice of life” pictures.

I feel like a good word to sum me up the last month or so would be emotional. Womp womp. You know how you can really only do as much of a hard situation as you know you have to do? For example, if you know you’re running a 5k race, you’re so ready to be done those last few minutes, but if you’re running a 10k race, that first 5k flies by. Does that make sense?

Deployments and time apart have always been that way for us. When I kissed Jamie goodbye in September we had our chins up and were in a good head space because we knew he’d be home no later than mid-November. We finally had a bone thrown our way, and Jamie’d be doing a Rear D job to get him until March, his last day of work in the Army. We can do this! Two months! We’ve got this.

Well, a few weeks ago, things sadly changed, and Jamie will be staying overseas an additional month. This may not sound like a huge deal considering we’ve handled way more difficult Army curveballs than this one, but we are just so mentally tired of feeling so out of control. We had plans for Hadley’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas events in December, and in one phone call, all of that went poof. Again.

If we would have known from the beginning he would be there until December, we would have been fine with it, but we had our minds focused on getting to mid-November. Now, we have no idea at what point during the month he’ll be home.

I almost want to erase all of this because several of my girlfriends have husbands who are doing the full nine months who wish their guys were coming home next month. Considering we’ve done three full deployments in the past, I’d probably slap myself too for complaining about a measly three-month deployment, especially in a non-combat area. But this is our reality, and we are just plain burnt out.

So, anyway! That’s what’s going on in our little world. Do you remember a couple of months ago when I wrote a post about choosing joy? Man oh man, that’s so applicable right now. Every day I wake up and have to mentally check in with myself so that I can be the best version of myself, primarily for my children. I can feel when I’m talking with a glass half empty or “poor me” attitude on the phone with friends or family, and I hate when I hear that attitude coming out of my mouth. That’s not who I am. I honestly don’t even like sharing all of this on my blog because I’m the first to admit that it sounds very “poor me”. Ah. Can’t win here!

Jamie has been so good about supporting us and calling a zillion times a day so that he can be present. We have a lot to be grateful for, but I find that in these unsteady times, I have to do a lot of reminding myself.

At the top of the list that I’ll be forever grateful for is these girls. Parenting them solo so much the last four years with no local family help has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but gosh… they make my heart burst and give me a strong purpose every single day. I look at them so frequently and can’t believe that I’m the person they rely on for everything. It’s humbling, terrifying, and so fulfilling.

They are strong-willed, funny, sweet, busy, and just the very best parts of my life (in addition to their daddy). It’s killing Jamie to spend more time away from them. Sadie is changing rapidly and is seemingly a different person than she was two months ago. Hadley isn’t changing as fast anymore, but she expresses to both of us constantly how much she misses him and wishes he’d come home. And now my eyes are full of tears because I am just plain emotional right now, remember? 😉

Okay. I have a little bit more sap and love to share, but this time I’m switching gears to my sister and niece. Oh, I love this girl so much! If you’ve met her, you know how special she is. She’s the happiest, most smiley babe I’ve ever met. For every mean-mug that Sadie gives to people, Carly is right behind her with the biggest open-mouth smile. It’s so precious.

Hadley, Sadie, and Carly were all equally obsessed with each other the entire 10 days we spent together in Alabama. If one of the littles was waking up with a “baditude” after a nap, the others would immediately smile and clap to cheer her up. It’s honestly what we always dreamed of – that their cousin relationship would be special. Needless to say, the goodbyes were brutal for Jennifer and me knowing it’ll be a hot minute before we see each other and our nieces (and soon-to-come nephew!) again. I’m grateful for the tears though because they’re so solidifying of the relationship we share and the love we have for each others’ kids. We won’t always be an ocean away…

On a lighter note, this handy little thing is so great when traveling with Ted! My mother-in-law gave it to us years ago, and it’s super convenient for giving him water. Highly recommend! $9 on Amazon and totally worth it.

And on a sweeter note, these are the cupcakes Hadley is bringing to preschool today to celebrate her upcoming birthday. They’re having their Thanksgiving feast on her actual birthday, so they’re celebrating a little early. 🙂 Hadley wanted chocolate chip rainbow cupcakes, so I had my work cut out for me! Ha. I don’t have a recipe because I mixed and matched everything, but I did use this icing recipe and used these tips to do the piping.

And that’s just a little slice of our lives lately. Have a wonderful day, friends. xo

PS: You may have seen this picture of Sadie on Instagram, but it’s so her and makes me smile! I hope it makes you smile too. 🙂 She was sitting perfectly on an air vent and my sis was speedy with getting out her camera.