Something the Army taught me is to be grateful for every single “quiet” moment I have with my husband. Having him away was painful at times, as well as exhausting and just plain lonely, but the weekends and holidays that we were able to spend together after time apart felt like some of the happiest days I could remember. We wouldn’t even be doing anything special; I would just be on cloud nine that he was home to do life with me. There is absolute truth to the old adage “distance makes the heart grow fonder.”
Three days after we moved into our new home back in April, I sat down on our couch with a cup of coffee to watch Good Morning America, and Jamie stood in the kitchen fixing breakfast for our girls. Out of nowhere I was overcome with emotion about what our new life would be. It was so bizarre; I remember sitting cross-legged on the couch with a blanket over me and started quietly tearing up. He’d be home. He wasn’t leaving anymore. Our big move and all that it entailed was behind us. I could feel the adrenaline of an insane few months wash over me, almost like I was releasing relief with every breath I let out. It was the weirdest feeling, and it caught me completely off guard.
But now, our “new normal” has become just that… normal. We spent the entire weekend enjoying family time just the four of us as well as time with extended family, neighbors, and friends. It was a really good one. But it wasn’t until last night that I sat down and thought about how I am already forgetting to feel grateful for our togetherness. I don’t feel threatened by him leaving, so spending our nights and weekends together feels normal.
I think back to all of the days that we’d be in preparation for him to go away for a couple weeks, a month, or for a full deployment. We seized every single one of those days. We tried not to argue, we played hard with the kids, we’d eat at our favorite restaurants, we’d generally just soak up every second together until we kissed goodbye.
But tomorrow isn’t guaranteed for anyone, and we all know that, so I wish we spent more of our days treating each other like we used to when he was preparing to leave.
I just want to remember that being together is such a gift, but I think we are going to have to be much more intentional about maintaining this perspective. In the military, we knew what a gift it was to celebrate a special occasion or holiday together, but I’m already seeing how easy it will be to take togetherness for granted.
I guess with all of this rambling that all I’m trying to say is that I’m grateful for the perspective the military gave us during Jamie’s active duty time. I want to remember our time apart. I want to remember the many ways it was difficult.
I want to remember how fortunate I felt to spend time together with my own husband. And I want to adapt those thoughts to our civilian life and treat this new season as the gift that it is, even though we won’t have the frequent reminders to stop and cherish each other.
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Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo