Our first month of doing the single parent life...
Hi Friends,
We are a few days past our one month mark into Aaron's deployment. I feel like we are still trying out best to get a new routine. It seems like once we get to where I think we are in a routine something shifts the game a little. Here's how the first four weeks have gone.
Week one was literally INSANE. There were moments of that first week of Aaron being gone where I thought to myself, "This has gotta be a joke. Ashton Kutcher, where are you at? We've gotta be on Punk'd." Why you ask? Let me tell you! Two days after Aaron left, I was walking down our hallway into our bedroom and I see what I think is a moth on the wall towards the bottom where the trim is, so I bend down to look at. In horror, I notice its definitely NOT a moth. Its in fact tiny holes in the wall in the shape of a moth that are, you guessed it, ACTIVE TERMITES! I was ready to burn the house down, if I'm being honest. Bugs don't typically bother me, but there's something about the thought of Termites and Maggots that I just cannot deal with. To know that there were termites actively trying to dig through my sheetrock made my skin crawl. I was itching all freakin night and could not sleep at the thought of them coming through the wall and into my room. Gah, just thinking about it makes me itch all over again. When I say I was ready to pack it all up and move, I mean I was READY! Needless to say a chunk of money later, the issues is fixed and we have our termite situation under control.
That same week, Aaron randomly told me to check the oil in my car, so we did and what do you know, its like the oil had evaporated from the engine. I know cars. I know the means it takes to keep a car running at its best. I constantly pay attention to the ground to make sure I have no oil leaks. So I'm not one of those people who are oblivious to their vehicle thinking it magically will run properly without any maintenance. So when we saw there was hardly any oil in it and knowing that I never see oil on the ground from a leak, I was freaked out thinking there is something horribly wrong with my car. So the termite issue and the vehicle issue all in the same week was A L O T. I hadn't at that point really even had time to adjust or even process that my husband was going to be gone for a while. All of this stuff was happening making me worry about how in the world I would possibly keep a grips on everything when so many things were going wrong at once. Then I prayed for God to just give me perspective and peace to know that our family is only a single parent family for a little while. That soon enough, everything will be back to normal.
Week two was when we started getting into a little bit of a groove. My cousin Reilly is currently staying with us while she works remote for a few months. Its been so nice having an extra pair of hands to wrangle in the wild child. She is sooooo good with him and he loves her so stinking much. Week two I also met with our Nutrition Coach at Crossfit Wotown and got myself going towards living a more healthy day to day life with food. I struggle with eating. I don't make time to prepare or plan and I end up just eating junk or just not eating at all. This is one of my main goals to work on while Aaron is gone so that when he comes back I'm in a better routine to prepare our family more wholesome meals.
Week three was me trying my best to get prepared for a yard sale. When two grown adults who have lived on their own for a while get married and buy a house, combining those separate lives full of just things can fill up a house quickly. So, I was trying my best to just declutter and minimize some. So I worked so hard with the help of Reilly all week for this darn yard sale and what do you know, we have bad weather predicted. I was so sad. I wasted all of that time preparing and now we won't get to have it. Well, turns out the forecast was wrong, the rain came sooner than they thought and I ended up getting to sale a few things and pocket a little cash!!! WIN WIN!
I will say so far, my family has been LIFE SAVERS. They have kept Brax so I can have time with friends (had a fun skating night), they have kept Brax so I can go to the gym (for my mental health haha) they have kept Brax so I can get things ready for a yard sale. They have kept him and let him spend the night with them which is such a huge help. My pawpaw has taken my car to get it looked at and found out that there is an extended warranty so we aren't having to pay anything out of pocket to get the car fixed. It's been seriously amazing. Not only that, but not having the burden of debt on our back has been a huge relief.
Brax has been a total angel as always. He's so sweet and just so go with the flow. Aaron is also getting into his new temporary routine and we are all just ready to get this time behind us. I can tell you one thing that is for SURE. Our family will 100% need a vacation soon after Aaron gets home and I already cannot wait for that time.
I will continue to update this deployment journey right here. Thanks for reading, friends!
XX -Bri