How we do

We've basically wrapped up the post-tour vacation cycle, which usually takes 3-4 days, in which we sleep late-ish (8:30) and spend money on stuff like ice cream, and then reality kicks in and we go back to work and crack down on spending.

Now, my job is flexible, in that I can do dishes or not do them, do laundry or procrastinate, etc. What is set in stone are things like diapers and meals, and snacks and snacks and snacks and snacks. I think my children are in a perpetual growth spurt, which makes sense, I guess. I mean, they have to get bigger, and apples and cheese crackers are the logical way to get there.

We are now in the life-as-usual phase of things, where we eat food together and have bedtimes and bathtimes and staff meetings and such. We'll do this phase for another week, and then we will shift into pre-tour mode, where I frantically locate all the MOGs clothing and wash them, and he will disappear completely, although his physical form will be here. He will be in some other dimension with cords and emails and lights and soundboards and pastors.

Then he will leave, and we will move into surviving-tour-mode here, where we eat more randomly, and watch too many movies and order pizza. We would sleep late, too, but school is starting, so that's out. I will hunker down with vats of chocolate, which is how Mandy and I pass time while our men are gone- by eating.

Then he will be back, and I will run away for hours 2 or 3 times, and then we'll settle back into post-tour-normalcy. Who says life ain't predictable?