Here We Go Again
Hey Sweet Shoppers! This is Nikki here today.
Most of you probably are aware that we are a military family. My husband Brian is Active Duty Army National Guard, which basically means that’s his full time job. Over the course of our marriage we’ve been through two 13 month deployments and as of the end of this month we will be starting our 3rd.
I could ramble on about all the emotional stuff that goes along with a deployment, but my goal this time is to try to stay upbeat and positive as much as possible, for myself, for my kids and especially for my husband. I’m trying to get organized and come up with activities and things that I can do with my kids while their Daddy is gone. This is the first deployment when the kids are really old enough to kind of understand what is going on and it affects them. My son Avery especially who is 6 1/2 is having a hard time dealing with his emotions. Here are a few of the fun ideas I’m going to try and keep up with:
Care Packages: while these are mostly for Brian, the kids will help me with them..I’ve got tons of ideas of fun things we can include and they can help me decorate the boxes for Daddy.
Family Fun Nights: pizza and movie once a week which will hopefully include a phone call or skype time with Daddy
Kisses from Daddy: I found this cute idea on Pinterest, although I’ll probably have to make a jar for each kid 🙂
Countdown Board: Avery is very “visual”. He understands things much better when he can see it so I think one of these hanging in his room will be good for him. He’ll enjoy watching the number decrease every day.
Hallmark Recordable Storybook: We’ve got two books, one for each kid recorded with Daddy’s voice.
 
 Lots of Books about Deployment: We read a lot in this family..so I’ve already started gathering some books that I think will be good for the kids while Daddy’s gone..a few I like already…
Daddy Box: I haven’t gotten this one all sorted out yet but basically we’ll decorate a box and every week they can put things in it for Daddy that he can look through when he gets home.
So that’s just a few ideas for while he’s away. And of course I plan to just keep them busy…a year for grown-ups is a long time..when you’re 6 and 3 a year is a lifetime.
And as for me, I’ll just take it one day at time again. I’ll have good days and bad days and a few really bad days. But I’ll keep it together. I’ll scrap. A LOT. And I’ll lean on my friends here at Sweet Shoppe…the Sweetest place online!
Lydia said...
on January 15th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Those are great ideas Nikki! Thanks for the sacrifice your family makes to keep the rest of us safe and secure! You can do it!!!
MonicaB said...
on January 15th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Thank you, your kids and your husband for the sacrifices you make for our country. I love your ideas! Another one that you might like is for your husband to write little notes like “I love you”, “I miss you”, I’m thinking about you”, “I’m hugging you right now” and you put them out throughout the year at random times and places. Like in a lunch box or on the pillow. Best wishes to your family for this time in your life.
Lulutoo said...
on January 15th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Those are great ideas! Saying a prayer that the year will fly by and he’ll be back safe and sound before you know it. 🙂
Monique said...
on January 15th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Hi 🙂 My husband is in the military too (here in Canada). We just finished our first deployment (6mths long here) back in December. Some things we did to help us get through was to make our DD (6yrs old) an Army Bear from Build-a-Bear workshop with a recording that daddy made saying goodnight, sweet dreams etc. This way she could hear his voice anytime she needed it. She took that bear everywhere with us during that time.
Another thing we did was to send him all of our newspapers. We live in a small community that publishes 2 newspapers per week. I would highlight parts that I thought were funny or worth reading in case he didn’t have time to look through the whole thing. It gave him a way of staying connected with what was going on here, and help him when he came home to not feel so behind on what had been changing in our little town. He said he liked the highlighting too, that he could browse through and read what I thought was worthwhile.
Good luck, and know that you have a huge SSD family helping you out where ever we can 🙂
Mary Kate said...
on January 16th, 2012 at 8:42 am
Nikki, thanks for this post. I am also a military wife and it is so refreshing to see a blog post related to what we (military wives) go through and how to deal with it… one cannot get enough ideas on how to get through a deployment. If you need added support, feel free to email me! My hubby has deployed to Afghanistan for a year long deployment and he is in the NAVY! Go figure. I know you will get through this, but make sure to remember to lean on EVERYONE who offers support (I know you know that already, but it never hurts for that reminder). Thanks again for the post and keep us all updated! Your friends (real or digi) will be here for ya!
sonja maples said...
on January 16th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Nikki, what great ideas. I especially love the jar of ‘kisses for daddy.’ I know that it has to be so difficult for you and especially your children with daddy deployed. I have two nephews (brothers) that have served their deployment so I saw what my SIL went through.
Jacinda said...
on January 16th, 2012 at 11:57 am
We did the “Daddy Box” thing when my husband deployed to Afghanistan, except instead of putting things in it FOR Daddy, the box was filled with things FROM Daddy. The girls decorated a shoebox themselves, and we gave them items to put in it that reminded them of Dad: 4×6 photo album with lots of photos of that kid with Dad; some military trinkets/insignias and dog tags; the train ticket from our last outing together etc. Then whenever Dad wrote to the kids while away, he would include some little knick knacks/stickers/souveniers from the PX that the girls could put in their box. They loved their Daddy box, and I would often find them just sitting in their rooms rifling through the box remembering Daddy. They loved to show off their boxes to their friends who came to play too.