On An Adventure

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

And, we have reached the point in this deployment where I am officially over it. As much as we have behind us, it still feels like there is a long way to go. The day to day is just starting to wear on me. It's not like I'm ripping my hair out at the end if the day every day (although I have my moments- mostly with the dogs, not Eli), but it's just hard doing everything myself. The cooking, the cleaning, the caregiving, the shopping. It's just a lot for one person. And no matter how many breaks I have or little hands that help, at the end of the day, it's still all ultimately up to me.

And, I just really miss my husband.

Thankfully, we are just shy of four months done. There are a lot of rumors swirling around again about extensions also, so we may or may not be approaching the halfway mark. Please pray that this deployment is only nine months, or if it is extended, it doesn't go all the way to a year. Because the thought of Nick missing a year of Eli's life is really breaking my heart. Nine months is plenty long, as it is.

But, like I said, they're just rumors at this point and I'm trying not to stress when nothing definitive has been decided. And I know that God is ultimately in control.

"And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?...therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:27, 34

So please just keep us in your prayers. We do have some trips and visitors coming up that will help this funk a bit as well.

One of my devotionals recently talked about how "a Spanish response given colloquially to the common greeting 'Como estas?' ('how are you?') is 'Aqui en la lucha,' which means 'Here in the struggle".

Boy, can I relate! We have been busy, busy, busy! Thus, the lack of updates. As much as I'm used to the "normal" of Nick being gone by now, it is still a lot of work taking care of Eli, the dogs, and our house all by my lonesome. And, of course, we've had to make sure we're getting some social time too!

I finally attended a unit coffee (only took me about 6 months!), got to celebrate my birthday at a painting studio with some fun ladies, and have had some nice dinners with fellow wives whose hubbies are gone. We're also enjoying the military wives bible study through our church, and Eli is getting more and more comfortable with the church nursery and babysitters!

There have been some especially challenging times in the past couple months, like a bout of the stomach flu for Eli, a bunch of lights going out in my house, very cold weather, lots of rumors swirling around the military (extending deployments, not paying the troops, etc.) and potty training! But, God was faithful as usual, and got us through even the very long days.

I thought that we might live in the bathroom for the first few days of potty training, and we practically did. I also felt like I had a newborn again, since we were so tied to trips to the potty. Definitely would have been much easier with Nick home, but what can ya do. Thankfully, things have gotten much better since. Eli can now (usually) go at least an hour between bathroom visits and usually only has 1-2 accidents a day. I would say that we're still in the process of potty training, but not bad for only a little more than 2 weeks in! He is very excited about his new big boy underwear and if we're both on top of it, there is a lot of success! We're getting there!

Eli is also continuing to amaze me with how much he learns and grows every day. Apparently, he's actually been listening when I've been trying to teach him stuff! He'll randomly recognize letters, numbers and shapes and has pretty much mastered colors. He sure keeps me on my toes, but he also keeps things interesting, that's for sure!

The biggest accomplishment lately for Eli has been that he will finally put himself to sleep! I take a lot of responsibility for this, but he was so incredibly slow to put to bed, at least for me (less so for others, little stinker!). I have no idea what the turning point was, but it just clicked one day that his world would not end if I left the room before he fell asleep, and we haven't turned back! Totally life changing and such a nice break for me!

I'm doing pretty well too. Continuing to work out and eat better and I'm definitely seeing the results. I've done some fun fitness challenges, like one in January where I did a progression of push-ups every day and did almost 500 push-ups by the end of the month! I feel very buff! The instructor of the stroller workout class we go to even tried to recruit me to be an instructor! I definitely took that as a compliment.

Otherwise, just kind of powering through. I'm still anxiously awaiting the day when Nick will finally be home, and it does still seem a ways off, but I know we'll get there. We're actually almost to the halfway point, God willing (I'm not counting on anything until he's actually on a plane) and have made it through 110 days so far!

We have some fun stuff coming up in the next few months, so hopefully I'll have the motivation to write more (can't say blogging is super high on my list the only time my child holds still- when he's asleep). Until then...