It's getting easier every day

Today we are officially one week done with this deployment. My mantra is beginning to make itself known, loud and clear.
Put your big girl boots on!
Thank you, Jacey Eckhart

I have discovered something very helpful out here, shared with me by another mom I met at the Y.

The Child Development Center has drop off daycare.
It took me almost two years to learn this, but nonetheless, I am thrilled.

So, I'm making a movie date for my daughter and me to see the new Ramona and Beezus movie. These were some of my favorite books as a little girl. When I heard they were making a movie, I picked up a couple of the books at our local Goodwill (Goodwill is a fabulous place to find books from your childhood!) and I read them to her over a series of weeks.

I've asked my husband to contribute rules to a list I will type up and tape to the refrigerator. My daughter and Lord knows my son aren't able to follow them so well by sheer memory, so having a visual reminder should help.

A couple of things I've changed since he left. Bedtime is now at 9:00 since it is still completely sunny at 8:00. Very hard to go to sleep when the sun is beating down through the blinds. We've been cutting down on computer and phone time although we still have a long way to go. Once the computer's shut down it's hard to resist the urge to go look something up randomly, but I figure that will fade with time. Plus it forces the little ones to think of something (gasp!) creative and imaginary to do with their time.

Lastly I'm trying to change our eating habits again. The starter items are buying organic meat and dairy, and no soda. I'm taking a cue from something I caught on television the other day that said, "don't buy anything that has ingredients that you can't pronounce." I thought that was pretty sound advice. It's amazing how many things claim to have 0 trans fat and then you read the label only to find partially hydrogenated soybean, or various other kinds of oil. I'm not a health nut by any means, you won't catch me eating fruit for dessert. But I truly believe that small changes can lead to a healthier lifestyle.

Overall, it was a really quick week and I'm grateful that I've been fairly busy. That's one week closer to being done.