When faced with deployments, many times we find ourselves marking time in different ways.
I never really liked the idea of counting down. Which was convenient for us as Seadaddy is on his second deployment and we have yet to have a redeployment date before he left. I am not sure how it works normally, but there was *no* ballpark/range for the first one and this one was given as 'mid to late August'. And we have discussed recently how mid is not always mid.
All to say, while it might have been born out of necessity, I liked counting up. For the first deployment it was putting up a picture a day for Seadaddy. Whether or not he could check it once a day or once every three weeks or even though all too often the connection was so bad the pictures wouldn't load, I would put up a picture a day. Some old favorites of ours that made the cut and were hanging around the house, some old ones that were forgotten in the archives of our external hard drive and also some new ones to show him what we had been doing. What number the picture(day) was faded to the background as time went by and it became more about bringing a smile to Seadaddy's day.
Which may be why I like the idea Andrea has over at Sgt & Mrs Hubs. Since her husband's deployment is going to be around 26 weeks long, she is devoting each week to celebrating and exploring a letter of the alphabet. This seems like such a great idea for those with younger kids. And her eye when it comes to taking pictures is seriously awesome.
There is no right or wrong way to get yourself and your family through a deployment. But I love reading about what works for people to make the most of their snowflake. So, whether it is just you, you and the dog(s) or you and a kid or four, how about some ideas on what worked for you? Most of us can 'rest assured' another deployment in around the corner somewhere in the future and filing away an idea to help make the time go by with smiles along the way is always a good idea.
And really, it doesn't just have to be what worked for you. What doesn't work for you and you vow never to do again might prove helpful.
