Looking back, it seems I haven't been posting much lately. In my head, I'm posting all the time...driving down the road, falling asleep, out running walking. That is one thing about my personality that works well with this whole military lifestyle - I like to keep busy. And when I'm busy, I don't have time to think about much else except how to accomplish the next few hours and then when I'll get to sleep.
My husband's first deployment, quite a few years ago, we didn't have any children and so I worked. A lot. I had a full time job in the evenings and then I substituted nearly every single day. And it was successful - there were some long days in there, but the 6 months went by FAST. (Yeah, we're Navy, we consider 6 months a deployment.)
Last time he deployed, a few years ago, we had four little kids. Enough said.
This time, everyone is in school, so I've really had to get creative to fill the time. I'm trying to run, and generally exercise more, I'm taking a couple of classes at the community college. I'm volunteering with the PTO, and (not) writing here, and writing The Paycheck Chronicles. I'm pretty effectively filling every spare minute of my day. And if I weren't, there's always Facebook.
I explain my life as one of these Fifteen Puzzles 
that you may have played when you were a kid - I'm forever trying to move all the little blocks around to get everything in order. I was explaining that to my favorite mental health professional recently, and she said something that has really stuck with me. She suggested that I needed to make sure that I kept a block open for my husband. And that it probably wasn't going to be very helpful if he came home and all the blocks were taken.
Hmmmm. That's an interesting concept. But how will I get through it with empty blocks? This is a dilemma for me. So I'm curious - how do you keep yourself busy while your spouse is gone, without filling your schedule so much that there isn't room for your spouse when they return?
