There’s an old saying in real estate. Location, location, location.
When you arrived at your current duty station, you and your spouse went house hunting to buy or rent and understood the importance of location. Location to schools, location to parks, and location to post.
Recently, my 6-year-old had a homework assignment about creating a chain reaction. We drafted our plan using sketches of how we would set up dominoes to fall over various surfaces before launching a car through a loop-de-loop. We spent hours setting up dominoes, knocking them down by accident, and starting over. Finally, everything was in position and still standing despite two younger siblings “helping.”
My 6-year-old got into position and gently tipped the first domino. We watched them fall, hearing a satisfying clink as each domino made contact with the one in front of it.
Finally, the last domino began to fall. It tapped the car, and…
Nothing.
Hours of trying to make it work and it didn’t.
My daughter was upset, and honestly, we might have been overly ambitious.
That experiment got me thinking about our current struggles as parents.
Well suffice it to say, spring isn’t going quite the way we planned…
As I’m typing, the world is literally shut down, with fear and panic being the overruling emotions. You pretty much can’t go anywhere or talk to anyone, and so far there’s no real end in sight. And what’s with all the toilet paper hoarders? Honestly, with all that’s going on, it’s super easy to focus on the negative. But you know what? In my house, there’s been a whole lot of positives too.
Don’t start rolling your eyes yet!
I’m not about to sit here and lie to you, talking about how my family is just loving the time all crammed together, and how I’m managing to write the next great American novel and simultaneously cook all the gourmet meals I’ve always wanted to try, while my well-behaved children and attentive husband look like Pottery Barn models in the background of my pictures, with the hashtag #lovingthisquaratinelife!
Nope. Not in this house.
Join Jolene as she celebrates military children by providing facts and wearing purple! We can all learn more from our military kiddos, and we would love to hear how you are honoring your kids this month.
Like much of the rest of the world, we are social distancing, staying in our house, enjoying the abundance of quality time with the members of our household, and attempting to conquer this homeschooling business.
The toddlers have no idea anything is wrong globally. To them, their older brother is just home all the time to play with them. For me, I am trying my best to make sure my 7-year-old doesn’t fail first grade. I know, is that even possible? During this time, all of the kids should be receiving a grade of grace since mom and dad hardly can replace the trained professionals stocked with an inconceivable amount of patience that aren’t keeping multiple toddlers from applying Play-Do to the laptop while big brother does some math before lunch.
We are wrapping up our third week of our new normal, and to be honest, my standards of life have greatly been lowered.
Over the past month, my husband and I have used more than 15% less spending money than our usual amount. Also, over the past month, one of our personal investment accounts has dropped more than 30%.
I’m guessing I don’t even have to tell you why either happened.
It’s been in the back of my mind for a while now to share some of our favorite little personal finance habits, and now with an added layer of what is going on around us, I felt there was a bit extra to say.
Starting with what I originally wanted to share: I would really like to emphasize that these are our own personal habits. Neither one of us has any sort of financial expertise, but over the past five years or so, we’ve found our shared personal finance groove. A big part of this was reading about personal finance, seeing what stuck out to us, and actually trying some ideas out.
While standing with my wife in a social military setting the question is inevitably asked: “So how long have you served?” When my response is, “she has served since 2016,” with the emphasis on “she,” you can see the confusion on their face as they try to process what I have just stated.
It doesn’t help that I cut my own hair using the No. 2 attachment, generally keep my face clean shaven, and run marathons often enough that my 48-year-old body is still in decent shape. I look Army.
But I’m not the active duty spouse in our relationship, nor have I ever served in any branch of the armed services.
By the time you read this, my soldier will be home from a deployment.
It snuck up on us this time around. A few months ago they said he might go home early if they could find a replacement for him. There was a lot of “maybe this” and “maybe that.”
It dragged on for months. I’m used to that kind of Army talk.
Then all of a sudden he says, “Hey, I’m coming home in two weeks.”
“Letting you know… I’m deploying on Friday.”
This was the text I received one morning as I was getting ready to begin my day. My friend, Catherine, along with so many others, would be deploying somewhere overseas for who knows how long and doing who knows what.
Her text was one of many. By the end of the first week, I was on a roller coaster of “guess what?” I saw couples rushing to the PX to pick out wedding bands. Another friend of mine bought a very early birthday cake for her daughter. My little ones were coming home from school sharing their sadness with me, almost daily, about the news of yet another friend gone.
Deployments have a way of moving families around the globe.
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