Preparations

It's been a good 8 months since Jake truly left our home. Since that time he's come and gone, but in the realm of "mostly" he's been "mostly gone."

When he left the last time, it was late July. We had our air conditioning on. The trees and grass were green and lush. The air was hot and muggy. Strawberries and watermelon were "in season." Sidewalk chalk racecar tracks, octagons, and words like "mommy," "daddy," & "Asher" decorated the path from our driveway to our back door.

Now it's frigid. The water pipes inside of the house just froze on Friday for the third time this year. Clementines and grapefruits are "in season." There is snow covering the side walks and yard, and the Sadie poops dotting the backyard are petrified.

Imagine not seeing your home for five months. It's been five months since Jake actually left home for the last time. When he drove away on that very early morning in July, I couldn't see through my tears, and neither could he. My heart was breaking to know that our precious son would wake up to his daddy gone.

Now, here we are, a week away from Asher's third birthday and our seventh anniversary, and we are preparing for Jake's R & R visit HOME to us! I've been doing some reflecting over the past few days, and I've come to the conclusion that I have been quite busy this deployment, but not doing much of anything constructive. I've been reactive, not proactive. For instance...the dishes start to smell, it's time to wash them, I have no clean underwear, it's time to do laundry, it's garbage day tomorrow, I guess I'll take out the garbage. The mundane tasks get done, but only the ones chirping the loudest. The kiddo takes precedence above all mundane tasks. And poor Sadie is just glad to have some attention from anyone who walks in the door.

There are a few things I loathe doing above all others....and the top of that list is folding and putting away clothes. I could give you the "laundry list" (pun intended) of all the reasons why...but I'll spare you. The sad truth is, some clothes that Jake sent with me from our visit to see him in September, and some boxes of clothes items he sent home, had yet to be put away. In some weird way, I just couldn't bring myself to put his clothes away. It was too...final. I wanted to see his clean clothes sitting there, amongst my clean clothes...and, I didn't want them all put away, shut up inside of drawers. But...I did it. This weekend, between naps and antibiotics (thanks to a 3 week cough that moved to my chest and just won't go away) I did a little "nesting" and put his clothes away...inside of drawers. I know he's coming home in less than a week, and I wanted to be ready for him. All the little things I've not done over the past 5-8 months (like put away his laundry!) I want to get done so that he knows we're ready to have him home! I even got his list of grocery store requests...which includes such things as "fresh produce, milk, good OJ, and Bud Light." That's my boy.

However, the Christmas tree is still holding it's position in the corner of the living room. There's just no way that wonderful tree is coming down before my dear husband sees it in all it's glory. He offered to help take it down with me while he's home, but honestly, I kind of like basking in it's warm glow in the evenings. Perhaps I'll leave it up though July...and by that time...well, there's really no point in taking it down at all, is there?!

~Emily