Kids and the Military

We have two wonderful little ones our little man is 5 and our princess is 3. They just completed their first military move back in July and have had to go through quite a few changes over the last few months. We are at our second deployable unit since meeting however, our son doesn't remember the first one and our daughter was born after he left that type of unit. Our current duty station is deployable unit and it has been a struggle on everyone especially them. My daughter believes that Daddy lives at the airport and keeps asking when we can go pick him up. It makes me laugh and yet makes me sad at the same time because she really does miss her daddy. My son can be emotional at times and is still struggling with verbalizing his feelings. Some days he is OK and then others he breaks down over the smallest of things. He misses his daddy and has a hard time expressing that.

A big thing in our family is routine and trying to stick to that routine whether daddy is home or not. If I allow things to change when daddy is home it makes it harder when he leaves. Another is because of the frequency of him coming and going we try not to depend on him to much such as allowing him to take over thing I normally do myself (baths, cooking, running the kids to practices). If I allow him to take over my duties it becomes hard to get back into them. We have become a skype family finally, which did take me a long time to breakdown and do. I really was not into someone seeing me a hot mess sitting on the couch (that is just my craziness coming out). I wonder is there other ways to help them cope besides trying to explain it and just sticking to our routine. We still have a few more years before my husbands retirement and I wonder can we find a way to deal with his deployment better when it comes to the kids.
So I put it out to the blogger world and hopes that someone out there has some creative ideas of how they explain it to their little ones?

Serving in the Silent ranks.

Not everyone is made to be a military wife, it takes a special type of person to be a spouse of a Military Memeber (MM).You have to be independent, trusting, supportive, willing to change your life at the drop of a hat, and give up control for as long as your MM serves. We have no control over when our loved one will be home, or even where our home will be. But Home is where our MM is and  I love being married to my MM and am built for this lifestyle. I believe that wives serve in something called silent ranks, I did not come up with that term but I do believe it to be true. I first discovered this term from a poem by a unknown author

I wear no uniforms, no blues or army greens.
But I am in the military in the ranks rarely seen.
I have no rank upon my shoulders, salutes I do not give.
But the military world is the place where I live.

I'm not in the chain of command, orders I do not get.
But my husband is the one who does, this I cannot forget.
I'm not the one who fires the weapon, who puts my life on the line.
But my job is just as tough. I'm the one that's left behind.

My husband is a patriot, a brave and prideful man,
And the call to serve his country, not all can understand.
Behind the lines I see the things needed to keep this country free.
My husband makes the sacrifice, but so do our kids and me.

I love the man I married. Patriotism is his life.
But I stand among the silent ranks known as the military wife.

I believe that not all women are made for this lifestyle and that is not something that should be entered into without consideration. With a military lifestyle you must be prepared for inconsistency and that inconsistency is the only constant in this life. For this lifestyle I was born and bred, and I fully accept my responsibility and duty in the silent ranks.