surviving the travel season

tim's has a great job. 

it is fun and exciting and interesting and there is always something. 

but it is also hard. 

it calls for long hours and lots of travel. 

the long hours are one thing. 

but the travel. 

that is a whole different ball game. or wrestling match. or something like that. 

we can totally handle the long hours. 

because with long hours daddy always comes home. even if we only see him for a little bit before bed or a little bit in the morning. 

he comes home. 

travel is different. because well. he doesn't come home. 

when the travel season hits it is a bit tough on us. 

we really like having tim around and him being gone is a total change to our routine. 

we are lucky that tim's travel time lumps together into a five month period. 

but that also makes it tough. 

i know there are lots of families out there with moms and dads that travel a whole lot more than tim does. and to them i say God bless you. it's a tough life.

we just made our way through a rough few weeks. tim travel six out of the last seven weekends. 

i have a coworker is often says to me "i don't know how you do it."

quite frankly all i can think of is i don't know how we wouldn't do it. 

i love tim and i love that he has a job he loves. 

so we make this work. doesn't mean it is always easy for him and for us. but we do it. cause that is what we do. 

we survive.

and hopefully we thrive. 

we learn not to take our time together as a family for granted. 

we enjoy just being together. 

we have been doing this for quite some time now. over the years i have learned a few things for surviving a traveling spouse. these are the things that work for me. and our family. 

1. keep it simple. i try hard to avoid doing anything extra when tim is away. even going out to eat can be overwhelming. i try to make it as easy on myself as possible. that way momma doesn't loss her mind. 

2. routine, routine, routine. i work hard to stick within our routine. when tim is away it is easy for me to lose track of time and then things just get all crazy. i work hard to stay within the norm. one thing i do like to do is move up bedtime. we can all benefit from a little extra sleep. momma included.

3. games and movies. tim travels during the winter months. so we can all start to go a little stir crazy. this is the time of year thethe games come out. we have been board game playing fools already this season. candyland, sequence for kids, uno, hungry, hungry hippos. play all the games. the wii has been getting plenty of action too. we love wii party. those silly, simple games work well for all of us. and then movies. we watch tons of movies. tim does a good job keeping the DVR loaded up with movies for us to watch. 

4. stay on top of daily tasks. this makes sense to do everyday. i mean i should always stay up on daily tasks, but i don't always. and often tim picks up the slack. if i don't get the dishwasher cleaned out he will do it. but when he is gone, well he can't. a little time everyday keeping up on things helps me avoid spending lots of time trying to get caught up. 

5. do something special. i think it helps to have something special that you do with the kiddos. nothing extravagant. just something different. picnics in the living room, watching tv with momma in bed, ice cream as a snack. just something we wouldn't typically do with daddy around. 

well. 

that is what i have for you. 

my wisdom for surviving. 

and thriving. 

we can do this.