Blessing of a Joe

Ever have one of those days where no matter how hard you try there just never seems to be a) enough time in the day and b) enough of YOU to go around? And no matter how hard you try you are not able to make enough of either a or b to make it all work out. So, in the end you are left standing there in the middle of "it all" scratching your head and thinking to yourself " did I accomplish anything and if so what?"
Well today was that day for me, and to be honest I seem to be having "those" days more and more often, especially since G.I. Joe came home from deployment.

See no military wife likes to admit that when her husband is deployed and it is just her and ?# of kids and maybe a dog or 2 or even a cat or heck why not a fish to balance it all out, that life is some how just a little, if not A LOT, less stressful for her , because to do so would make her seem like one of "THOSE" wives.
There is not that nagging feeling of having to make dinner every night, and if you do make it it needs to be by a certain time. That to feed yourself and the kiddos cereal for dinner is fine, cause at least they are not starving and by some peoples standards cereal is a very nutritional meal any time of day ( yes, i have those standards ) .
Or the unsaid rule of the house needing to be picked up, so that no one ( above 4 ft tall) will trip and fall over the toys and perhaps injury themselves in some odd way. Because you nothing in your day is more pressing than to stand over your children as they play with the toys and pick them up as soon as they move on to something more interesting. And lets not forget about the laundry, no laundry must be done in a timely fashion, because heaven forbid that someone in the house just might have to wear the same pair of socks or (Gasp) underwear the next day.
But, on the other hand no military wife likes to admit that even though these things might drive her crazy pretty much every day of the week and that there are some days that are harder than others that in the end she is just happy knowing that she is one of the lucky wives that has the insane pleasure of cooking dinner ( even if it is cereal and left overs) , keeping a semi-clean house and doing a quick load of laundry at 9p for her G.I Joe. Since there are more than a few wives out there that are not blessed with this day to day task.

So when all is said and done and your tired and really just want to serve cereal for dinner, leave the toys where they lay cause lord knows the toys will just be in the same place again tomorrow, and pick the least of the stinky socks out of the basket, remember to count your blessing and hold your Joe tight tonight because some where out there is a military wife who is not so lucky.