Welcome to a Day-in-the-Life where we get an inside look at how individual military spouses fill a typical day and keep their wits about them by hunting the good stuff.
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My name is Kate, I am 25 years old and my husband and I have been married two years this fall. I know, I know… we are babies 🙂 He has been in the Navy for three years. I think the one thing I could not live without are Bath & Body Works three-wick candles.
6:00 am
I open one eye to sound of water running in the attached bathroom. “What time is it…?” comes out as a mumbling “hmmm time mmmm…?” It is 7:30 and hubs is back from PT, showered, and going back to work. Over achiever.
8:00 am
I drag myself out of bed “early” because yesterday when I slept in, our two German Shepherds destroyed an entire bag of charcoal left in the backyard. Can’t leave those two hooligans anywhere.
I come downstairs and survey the house as I go… looks like the only thing they got into was their water bowl which is now watering the kitchen floor. I grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast and load the dogs in the car for their morning walk. We don’t walk around our house off base because when people hear where we live, I get an “Ohhh. There?” We have two furry security systems, but I still prefer walking on base.
10:00 am
Three miles later, Bear and Lily are worn out and fall asleep in their favorite spots, the large pillow by the couch and the landing of the staircase, respectively. I check my email, scroll through Instagram, glance at my to-do list for today (obviously made when I wasn’t tired… going grocery shopping seems a little ambitious).
I do a quick clean sweep through the downstairs, putting away the shoes, cups, books, papers that somehow always end up all over the place. Why is it that a house is never clean and tidy except for the five minutes immediately following a deep clean?!
12:00 pm
I am a nurse and work the nightshift, so my “day” can get kind of funky at this point. On workdays, this is the start of my “quiet time,” which I renamed in my head after “nap time” stressed me out.
If I am tired enough to close my eyes for a couple hours; I happily take the sleep I can get. But if I have been off for a few days and am used to that diurnal life, I just do quiet, low energy things like watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix. It can get really frustrating not being able to sleep when I know I NEED to, but I try to not get anxious about it and just rest while I can.
Lucky for me, I can still pull multiple all-nighters every week and keep my body in a more-or-less state of equilibrium. Today I’m not tired at all, and I am making my pro and con list about going back to school to get my master’s. My number one pro: having a normal schedule so that you can actually have a normal social life. (If there are any NP’s reading this and laughing because, what is a social life, don’t tell me!)
2:00 pm
Around 3 pm, I get up and go out to the garage to workout. I’ve been dealing with a never-ending IT band issue, so instead of going for a run (my usual perfect stress relieving activity) I turn on Blogilates, which is like having a very enthusiastic Pilates trainer in your garage via YouTube. Highly recommend.
4:00 pm
After my workout, I open the fridge to survey dinner options. Shoot. That to-do list was ambitious me telling tired me “THERE IS NOTHING TO EAT.” But wait… I see a can of beans and a stack of tortillas! Quesadillas to the rescue!
Hubby comes home around the time I’m getting dinner ready, and we talk about our days and things going on at home and work. We have been getting into the habit of reading our Bibles out loud before dinner, which I love doing together.
And even though I know it’s terrible and everyone says not to do it… we watch Brooklyn 99 while eating dinner. It’s hard not getting to spend time together when we are both working, but having an hour or so to talk and sit next to each other is better than no time at all.
6:00 pm
My “day” is just beginning at this point. My commute to the hospital is only 15 minutes, and I use it to get in the right mindset for work. I sing along with the radio loudly, praising God for the sunset and the mountains, and asking Him for patience and tenderness at work.
I work in the neonatal intensive care unit, which so many people think is sad, but is actually quite wonderful. I have certainly had some very sad nights, doing my best to explain what seems impossible to all new mamas. But for the most part, the routine and consistency in the NICU is comforting and calming.
My favorite nights are the ones that leave me with enough time in between care to snuggle and rock the babies back to sleep, especially those whose mamas cannot be there to hold them.
It’s hard staying awake all night, working nights and weekends and holidays away from my husband who already spends more than enough time away from me. But I love my job and it’s worth the sacrifice.
Want to share about a typical day in your shoes? Submit your Day-in-the-Life here.
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