{"id":20971,"date":"2013-12-21T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/?p=20971"},"modified":"2013-12-21T10:13:51","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T15:13:51","slug":"deployment-day-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/","title":{"rendered":"Deployment Day #52"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We baked cookies today. Lots of them, in preparation for our annual cookie frosting party. Usually it is a really big deal, but this year I&#8217;m just happy to get cookies made.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20973\" alt=\"cookieexchange\" src=\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1.jpg\" width=\"532\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1.jpg 532w, https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1-249x300.jpg 249w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m considering taking the kids out Christmas shopping. I haven&#8217;t actually been Christmas shopping \u00a0this year. I&#8217;ve done all my Christmas shopping online, except for the candy I bought at the grocery store this week.<\/p>\n<p>I miss Christmas shopping which is kind of funny because usually my shopping goes like this.<\/p>\n<p>Leave all the kids with dad and head to the stores. Wander the stores, overwhelmed by the endless choices, people, and lack of parking. Also, I&#8217;m usually freezing. Come home and order everything online.<\/p>\n<p>This year we&#8217;ve given the UPS guy some great cardio has he walks up our driveway delivering gifts. My four year old calls him Santa.<\/p>\n<p>But without actually attempting to go to the store it doesn&#8217;t seem quite right. I hate leaving the kids because I already have to leave them for necessities like medical appointments.<\/p>\n<p>If there is one thing this deployment has taught me is to stop being so judgmental. I&#8217;ve never really thought of myself as that way until I was at the commissary last night.<\/p>\n<p>When I parked my car there was a car parked in front of me and had something (or someone) bouncing around in the backseat. As I walked by the car I noticed a boy, about seven or eight sitting (bouncing) in the back seat and a sleeping toddler strapped into the carseat next to them.<\/p>\n<p>My first thought was&#8230; OH MY WORD, THEY LEFT THEIR LITTLE KIDS IN THE CAR!!!!<\/p>\n<p>But then I started thinking about it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maybe they are just running in for diapers.<\/li>\n<li>Maybe they are out of milk.<\/li>\n<li>It isn&#8217;t very cold outside, actually it is quite nice and the kids are dressed appropriately for the weather.<\/li>\n<li>We are on base, it is pretty safe.<\/li>\n<li>Maybe they are a single parent.<\/li>\n<li>Maybe the kids are being picked up from day care after a long week and they didn&#8217;t want to wake up the sleeping toddler.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying it is a good idea to leave your kids in the car (I don&#8217;t think it is), but I also realized how quick I was to make a judgement about the person who did it.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know their story, their situation. Rather than be judgmental I need to be more grace-filled, more compassionate.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve all seen people make choices that are bad in public. But the reality is, we&#8217;ve all made bad choices. Whether these choices are fueled by circumstances or just plain and simple <em>that guy&#8217;s a jerk<\/em> we&#8217;ll never know.<\/p>\n<p>But what I do know is that gone are the days that I think I&#8217;m somehow I&#8217;m a better parent than the person who did it. Because I&#8217;m not.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m learning a lot during this deployment&#8230;.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.\u00a0 These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.\u00a0 I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.\u00a0 To read from the beginning, <a href=\"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/tag\/deployment-2013\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We baked cookies today. Lots of them, in preparation for our annual cookie frosting party. Usually it is a really big deal, but this year I&#8217;m just happy to get cookies made. I&#8217;m considering taking the kids out Christmas shopping. I haven&#8217;t actually been Christmas shopping \u00a0this year. I&#8217;ve done all my Christmas shopping online, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[785,2795],"class_list":{"0":"post-20971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-military","7":"tag-deployment","8":"tag-deployment-2013","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Deployment Day #52 - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Real Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deployment Day #52 - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Real Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We baked cookies today. Lots of them, in preparation for our annual cookie frosting party. Usually it is a really big deal, but this year I&#8217;m just happy to get cookies made. I&#8217;m considering taking the kids out Christmas shopping. I haven&#8217;t actually been Christmas shopping \u00a0this year. I&#8217;ve done all my Christmas shopping online, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Real Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-21T16:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-21T15:13:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Toni Herrbach\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/\",\"name\":\"The Happy Housewife\\u2122 :: Real Life\",\"description\":\"Where Martha Meets Real Life\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0cc17af167f72194b9d40ffb066454\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/files\/2013\/12\/cookieexchange1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/real-life\/deployment-day-52\/\",\"name\":\"Deployment Day #52 - 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