How To Survive a Deployment

These might not be the most politically correct ways, but they work at varying times:

1. Buy T-shirts from www.CafePress.com with all sorts of slogans about how much deployments suck. Some of my favorites: Approach with caution, Courage, Deprived, 15 Months, Freedom. Just search for Deployment and you'll come up with 20,000+ designs--one for every day of the deployment!
2. Drink. Heavily. (your drink of choice, currently I drink about a gallon of hot chocolate a day) At all hours of the day, but particularly after your phone conversations get cut off. Seriously, a 15 minute morale call? We need more like 3 hour ones.
3. Hire a nanny/au pair. Not sure why I didn't give this more thought before now, 2 weeks before he comes home.
4. Hire a maid. I did consider this, even interviewed a couple, but didn't find one I liked and who would use MY cleaning products. Or would move the fridge and stove to clean behind them. Or fold my clothes the way I like, there are just some things you can't let someone else do.
5. Once a week do something for yourself ALONE. Anything--manicure, pedicure, dinner ALONE, go to the bookstore, the library, the yarn shop, the quilt shop. You don't have to buy anything, just go zone out. If the weather's nice go for a walk, a hike, go fly a kite.
6. Pick a family activity you can all enjoy--we joined the YMCA. We go swimming a lot. They've got great childcare and I can have some alone time at the same location.
7. Hire a great babysitter that you can call with little notice who will be willing to take the kids.
8. Get a hobby. If you already have one, find some others with the same interest and meet once a month or more often.
9. Have a slumber party with your "battle buddy" and her kids. You can scrapbook and drink wine all night long while the kids watch movies. Then you just crash at whoever's house and no one has to drive or feel like they aren't being responsible.
10. Order pizza or some other delivery food once a week. You don't have to cook every night. Yes, it costs a little more, but which would you rather have--money or your sanity?
11. Check out your FRG or at least keep in touch with them. They do have fun, it just takes more people showing up. If all else fails form a splinter faction--you aren't bound by rules and you have WAY more fun!