Separations are part of being a military spouse...  But for the longest time I was used to rotating with my husband on being gone.  Now that I'm out of the military, the leaving is always one sided.  The first couple of weeks I was back from my second deployment to Iraq and my husband was in Afghanistan, I struggled with what to do with myself.  And the more I had free time, the crazier I felt myself going. 

Then I met some other Army wives whose husbands were deployed with my husband and they helped me learn how to make the best out of the separations.  At the time we were stationed in Germany, so our weekends were filled with trips to IKEA and the land of the big PX (Grafenwoehr), Polish pottery shopping or exploring other parts of Europe. 

Within a few weeks after getting back, I was enrolled in classes again and digging out my scrapbooking stuff.  I even picked up a crochet hook again and my husband ended up with an afghan, which came in handy a few times.  I read more books than I could count and took pictures that totaled more than 10,000.  I had ice cream and popcorn for dinner and spent all day in my pajamas from time to time. 

I quickly learned that you have two options when your soldier is gone - to dwell on his absence or take advantage of the time to focus on things you don't do while he is home because you tend to focus on stuff you can do together.  So in that roughly nine months we were separated (since I deployed with the same unit to start with, we weren't 'separated' the whole time - although we were at different sites during the time we were both deployed) - I took the time to travel, work on crafts, go to the gym, and basically just spend a little time doing some things that I often put off.

There were times that I felt guilty given where my husband was at the time, but then I had to take a step back and remind myself that he would want me to do these things and also that I had done my duty and that it had led me to where I currently was. 

So now, as I'm starting yet another separation - I have my 'to read' books ready to go, my 'workshop' is ready to start crafting and my camera batteries are well charged - let the 'making the most of the situation' begin!