While I’m sitting here typing out my thoughts on my reflections of the last month, I sometimes stumble to find the right words.

July was busy in our house. Early in the month, Sean came home on a 4 day pass and then Matt was here for 4 days last week. As much as I would love for them to come up together, I’d be asking for a miracle. After all, it is the Army.

The last time all 5 of us were together was in mid-May of 2008 for Matt’s ROTC commissioning ceremony from Xavier University. I have no idea when all 5 of us will be together again, most likely not until they get back next year.

Sean leaves very soon (can’t post dates for OPSEC reasons) and Matt leaves shortly after. They’ll both be overseas for a year.

When I look back on the last year, it did go by pretty quickly. We had a lot going on with their events, moving to Colorado… and back. I can only hope the coming year goes by just as fast.

Emily will be approaching 10 years old by the time Sean and Matt get back from the Middle East and I don’t even want to think about how tall she’ll be by then.

The last month, and especially their visits, really put life into perspective.

As a parent, I’ve never bought into the ‘quality time versus quantity time’ debate. Regardless of how much time I’ve spent with my kids, I’ve always wanted more.

I would have given anything to be a work at home mom when Sean and Matt were little boys, although those options were not available back then. Even now, while all they wanted to do was relax and not talk about the Army, I could have just sat all day with them doing not much of anything… just being together is enough.

Time is something you never get back. All the money in the world, and all the ‘stuff’ it can buy can never replace the time spent making those wonderful memories with the people you care about most.

That is what kids will remember. That is what I will remember and cherish.

I see some of my neighbors leave their house, with kids in tow, at 6 am, to return at 6 or 7 pm. I see some of my neighbors husband who travel a lot and I wonder how many baseball games or class plays were missed.

Our deployed soldiers miss a lot of events, too. However, there is a profound difference between missing events because your priorities are focused on accumulating ‘things’, versus missing events because you are protecting our nation’s freedoms.

I am so thankful that my business has allowed me the time freedom to be able to devote 100% of my time to my family during times like this. Even more so, I am especially grateful that Doug has been able to do this, too.

I couldn’t even imagine having to ask an employer for that kind of time off.

When Sean and Matt were in college, and would come up for visits, Doug would be at work all day while the boys, Emily and I would enjoy our day. That was no fun for us, knowing he couldn’t be with us, and I know it was no fun for him, either, wondering what we were doing while he was stuck in an office all day.

That is what really made these visits so special, too, is that even though Sean and Matt had to visit separately, Doug was able to enjoy all this time, too, and we had a blast.

Doug is already talking about renting a house in North Carolina next year so that we can be there for when they both come back. We’ll probably coordinate to do an Army Crossroads event at Ft. Bragg around that time, too.

How fun that will be!