After the return

So Robert has been home almost two months now. It's amazing how quickly time goes when he's home compared to how slowly it goes when he's gone. We had our homecoming and requisite one day off. He's done his processing and reintegration training. We made the required journey to visit family. Now we're back home and he's back to work for real and everyone's settling in to "normal" life for now.

We have rearranged furniture in the house. He has done those things I left in the last couple of months for him to do. He hasn't bought his man-toy yet. He says my new camera and computer count as his man-toy but I think he'll still find something he wants. Maybe when the boat comes out of storage.

Here's the thing: why does it always surprise me how much extra laundry and trash and dishes one more person makes??? You would think after four deployments and hundreds of field exercises, I would not be surprised. I always tell myself to expect it. I give myself a pep talk over how it will be. I think I'm ready. Then - BAM - I cannot believe how much more of this stuff is being produced by the addition of one person. It is exponential. Not plus one but plus one hundred. Seriously. From running the dishwasher every other day to running it every day. From one-two bags of trash every week to three. From four-five loads of laundry a week to seven-eight. Really. For one person. It's amazing. So I wonder - am I the only one who notices this?