A Cheesy Metaphor

I've been feeling really down lately. I think it's a combination of the reality of Kelly going back to Iraq after leave, the January blahs, my kids struggling in school and a doctor's appointment that I have on Monday that I'm anxious about.

I was thinking about our family and came up with this kind of cheesy metaphor.

Our family is like a ship. Kelly is the captain, I'm the first mate and the kids are the crew. When everyone is on board, I as the first mate pretty much do everything behind the scenes, making sure that the ship is running smoothly and that the crew are doing their jobs. When the captain is not on board the first mate has to take over the steering of the ship and it's hard to focus on the little thing that keep the ship running. The first mate can step into the captain's job but it's never quite the same. Every day the ship gets just a little more off course and things behind the scenes start to fall apart. Without the first mate to oversee them, the crew starts to goof off, not keeping up with their jobs or doing them with a little less care.

So, right now our family is without the captain and I feel like things are off course and the crew is goofing off. I'm not sure what can be done to fix it except to get the captain back on board. Hopefully we won't be too off course by the time that happens.