Beth Johnson is used to the uncertainty that comes with being a military wife, picking up and moving her family every three years.
However, she is not used to the crippling anxiety that comes with a U.S. government shutdown.
She is one of millions of Americans who breathed a sigh of relief when politicians in Washington agreed to reopen the government earlier this week.
It was the longest shutdown in US history, lasting 43 days.
But that relief may be short-lived as the funding agreement expires at the end of January, when Congress will again face the same spending challenge.
“It really impacts every part of your life when your family's only source of income comes from the federal government,” Ms. Johnson said. “Uncertainty is paralyzing.”
The Tennessee mother of two has lived in seven states since her husband joined the Army nearly 20 years ago.
Because she picks up and moves her family every three years, she and other military spouses have difficulty finding work, so the Johnson family lives on one paycheck.
Not knowing whether service members would receive pay from the shuttered government left her family with difficult decisions.
About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are expected to serve during the government shutdown, possibly without pay, but the Trump administration intervened twice during the fall shutdown to reallocate funds to those troops.
But a lack of confidence has forced many families to tighten their belts. One of Ms. Johnson's sons even suggested receiving fewer Christmas gifts – “We don't need them,” he told his mother.
Ms. Johnson is frustrated by what she called unnecessary sacrifices by millions of Americans.
“What was all this for? Why did we suffer for more than 40 days in uncertainty, not knowing what would happen,” she asks. “What was the point of that? We're just going to go through it again, probably in January.”
The deal struck by Congress this week funds the government for the next two months, ensures all federal workers are paid during the shutdown, and funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which provides food assistance to one in eight Americans – through next September.
Sierra Bird is one of more than 42 million Americans who depend on Snap to feed their family.
The Florida mother of four receives about $900 a month, but the money was put aside because it ended up in an expense account.
Ms Bird said she had “survived” the outage and her Snap card would be rebooted over the weekend.
She'll return to some sense of normalcy, but she's also tired that there could be another shutdown on the horizon, and she said she'll start stocking up on food just in case.
“People will take what they need if they don't have what they need,” Ms Bird said. “Don’t spoil people’s food.”
While Snap's benefits have returned, the only thing that hasn't is the health insurance subsidies. It was the very subsidies that Democrats said they were willing to fight for that helped shut down the economy in the first place.
Democrats have said they will not approve the budget unless the subsidies continue. But on Tuesday, eight Democrats sided with Republicans and approved the spending plan without their input.
“I traded one stress for another,” Ms. Bird said. “I'd rather have affordable healthcare than Snap because I can feed them rice and beans and survive, but I need medicine.”
In addition to those struggling to put food on the table during the shutdown, more than 1.4 million federal workers have gone without pay for 43 days.
Among them was Sarah, a Utah Department of the Interior employee who asked that her last name not be used.
She was laid off when the lockdown began on October 1, and as the days and weeks passed she worried she would have to find another way to make money.
“I was trying to decide if I wanted to leave the federal sector altogether to find another career,” Sarah said.
As an archaeologist, she has a unique, specialized role, making it difficult for her to transfer her experience to another job or industry.
Her fears subsided on Thursday when she returned to work for the first time in weeks since the government reopened, but she is already bracing for the prospect of another reopening in January.
“With the holidays coming up, I'm not looking to spend a lot of money,” she said, noting she's also putting some renovation projects on hold.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another shutdown.”
With less than 80 days until the next potential government shutdown, Ms. Johnson, a military wife, said she would prepare just in case.
“We are working hard to keep an eye on unnecessary expenses and save money where possible to save more money because if the government shuts down again in January, there is no guarantee that active-duty military will get paid.”
