Did you know… Mission: Milspouse published its 3000th blog post in 2023 and is still growing!
Start Early Planning For Retirement
My husband had been planning for his retirement from the military for a good two years before the actual retirement date.
Coffees, Pins, and Camaraderie
If you ever went to a unit coffee before the virus disrupted our lives, you were continuing an Army tradition that dates back to the days of our very first lady, Martha Washington. She saw the need to support the wives as well as the troops and held many get-togethers for different groups every week. She even had her own “rules for good coffee”—a cup of water and heaping tablespoon of her specially-selected coffee “pulverized as fine as cornmeal.”
Drive-Throughs for Mommies
Several years back, we were stationed at an installation with a popular coffeehouse chain that was converted from a former fast-food building. It was constructed for a drive-through, but the coffee shop did not utilize that service. The absence of drive-through service was a huge ongoing conversation with us mommies who all had little ones we were lugging around.
One rumor stated that we women were lazy for not just going inside the store to order, that the drive-through wasn’t necessary. My close friend countered that it had nothing to do with laziness. The fact is, it takes 20 minutes to unload all the littles, walk-in to order while those littles run around and grab things off the shelves, and then try to balance a hot drink while walking out with kids in hand, just to take several more minutes to load them all back up.
Understanding Stress and What to Do About It
I have been trying to write a highly researched blog pertaining to debunking myths around resistance training but have been struggling to stay focused. Maybe it’s stress.
The past month (well, few months, actually) has been very hectic in the Bearden household. We planned and moved from Tacoma, Washington, to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for my new job! While we knew a move to The Springs was inevitable, my new job on Fort Carson made us push our moving plans up about three months. On top of that, my husband had several sets of orders that took him out of the planning and packing process for weeks at a time, leaving me to pack and plan a lot of the move myself.
Hope For the Warriors Offers Hope to Caregivers
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, but those of us who have a loved one with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) don’t need a month. We live it every single minute of every single day.
My husband served in the Army for 17 years. We have been married for 14 years. Most of those 14 years were while he was still serving his country.
Our world was turned upside down when he suffered a TBI.
Eating Disorder Challenges for Military Spouses and Children
Eating disorders occur more often among active-duty service members and veterans than among the general population. There are many reasons for this: perfectionism, past trauma, making weight requirements, weight and shape stigma, and mental health stigma. But what about military spouses and children? Do they experience eating disorders as well?
Short answer: Yes, they do. From external circumstances to challenging family dynamics, there are several possible contributors to eating disorders in military dependents:
Gearing Up: Pre-Deployment Preparations
When you find out a deployment is on the horizon, everything begins to be filtered through a new lens—the lens of deployment.
I’ve had the great opportunity to go through three deployments in my marriage: the first we were married for six months and had 30 days notice, the second we had six months of notice, and the most recent, I had a whole total of a week’s notice. I’ve experienced that prepping for a deployment can look different depending on how much time you have, and truthfully, how long your service member will be gone.
There are countless resources for those facing a deployment. I have consolidated a number of them here for you. However, if you feel like you’re missing something specific to you, then take the reins and do a little digging. There is a good chance that someone else has asked that question and has posted about it online!
Deployments are seasons. Just like military life has seasons, deployment is one of those. Within deployment, however, I like to think of them as almost micro-seasons. There are a lot of ups and downs that come along.
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