One of the most important parts of supporting your service member as they serve our country is “holding down the fort” (See also: running a smooth, loving, and supportive home life for you and your family, while keeping all things going in your service member’s absence). Easy peasy, right? Sometimes, not so much.
With this category, we cover everything behind the scenes, such as organization, communication, marriage, parenting, overcoming trials, and just some good ole fashioned humor.
Join us as we embark on figuring out the home-life balance as a milspouse and find ways to thrive and excel! No matter what your life at home looks like, one of our Experience Bloggers or Command Team members has probably been in a similar situation and is here to share their triumphs, lessons, and laughs along the way.
If the title of this piece caught your eye, a number of things could have crossed your mind. Because you are most likely part of the military family, you may have thought it referred to civilians whose spouses are not at risk of dismemberment and death on their “work trips.” Or perhaps you thought it referred to other military spouses whose active duty member hasn’t deployed seven times in the last ten years.
No, I’m referring to the children many of us are raising today.
He told me we were just going on a “little” walk. It wouldn’t take that long. We’d be back in plenty of time for the sit-down dinner at the cute, little Italian restaurant in Aspen, Colorado that we had reservations for. But at the look of how things were going, that didn’t seem likely. I was halfway up a huge mountain, so exhausted, and just wanted to be done.
My husband and I were enjoying a much-needed weekend in Aspen thanks to an Army-sponsored Strong Bonds retreat. (If you’ve never attended a Strong Bonds weekend, I highly suggest going!) We were in between sessions, and my adventurous, pilot husband decided it would fun to do a “little hike” before the dinner session started.
Hello, readers! I’m LaVaughn, one of the newest experience bloggers at Army Wife Network. This initial post provides you a chance to get to know where I come from and how I journeyed to where I am today.
If you’re not familiar with High School Musical, then you’ll need to watch this video to hear my mantra for this year.
We’re all in this together.
It’s such a simple phrase. Five little words. Written in the second person point-of-view, so no one is excluded. Stating that we are not alone. You can hear me singing it (almost daily) when trying to overcome life’s little battles, and this year has brought quite a few.
My current “battle” is the upcoming school year. Like so many other parents out there, I have been struggling with the changes this year will bring. Mainly because we chose to go virtual—and with four children under the age of 10, that will fall heavily on my shoulders.
Picture this. Your spouse comes home from work and surprises you with news that their job is changing.
Immediately.
So, they begin their job in a new place while you and your children say goodbye to friends, neighbors, and teachers, unsure when your next face-to-face meeting will happen. You cancel your plans for your daughter’s birthday party, for summer vacation, and for your best friend’s wedding. You try your hardest to settle into a new normal, but nothing is the same and you long for the life you had before.
Pop quiz: Did you imagine this story as a military-related PCS or as the events that unfolded this past spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Fear not, you didn’t fail the quiz. That stressful scenario could have easily described either situation.
If you were to tell me five years ago that I would be a mother to not only four children, but that my last pregnancy would include triplets, I would have laughed in your face.
The truth is, I struggled to conceive with both pregnancies.
My oldest son, Aaron, was a total surprise. We had tried for nearly four years while I had gone through a variety of treatments for precancerous cells on my cervix, and we found out shortly after moving to Texas and closing on our first home.
SURPRISE!
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