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.
It was a beautiful day a couple of weeks ago, and I knew I was making a choice that would impact my whole day.
I knew it would be good, but I couldn’t have known how long the ripple effect would last. Maybe I still don’t know for sure how my choice made an impact that day.
One of my favorite parts of the milspouse life is hearing other peoples’ stories. The stories of the good times, the hard times, the times of triumphs, the dreams, and the hopes for the future. This premise is the basis of our Recon Rendezvous series—the tips, tricks, and experiences that make this milspouse life worth it (and so much more).
In this military life, separation in the military is almost guaranteed. Between TDY, training, time in the field, deployments—the list goes on and on—our service members often have to take time away from their spouses and families. Often, we focus on that separation; some of us dwell on it, some of us try to ignore it, but it can still get at us despite our best efforts.
When our service member leaves, we’re faced with two choices: allow our emotions to take over, or try to look at the bright side. It never gets easier to have our loved ones gone, but we can try to see the good in it.
October is always a fun time of year for me. Within the last few years, I have started to consider the beginning of October the beginning of Halloween, rather than the holiday just being the last day of the month.
I know some people might find that silly, but I find that October, and Halloween in particular, means the start of fall—cooler days, warm drinks, and the family times and holidays that soon follow.
More than half of 2017 is already over, and as I reflect on my New Year’s goals, I can honestly say that I wasn’t able to stick with any of them. You see, things never turn out the way we plan for them. Almost any milspouse can attest to that little life fact. And though I’ve faced many let downs, failures, obstacles, and trials this year, the one aspect of my life that I haven’t let go is the need to never stop trying.
Finding time for yourself, especially when you’re the parent of young children, can sometimes be difficult. There’s laundry to be done, messes to be cleaned, and blogs to be written. Even at the end of the day, when the kids are in bed and you might have an hour to enjoy your favorite late-night television show or play a game, the list of things that still need to be done may still be weighing on your mind. This is what has become known as “the mental load.”
Mission: Milspouse is a
501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
EIN Number: 88-1604492
hello@missionmilspouse.org
P.O. Box 641341
El Paso, TX 79904