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New and Old Adventures for the Military Family
Old adventure!A military PCS is always an adventure! In fact, “military lifestyle” is a synonym for adventure. Finding new fun things to do in your new community after a PCS can be challenging for a military family! Heading outdoors, new schools, new jobs, getting out the front door, off the installation, exploring social opportunities, meeting new friends, visiting local highlights, browsing new malls, walking new trails and playing on new park equipment can be the best of times. But last week I had the greatest time exploring an adventure from the past! Charleston, South Carolina was a wonderful place to live but the summer’s were hot and humid and each…
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New beginnings! Are you ready?
The new school year, a PCS this summer, a new job/employment, a deployment return or departure, a new or revitalized faith, a new workout routine, a wedding, a birth, a health crisis … all can be new beginnings for the military community. So how do you help yourself during new “stuff”? Remember the Old! It gives us strength to remember what helped us in the past. Looking at old pictures is a great way to enjoy old friends, family times, previous assignments, etc. More important though is the support emotionally and physically we get from the routines that we created to cope with the military lifestyle. The new school…
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Are You Making the Right Choices for Alcohol Use?
See Below for Photo CreditDecisions! We make them every day – active duty, reserves, guard members, retirees, military family members – all of us are faced with small or critical decisions every day of our lives. Sometimes, they are almost routine; like, what shoes do I wear today? Well, that might be a bigger decision for some than others. Sometimes a decision leaves us with a ‘I wish I had done it differently” or “What if” or a WTH (I prefer “heck”) moment or maybe, “Wow, I made the right choice”. Alcohol (for everyone over 21) can be a big decision. If you have not reached your 21st birthday, you…
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Our Summer Routine
The Summer Routine has started in Ohio. School is out, the kids’ schedules have relaxed, thoughts of fun and sun have been churning in the minds of my boys. However, this mom has other plans besides lazy days of summer all vacation long. Usually, they are all up by 9am but once in awhile I get the joy of poking, prodding and maybe even some singing making a joyful noise. That rallies the troops right up! We get some breakfast, pour some (more) coffee and pull out summer-workbooks. The (now) 3rd and 5th grader have some workbooks we bought through school (like we have done in years past – learn more) and I also…
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Let’s Have some Summer Time Fun! Blue Star Museums and So Much More! DoD Blogger Roundtable
Military family on a nature trail“I feel like I ran through this blog with the enthusiasm of an 8 year old playing baseball or soccer this summer!” What is active living for the military family? It certainly must include activities across the reach of age, interest and new found geographic areas to explore after a PCS. Parenting can be a challenge before, during and after a PCS due to all the stressors impacting the whole family. But a fitness routine can help the whole family work through some of the stress involved in every day military life. A new trail, an old trail; a new workout routine, an old workout…
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Month of the Military Child
Some articles related to our military children you might find of interest: Military Children Express Sacrifices Through Art, Writing Military Child Month Salutes Children’s Contributions Learning to Save is Key to Financial Responsibility Children Need Routine Environment During Moves, Official Says Helping Children Solve Problems Find more in our Reading Room We are sharing a “Resource of a Day” related to our youngest military-heroes, our military children, on our Facebook page throughout the month of April: http://www.facebook.com/MilitaryAvenue (Just a few examples: MilitaryKidsConnect, Military Youth on the Move, The National Military Family Association toolkit.) Find more resources on our ‘Ways to Support Military Children‘ board and lots of great images of…
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How do you organize your family calendar?
We are more than a month into the new year and for us it is a pretty quiet month as far as individual and family activities. This is a great month to get organized so that when the craziness starts (and it will start!) we are in a routine. How do you organize your family calendar? At the beginning of the year I went to the big box store and bought a brand spankin’ new multi pack of sharpies. (Woo hoo, they were even on sale!) They were perfect coupled with my new calendar with great big spots for each day of the month. I designated a sharpie for each family…
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New Friends, Motherhood and Growth
We are well into the autumn schedule. Boys are at school, my toddler and I are settling into a great routine, which includes some Disney Channel, Lego-time and lots of books. Plus lots of crock-pot time, a newly-painted bedroom and garden canning and storage for the winter months. It has been a great fall so far! But I’m taking on new adventures too. This year that includes MOMSNext. I’m a huge advocate for MOPS. That organization turned my life around from being a lonely mom with not many friends in a new area with a toddler and baby, to an involved mom part of a group; wanted, loved, befriended, needed. …
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Summer 2012 Bucket List
Summer Vacation is soon upon us. A time of year I LOVE! The lack of routine is so refreshing but amazingly enough becomes a little old after only a few weeks (and depending on the moment, sometimes only after a few days). So this summer my boys and I have created a ‘Bucket List’. Things we all want to do in the course of our lazy-days of summer. Somethings are things I want to do as a family. Some things are dreams. Others are already being planned. This is our list of plans, ideas and joys for the summer: Ride our Bike to Tasty Freeze Have a backyard game of kickball Catch fireflies…
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A Reflection of my Own Stress
I was running a morning errand when I saw the car screaming in reverse down the driveway. I tapped my brakes not knowing if she saw me. She slammed on hers to avoid hitting me. I saw the 2nd grader in the back seat, her daughter. I could see the mom YELLING at her daughter. Hands were in motion, up in the air. Mom was flabbergasted over something. It was 8:05am and I knew that kids were considered tardy if they arrived after 8:10am and we live about 5 minutes from the school. It was easy to draw conclusions but I don’t know what was happening exactly in the car that followed…
