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Why You Should Dive Into Books During Your Next Deployment

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Why You Should Dive Into Books During Your Next Deployment

This post does contain affiliate links!

Twilight. I read all the Twilight books during one of our deployments. A friend told me about them, and even though I was already 30 years old, I dove right into that series.

I am a huge reader. I usually average about 70 books a year and would love to read more. I always have a couple of books going and always aware of some of the newest books that are out there.

I love most types of fiction, from a sweet romance to a crazy sci-fiction story. I read paper books, on my Kindle, and audiobooks. I always have at least one book with me. I also enjoy certain types of non-fiction, such as memoirs or fun topics that interest me.

There is not one day that goes by where I don’t read some part of a book, I just can’t do it. Reading is like brushing my teeth for me. Reading is just something I always do.

During deployments or any time my husband has been away from us, books have become even more important. I love to get lost in a series, read about some other time in history, or another place that I can’t physically visit at the moment.

I love a good binge-watch but there is something about getting lost in a good book that just takes me away from what I am dealing with and heals my soul a little bit. Stories are so very therapeutic and perfect to dive into during a deployment.

A good book can warm your heart, allow you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and distract you from something you would rather not think about.

Reading a good book can be a form of self-care and as military spouses, we know how important that is. Reading can keep you busy and staying busy is a must during a deployment.

If you haven’t picked up a book for a while, maybe now is the time? There are so many good ones. So many books to get lost in. So many books that will take you to another place.

If you are feeling lonely and missing your spouse, a book can put you in a better mood. If you are having a rough time with the kids, a book can make you laugh, and help you feel better. If you are dying to be somewhere else, a book can take you all over the world.

On a practical level, reading a book before bed can make you sleepy. If you are having trouble falling asleep when your spouse is deployed, try reading in bed. My Kindle is right by my bed so if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, I can read for a bit in order to do so. Works about 90% of the time 🙂

If you would love to read and feel like you don’t have any time, let me make a few suggestions.

  • Try audiobooks. You can listen to these while you are doing chores, while driving, or going on a walk. Use your library card with either Overdrive or Hoopla to check them out for free.
  • Always have a book handy. Put one in your car, put the Kindle app on your phone, or stick one in your purse. There are so many times you might have to wait somewhere and if you have a book on you, you can read a chapter or two. Jessica Turner’s book, The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You is a great read all about finding those extra moments.
  • Don’t think you have to read a book all in one sitting. I think part of the reason I can read so much is that I don’t feel the need to finish a book all in one sitting. If that were the case, I would never finish anything. Be okay with a chapter here and there, whenever you have time, and you will be able to get your reading done.
  • Read in front of your kids. Reading in front of your kids is totally fine. Just make sure they are safe, and you should be okay. You can read while you nurse, read while they are at the playground, or whenever you feel comfortable. Obviously, this is going to be an age thing and things will change as your kids get older but I don’t think kids growing up watching their parents read is ever a bad thing.
  • Join a book club. If you are really struggling, join a local book club. Usually, a book club will have one book you are supposed to read each month. Beyond that, at your book club, people will be talking about all the amazing books they are reading, and that can get your inspired too.
  • Join Bookstagram. Did you know that there is a name for all the accounts that share books on Instagram? Bookstagram is a wonderful place. I started an account just for books called The Fiction Book Cafe last fall and so glad that I did. I can talk about all the books I am reading and learn about what other book lovers are reading too. Make sure to join me over there 🙂

Need some suggestions on what to read?

For a sweet love story, check out One Day in December by Josie Silver, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid, or The Bride Test by Helen Hoang.

For a book with a twist, check out The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine, Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, or Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.

For an amazing story that spans many years, check out Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, the Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, or Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane.

For a fantastic historical fiction book, check out Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, or The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner.

For an emotional story, check out An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, or The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

For a really amazing memoir, check out Educated by Tara Westover, Becoming by Michelle Obama, or Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

For a book about time travel, check out the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, or 11/22/63 by Stephen King. 

Looking for more suggestions? Check out my Goodreads and connect with me there too 🙂

How has reading helped you during a deployment?

Famous Military Veterans: Tom Selleck Served in the Military

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Famous Military Veterans: Tom Selleck Served in the Military

Tom Selleck is one of my favorite actors! He is also a veteran, having served in the California National Guard.

The actor got rose to popularity after he played P.I. Thomas Magnum, in the TV show, Magnum P.I, which ran from 1980-1988. I remember watching a lot of Magnum P.I. on reruns in the 1990s and loved that show. It’s so 80s!

Today, you can find him on the show Blue Bloods, as New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan. Another great show about a family of police officers. Selleck plays a widow and father of the family. Actor Len Cariou plays his father on the show, even though the two are only about six years apart in real life.

You might also remember Tom Selleck in the 1987 comedy, Three Men and a Baby, or as Monica Geller’s love interest in Friends.

Tom Selleck was born in Michigan in 1945, and his family moved to Sherman Oaks, CA just a few years later. He started acting while in college and stared in a Pepsi commercial in 1967. He was also drafted into the Vietnam war the same year.

He joined the California National Guard and served from 1967-1973 in the 160th Infantry Regiment of the California Army National Guard. In fact, he even appeared on the California National Guard recruiting posters at one time.

In a quote on Military.com, the actor has said, “I am a veteran; I’m proud of it. I was a sergeant in the U.S. Army infantry, National Guard, Vietnam era. We’re all brothers and sisters in that sense.”

Tom Selleck is a big supporter of the military, and we thank him for his service. In 2009, he joined the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund as national spokesman for the new Education Center being built on the National Mall.

 My Friends and I For Military Children

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 My Friends and I For Military Children
I receive a free copy of this book for review!
This post contains affiliate links!

A Book for Military Children

Last year, friend of the military Birgit Sund published her book, “My Friends and I” and I think it is perfect for military children. The book is considered a “friendship book” and is modeled after the popular German book, “Freundebuch.”

 My Friends and I For Military Children

Within the book, your child will find a bunch of pages that they can have their friends fill out. Each page has questions such as where they live, what pets they have, and what their favorites are. There is also a place for a photo. This book would make the perfect memory book for your child as you or their friends move around during military life.

From Amazon,

“My Friends and I is a one-of-a-kind, fun, interactive, timeless memory book for children ages 5-12, that travels from friend to friend, who will answer questions like: What is your favorite food? What do you like to do in your free time? What songs do you like to listen to? What books do you like to read? What do you want to be when you grow up? A picture box allows them to insert a photograph of themselves or to draw a picture of their own. The book has room for 40 family members, friends, classmates, teachers, coaches, or any other person in the little book owner’s life.”

 My Friends and I For Military Children

And the illustrations are so cute too!

Where can you buy My Friends and I?

Visit the website, use the code: JULIE, and receive 20% off or you can purchase from Amazon!

Horror Views: Little Nightmares Review

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Horror Views: Little Nightmares Review

Horror Views is a creation of DantheMan for movie and video game reviews in the horror genre!

Little Nightmares is a video game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Co Entertainment. It’s a T for Teen Mystery Adventure Horror game with a dark whimsical tale!

You play as a little child named “Six”. You find yourself trapped in a facility known as the Maw, where there are many large monsters living like the janitor and the chefs. I won’t spoil anything but it was great to play!

Whenever one of these monsters appears, the game gives an Uncanny Valley vibe. However, there are a couple of tiny problems with the game. I feel like it is a bit too short and some of the main enemies sometimes glitch. You also can’t seem to get out of some areas. However, these problems are rare and don’t take you out of the game altogether. 

The game will have you asking questions about what this world is all about and why you are there in the first place. There are also many puzzles and while fun, you’ll get stuck at times, but other times you should also breeze through it. For me, Little Nightmares is a whimsical, unsettling, but fun horror adventure game. If you feel you want to get scared but not horrified this game is for you 8/10.

3 Cozy Video Games to Play When You Really Need to Relax

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3 Cozy Video Games to Play When You Really Need to Relax

Somedays are just a lot. I have too much on my mind, and quite frankly, I need a break. I need to relax and do something calm and chill, and that will allow me to veg out a bit. And something I can easily do from home. For me, sometimes that is playing a cozy video game. Here are three of them I love to play when I want some downtime.

This post does contain affiliate links!

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley looks like something from the 1980s. You aren’t going to find super modern graphics with this one, but it is also one of the best games to play to help with my anxiety as well. I play on my Nintendo Switch, and I love curling up with the game, ready to work on the farm.

The storyline is that your grandpa has passed away and has left you his farm. You move in from the city and start your new life. You can have animals, which make items you can sell such as cheese, milk, and eggs. You can also garden, and sell or can your items from your crops. You can also go to the mines to well, use your pix axe to mine, or fight monsters, which honestly can be a little scary sometimes.

You start in the spring, and play 28 days in each season, with winter bringing you a snow-filled farm. You can interact with the townspeople, make friends, and even marry and have children. There is so much gameplay to be had and it is all so satisfying. You can also play with others, although I haven’t yet explored playing that way.

The best part is, the game is only $15.00!

Sims 4

I have been a fan of the Sims since it first came out in 2000. Sims 4 is the latest version and so much fun. From playing different challenges to watching your Sim family grow, it’s perfect for cozy gameplay. Sims 4 is basically a virtual doll house where you can create, or download families, starting at the infant stage. Your sims will grow to a baby, toddler, child, teenager, young adult, adult, elder, and then pass away and turn into a ghost.

You can play a single sim living it up in the big city or a mom of six trying to make it on a farm complete with a cow, chickens, and even some wild rabbits. Your sims can stay at home and garden or work their way up an astronaut or doctor career path. There are so many choices.

The Sims 4 Base Game is now free to play, but you can add to your game with packs based on all sorts of themes. My favorites are Growing Together, Cottage Living, Seasons, and Parenthood. You can see the vast collection of packs here. I like to play the Sims 4 on my MacBook Air but you can also play on a PC, Playstation, or Xbox.

Shop for Sims 4 Expansion, Game, and Stuff Packs!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing is similar to Stardew Valley in some ways. You play a cute character who has to build up a home on an island. I haven’t spent as much time playing Animal Crossing but its really so cute and you get to upgrade your home over time. You spend time making tools, making friends, shaking trees, fishing, and looking for fossils. You can also connect and play with your friends who also play Animal Crossing, visit each other’s islands, and help each other out.

Cozy video games are such a great way to unwind from a long day, work through your anxiety, and create and have fun in a virtual way.

What are your favorite cozy games?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem Movie Review

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem 

Most kid’s films make my eyes roll, however, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem was one of the exceptions. The trailers didn’t really grab me but when I heard the movie had the same producer as  The Boys, Seth Rogen, I decided to watch the movie anyway and it blew me away. 

The story, characters, casting, and music were amazing. The opening was a bit odd. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem starts with a scientist named Baxter Stockman who is played by one of my favorite actors, Giancarlo Esposito. He runs away from a SWAT team of the TCRI research company with a baby mutated fly and other bottles of tiny animals within the ooze. When the swat team comes to get their research back, you see an empty bottle of ooze drop in the sewer. 

This was a good opening because it shows that this version of the story will be different. I also loved the scenes where our main heroes the turtles Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo have fun in the streets of New York City. This showed us what the characters are like and what they want to do. 

You soon get to see their Father named Master Splinter, who is a mutant rat played by Jackie Chan. This part told the backstory which seems helpful to newcomers to the film.  

The turtles meet all types of people which was all fun in the film, especially the villain, played by Ice Cube. 

Over all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem is a good movie-watching experience although at times a bit cringey. The movie is also a bit dark and scary at times but it makes me excited to see what our heroes will deal with in the next film. I give Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem 8/10. 

5 Reasons Why the Sims 4 is My Favorite Video Game

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5 Reasons Why the Sims 4 is My Favorite Video Game

This post does contain affiliate links!

The year was 2000 and I loved playing the game Sim City. The goal of the game was to build your own city, run it, make enough money to do so, and keep your citizens happy. When I heard that there was going to be a game where we could play those little Sims citizens on an individual basis, I knew I had to get it and then I did.

I fell in love with the game right away. Over the years I have enjoyed the evolution and all the new gameplay that has been added.

When COVID started, I only had the Sims 4 base game. I bought Cats and Dogs on a whim and started playing the game on a regular basis. Over the months and years that have followed, I have added quite a few of the expansion packs. I think Seasons is my favorite, although there are quite a few I really enjoy playing with. Some add a lot more to the game than others.

If you are curious about the Sims 4, know that it is one of the best cozy games around. I can pull it up and dive into a variety of challenges, play with a host of different families, and truly relax and let go of the anxiety life brings. Here are 5 reasons why the Sims 4 is my favorite video game.

Shop for Sims 4 Expansion, Game, and Stuff Packs!

It’s a virtual doll house

The Sims 4 is like playing with a virtual doll house. You have your sims and can make them do whatever you want. Beyond telling them what to do, there is some game play that can create a virtual world with jobs, relationships, frustrations, and real-life experiences. You can add in your favorite celebrities, or create your own people from your imagination. It’s almost limitless.

The challenges

There are some really creative Sims 4 players out there who have created challenges for us to play, complete with rules and all. The 100 Baby Challenge, created for Sims 4 by Snarky Witch, and The Legacy Challenge by Pinstar, are my favorite and I tend to go back and forth between those two challenges, or similar ones.

Challenges allow you to have a focus and a mission of some kind while playing. This can add to gameplay and make things a bit more fun. You can also catch some of your favorite YouTubers playing these challenges too.

Watching the Sims grow

There is just something about starting a player as a baby and watching them grow through every stage. With the Sims 4, you can start a player as an infant, watch them turn into a baby, then toddler, child, teenager, young adult, adult, and elder. This is what makes the Legacy and even the 100 Baby Challenge so fun for me. I can start with a baby and then eventually play their grandchildren or great grandchildren.

Gardening

No matter what challenge I am playing, what world I have my Sims in, or what job I have them do, I will always have them garden. I love it so much, even with some of the glitches that come up with the gardens. There is such a variety of plants you can grow and with the Seasons pack you can have a lot of fun with the changing of the weather and seasons. Strawberries might be my favorite.

Different packs, different gameplay

I don’t own every pack that has come out for the Sims 4, but I own quite a few. Kits are new, and are the smallest type of pack, then Stuff Packs, Game Packs, with the Expansion Packs having the most to them. I love how each pack adds something different to your gameplay. From the Vampire pack adding vampires and spooky decor to Getting to Work which allows you to actually go to the hospital when you have a baby. If a pack comes out that doesn’t interest you, you can skip it. It’s also quite exciting when they announce a new pack with new decor, clothing, and gameplay.

You can get Sims 4 for free at EA Games!

Shop for Sims 4 Expansion, Game, and Stuff Packs!

Have you played the Sims 4? What’s your favorite pack?

Fort Moore and the Story of a Military Spouse

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A few years before my husband joined the military we went to the movies to watch the 2002 film, We Were Soldiers. What I really enjoyed about this movie was that we not only got the story of Lt. Gen Harold G. Moore, played by Mel Gibson, but we also got the story of his wife, Julie Moore, played by Madeleine Stowe. As we watched scenes of the men going off to Vietnam, we also watched scenes of the wives back at home at Fort Benning. Even back then, before I knew I myself would be a military spouse, I could see what these spouses went through and how they needed one another.

As the years went on and I too became a military spouse, I could relate even more to these women. Although my husband was serving in a different war during a different time, my time in Germany felt in some ways similar to the women portrayed in this movie.

My favorite scene of We Were Soldiers is actually a deleted scene. As we start to watch we see helicopters flying, and then the camera goes to the chapel back at home. One of the wives starts to sing the hymn, On the Solid Rock I Stand but is unable to finish as she is trying to hold back her tears. Julie Moore and the other members of the congregation help her by starting to sing the song too. The movie then goes back to the helicopters.

What I love about this scene is it gives us an example of the military community and how we can step in to help each other through. Especially in a time of war, we need each other more than ever. You can also catch the real Julie Moore and her daughter sitting behind Keri Russell.

On May 11, 2023, Fort Benning became Fort Moore to honor Hal and Julie Moore. Maj. Gen. Curtis A. Buzzard, Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Moore commanding general stated, “Together, Hal and Julie Moore embody the very best of our military and the very best of our nation. They were dedicated to their country, committed to their family, and inspired generations of Soldiers to follow in their footsteps.”

Hal Moore served in the military for 32 years after graduating from the US Military Academy in 1945. He wrote the book, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young which the movie was based on. We Were Soldiers depicts the first major battle of the Vietnam War in the la Drang Valley. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross after that fight.

His wife, Julie Moore, who he married in 1949, was an Army brat born at Fort Sill. In the movie, another powerful scene is when a taxi comes to Julie Moore’s door with a telegram, and she knows exactly what that means. She answers the door to see that the taxi driver just needed help finding the correct address and wasn’t there about her own husband. She gets very upset, rightly so, and then asks to take the telegram to the new widow herself. She also tells him to tell the taxi company to bring all of the rest of the telegrams directly to her.

Julie supported her fellow Army wives and families by changing the way the Army delivered the casualty messages. The Army was not prepared for all of this as you could see in the scene. Because of Julie, the Army changed its policy to what we see today, uniformed soldiers delivering the notices.

Julie wrote a letter to the director of We Were Soldiers in 1996 about her experiences as a military spouse. In the letter, she says, “It is really hard to describe the special closeness that Army wives have to each other. Even though I was lucky enough to end up a General’s wife, I never forgot that I started out as a lieutenant’s wife and the burdens they carried of raising young children with never enough money or husband.” You can read the rest of the letter here.

The change to Fort Moore recognizes both Hal and Julie Moore. They are both buried at the Fort Benning Cemetery.