military spouses

5 Tips For Using Your TRICARE Benefit Breast Pump

5 Tips For Using Your TRICARE Benefit Breast Pump This post is sponsored by the Breastfeeding Shop! If you are pregnant or have a new baby, you could be getting ready to purchase or find your breast pump. Having a breast pump can be a good idea for a variety of reasons. Breast pumps are useful for encouraging your milk supply, to allow you to continue to breastfeed when you go back to work, and to help you store milk if you do need to be away from your baby for any reason. Here are five tips for using your …

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7 Things You Don’t Have To Do Even If Other Military Spouses Are Doing Them

7 Things You Don't Have To Do Even If Other Military Spouses Are Doing Them

7 Things You Don’t Have To Do Even If Other Military Spouses Are Doing Them Does it feel like every other military spouse you know is doing something that you have no desire to do? Do you ever feel lost in a sea of other spouses? Sometimes we can get stuck thinking something is wrong with us if we are not military spousing like other people are. But the truth is, we should military spouse the way that works best for us, not everyone else. You be you. Here are seven things you don’t have to do even if other …

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14 Tips to Help You Survive Basic Training When Your Spouse Joins the Military

14 Tips to Help You Survive Basic Training When Your Spouse Joins the Military

14 Tips to Help You Survive Basic Training When Your Spouse Joins the Military My husband went to basic training when I was in high school. I didn’t know him then, and when he did re-join the Army at age 30, he didn’t have to go back and do BCT again. He went straight on to his first duty station. Having not been with my husband during his time in basic, I don’t have any personal experience with the topic so I asked some military spouses what their top advice would be about surviving basic training as the military spouse. …

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Going Beyond OPSEC: Deployment in a Social Media World

Going Beyond OPSEC: Advice for Going Through a Deployment in a Social Media World

Going Beyond OPSEC: Deployment in a Social Media World During our first deployment, we were all about Myspace. Remember that site? After spending time with friends, we would go home, put the kids to bed, upload our photos from the day and update our music list. Fast forward to 2017, Facebook is the main place to be. There is so much there for military spouses. Social media is great for connecting with local friends, finding out information about FRG events and sharing photos with our friends and family back home. We also can connect with our husbands on there through …

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What To Do When You Can’t Make Friends At Your New Duty Station

What To Do When You Can't Make Friends At Your New Duty Station

What To Do When You Can’t Make Friends At Your New Duty Station One of the best things you can do in your military life journey is to find friends to walk through this life with. Friends who understand deployments, what going through a PCS every three years is really like and friends who you can make memories with during the years you are a military spouse. Military friendships are so important and are very much needed. But sometimes, making friends isn’t so easy. Sometimes you can feel like you are being friendly and can’t seem to click with anyone. …

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35 Things Military Spouses Are Thankful For

35 Things Military Spouses Are Thankful For

35 Things Military Spouses Are Thankful For Every Thanksgiving you probably get asked what you are thankful for. For some families, this is a tradition where you go around the table and say what that is before you get to eat. A lot of answers are God, family, husband, kids, job, etc. All of those are great answers but let’s go further than that. What are military spouses thankful for? Sometimes it is the little things that matter the most. DONSAs- When our spouse gets a 4 day weekend. Yay! Short deployments- All deployments are hard, shorter deployments end sooner. …

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10 Truths Military Spouses Learn About Military Life

10 Truths Military Spouses Learn About Military Life

10 Truths Military Spouses Learn About Military Life With the election going on last week I forgot all about November 8th. On November 8th, 2005, my husband re-enlisted in the US Army. This was a huge change for us and our family. My husband had been in the Army when he was a lot younger, years before I met him. He had gotten out, returned home and we met a few years after that. We got married and had our first child and it wasn’t until we had been married about 3 years that we started talking about him going …

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What To Do When Your Spouse Gets Last Minute Deployment Orders

What To Do When Your Spouse Gets Last Minute Deployment Orders

What To Do When Your Spouse Gets Last Minute Deployment Orders Deployments are a part of life for the military spouse. Although you might go a few years in between, you are usually not surprised when you find out your spouse is going to have to go on one. Usually, you have some time to prepare. Some people know even a year before the deployment, most people find out with a few months to prepare. Every once in a while, a deployment gets scheduled at the last minute. As you are working on planning your summer, you could find out …

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Mistakes You Might Make As A New Military Spouse

Mistakes You Might Make As A New Military Spouse

Mistakes You Might Make As A New Military Spouse I was 26 years old when I became a military spouse. Other spouses were a lot younger and some were even older when they joined this life. No matter how old you were when you became a military family, there is going to be a learning curve. You won’t be able to understand how everything works right away. You might make some mistakes. It’s bound to happen. Over my time as a military spouse, I have made some mistakes too. Figuring out how the military works takes time.   Here are a …

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