Some Gave All

This is a different kind of post than what I have been writing. Today is a solemn day. It is a day to stop and remember. December 21, 2010 marks the 6th anniversary of the suicide bombing of a dining facility in Mosul, Iraq. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones on that day in the service to their country.

Out of great tragedy there is a great triumph. As a result, the Some Gave All foundation was born. SGA honors our fallen veterans and gives assistance to our wounded veterans. Each May they hold a motorcycle rally in memory of our fallen heroes. To learn more about the Some Gave All Foundation or to find out more information about the motorcycle rally go tohttp://www.somegaveall.org.

Ideas for Care Packages

We all want to make deployments easier on our loved ones and many of us send care packages. Below is a list of things that my husband personally likes to receive in packages and it might give you some ideas to get started.

1. Kool Aid Singles

2. Foot Powder

3. Oreo cookies

4. chapstick (depending on where your loved one is stationed)

5. magazines

6. wet wipes

7.deoderant

8. dental floss

9. chewing gum (get the type in the plastic bubble packaging in case it melts)

10. small teddy bear

I have found that going to a dollar store you can get perfect things for care packages and it's affordable! You can buy greeting cards, stationary, some board games etc. Keep the packages small because they don't always have a lot of space to store things.

Coffee anyone?

For those of you who have loved ones serving overseas, check and see if they are near a Green Beans Coffee. I know that some of our soldiers are serving in very remote areas but others are not. If your soldier is near a Green Beans Coffee you can have family and friends purchase coffee cards for him/her so they can enjoy Green Beans Coffee overseas. You need to make sure that the soldier is registered with Green Beans Coffee and you need to know the soldier's e-mail address and which Green Beans Coffee he/she visits.

If you don't have a service member overseas you can still make someone's day with a free cup of coffee. Starting with a $2.00 donation you can give a cup of coffee to a soldier on Green Beans Coffee's waiting list. If you don't have a specific soldier then the coffee will go to the next soldier on their list.

What can I do to keep the kids busy this summer?

Summer is finally here. So now what do you do to keep your children busy? Why not take them to a museum? There is a fantastic program called the Blue Star Museums. There are museums all across the nation that are participating. With your military ID you can get free admission from now until Labor Day. Check out their website for a complete list of participating museums. There are over 600 museums that are participating in this program nation-wide so there is a good chance that a museum near you will be on the list.

My nephew and I took advantage of this program by going to Colonial Williamsburg. It was great! We both got to go for under $20 (I just had to pay for a child's ticket because he isn't a direct dependent).

Keeping Your Marriage Strong

One of the concerns of military spouses is how to keep your marriage strong during a deployment or an extended time of separation (ex. training). My rule of thumb is don't get yourself into any situation you wouldn't have if your spouse were at home. Also, don't put yourself into any situation where someone could mistakenly imply that more is going on than there actually is. Do what you can to keep the rumors at a minimum or to keep the rumors from happening at all. My advice is to always to communicate with your spouse openly and honestly and to reassure them of your love for them.

One of the things I have done is to have an online/phone "date" with my husband. My husband and I both like to watch MMA fights. We found out that one of the fights was going to be televised at his MWR. I ordered the fight at the house. We talked on the phone/web cam about each fight after it occured. It wasn't the same as watching the fight at home together surrounded with our usual family and friends but it was still really nice.

The issue of marriage comes up quite a bit in military families. I found a very good article called Maintaining A Strong Relationship Through Deployments and Separations. Some of the things that have worked for me are also mentioned in the article.