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.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Unfortunately, some of our beloved veterans return home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It's a disorder that is sometimes hard for civilians to understand because the veteran actually RE-LIVES the traumatic event they have experienced. It is my wish that you and your family will never have to cope with PTSD but sometimes it does happen. It happens enough where I feel that it is very important to post resources related to PTSD in order to inform you and your family in case you ever need this information. The United States office of Veteran Affairs has some very good information on PTSD which I will include below.

1. Overview of PTSD

2. When a child's parent has PTSD

3.Returning from a war zone (Guides for soldiers and their family members)

4. Treatment of PTSD

Secret Passage Ranch

Many people do not know that we have a hidden treasure for the military in Virginia. It is called Secret Passage Ranch. They have a therapeutic riding program available for the military. It is their way to give back to those who have given to their country. They have horses that are specially trained for veterans with disabilities. Their therapeutic riding program focuses on veterans with physical and psychological disabilities. Give them a call and they would be more than happy to give you more information on their program and what Secret Passage Ranch has to offer.

Deployment Tips- Families with children

I was researching "deployment tips" and came across this handout (PDF file) provided by the Iowa National Guard for parents with school age children. They also have a handout for dealing with teenagers and deployment.

Hero Box

If you are an American soldier you need to advantage of HeroBox.org. You register online and then you are "adopted" by a family that lives in the United States. Your "family" will then send you care packages once a month. The items will consist of things that you included when you registered. This is one way to ensure that all of our soldiers get mail or a care package. However, many people don't know about this site. It is a fantastic organization and I have had some very positive feedback from soldiers who have participated in this program.

Deployment Kids

I ran across a pretty cool website today called Deployment Kids. It has all kinds of neat activities for kids to do while their parent is deployed. It has activity sheets, suggestions on how to keep in touch, and even a distance calculator so you can see how many miles away your mom or dad is stationed! There is even a link to ranks and insignia so that kids (and spouses) can learn which badge goes to which rank. Have fun exploring!

Operation Give A Hug

A deployment is difficult on anyone but especially for children. Operation Give a Hug provides soldier dolls, free of charge, for military children facing deployment. Each doll has a "pocket" for it's face where you place a picture of your soldier. They are a great comfort to children and this way "mommy" and "daddy" can still "be" with them every day. It serves as a great reminder that they are loved even if a parent is overseas.

Military OneSource

Most military families have already heard about Military OneSource but since it is such an important resource I thought I would list it here. You can find a little bit of everything on this site and best of all it is free. There are articles, books, dvds and more that relate to the military lifestyle.

If you are facing deployment, Military OneSource offers great dvd's for children. They even have a DVD where Elmo's dad gets deployed to explain deployment to young children. They have dvds for older children as well as books, articles etc. on how to handle a deployment.

Military OneSource also has some great programs available. They have a stress management, weight management, and a cardiovascular health program available to military families. As always, they are free. So if you haven't checked out Military OneSource you need to because it has a wealth of information that you can find helpful in almost any situation.

Welcome!

I just wanted to welcome you to my new blog, Yellow Ribbon Pride. This blog developed after I found myself spending countless hours online looking for resources to help military families. I hope you find the information on this site to be useful. Let me first and foremost say that this should NOT replace your FRG (family support website). Your FRG website has wonderful information that is available to your specific unit. This is just a place where I am combining all of the resources that I have found and thought that perhaps other people could use the information to help them. With that said, I hope you find some great information here at Yellow Ribbon Pride.