Household6

I recently got an email from a blog reader that said–

“Tammy, I’m not an military wife or mother but I want to support the families of our nation’s military. They give a lot too. What can I do?”
- Jenna C. (Dallas, TX)

First of all, thanks for your email and for wanting to support the families! There are lots of ways to support the military family. Here are some ways to help…

1. Offer to help a local military family with babysitting, lawn maintenance ,etc.
2. Send an email or letter of thanks through A Million Thanks
3. Send a care package to a military family (don’t know one? Let me know and I’ll put you in contact with one)
4. Organize an event in your own community, workplace, etc. Donate proceeds to a needy military family or a non-profit organization that helps military families in distress.
5. Ask elected officials to recognize the sacrifices our military AND their families face every day! There currently is legislation being discussed in Congress to ease the burden on military families.
6. Wear RED on Fridays in Support of the Troops and their Families
7. Register your support at America Supports You!
8. Ask Libraries, schools and other organizations to participate in recognizing our armed forces, military spouses and especially the military kids!
9. Ask your local media (tv/radio/print) to recognize Military Families
10. When you see/meet a military spouse , shake their hand and say “thank you for serving our country” For spouses are the silent ranks of the military and have the hardest job in the military!

Of course, its important to support our troops overseas and stateside. They have an extremely difficult job and sometimes require the ultimate sacrifice. It is also equally important to support the families, for theree sacrifice is just as great as the troops!

MILITARY SPOUSE DAY, 2008

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Military spouses embody the courage, nobility of duty, and love of country that inspire every American. On Military Spouse Day, we pay tribute to the husbands and wives who support their spouses in America’s Armed Forces during times of war and peace.

The legacy of military spouses began when colonial Americans were fighting for independence. Martha Washington boosted the morale of her husband’s troops by visiting battlefields and tending to the wounded. Since then, members of our Armed Forces have served our Nation accompanied by the steadfast love and support of their spouses and families. (more…)

This story is about Brenda, a military wife and mother who was 100% committed to her military husband and extended military family.

Brenda and Tim married in June and 48 hours after saying, “I do”, he loaded up his canvas bag and left for Korea. A year later, he returned for two weeks and then was on a plane to Germany. This time Brenda was to have gone with him, but the paperwork (everyone in the military can groan together on this one) somehow didn’t get processed.

Once in Germany Tim did not give in until his bride was able to join him. During the next year in Germany Tim was in the field many times. Of course, everyone in the military can relate to the fact that this young couple spent more time apart than together.

I give Brenda a lot of credit for sticking with it and embracing military life; for standing by her man and by her country. Yes, they were young, but they believed in the old-fashioned ideals of the constitution. They were united in their convictions of protecting our land of the free. Then the call came that all young spouses of military personnel dread. Tim was getting deployed. (more…)

I was sitting in a text chatroom the other morning listening to one of my favorite daily internet radio shows, Mom’s Morning Show. (hosted by my friends, Kelly McCausey and Tishia Lee) and the conversation turned to bare walls.

Bare walls are a constant issue for me, as most Army wives. Whenever we move to a new post, we get to make our walls all our own again. We walk into a house or apartment with those white bare walls and in a matter of days, we turn it into a home filled with pictures, our soldiers’ “me” wall, etc.

One way to help with the bare wall syndrome is each time we move to a new place we find something for our walls that represents our time in our new place. For example, from our time living in Minnesota we have a Caribou moose key holder. We also have the Texas Star from our time in Texas.

Now when no matter where we are I can look at our walls and remember people, places, and times in the different places that we have been. It also serves as a reminder of how we’ve grown as individuals but also have as a family.

Many of you know how much I absolutely love our bank, USAA and how they make my life so much easier! Ok if you don’t know, our bank USAA is best bank in the world. You definitely want to check it out if you’re not a member… tons of perks and great products/services for the military member and military family! While I was logging to my account today, I saw this …

USAA To Host Free Financial Webinar for Women
Topic: Wiping Out Debt — Your 2008 Action Plan
Date: March 4 at 7 p.m. CST

Wiping Out Debt — Your 2008 Action Plan features USAA’s Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner June Walbert. June will share financial strategies for reducing debt and answer viewers’ questions.

Participants will have the chance to win one of 10 Financial Strategy Consultations (value $195 each) offered by USAA Financial Planning Services. The webinar is free, but registration is required.

Are you a military spouse or active military? Click here to register

USA WEEKEND, the nation’s second-largest magazine as carried in 600 US newspapers, is looking to continue its cover-story coverage of the great things that our deployed troops are doing overseas with a Father’s Day themed cover story for its 6/15/08 issue: Great Dads Serving This Nation.

We’re interested in getting e-mail responses from dads serving overseas who are also fully involved with their families at home: Whether it’s helping out a child with homework, a schoolyard bully situation, puppy love, a Boy or Girl Scout project, a teacher conflict, etc., we’re interested in how our deployed dads are doing whatever it takes to ‘be there’ for their kids. Is there a Dad who helped ‘coach’ his kid on a new swim stroke thousands of miles away? Or one who ‘took part’ in a longtime
family tradition via today’s techno-tools somehow? We’re interested in these kinds of stories, or any others that come to mind that play into this theme.

Please send your summaries no later than March 10 direct to Dennis McCafferty, the senior writer at USA WEEKEND who overseas all military coverage for the magazine

The U.S. Postal Service will begin offering a discount Priority Mail rate March 3 and a larger box for care packages sent to military members overseas.

The new flat-rate box is 50 percent larger than the current Priority Mail package and it will be delivered for $10.95 to an APO/FPO address – $2 less than for domestic destinations.

“This is the first time the Postal Service has offered a special price for our armed forces serving overseas,” said Postmaster General John Potter. “We’re proud that family and friends will be able to use this new larger-sized box to send much appreciated packages from home to our dedicated troops overseas.”

The new Priority Mail Large Flat-Rate Box (12″ x 12″ x 5 inches or 800 cubic inches) will be available in Post Offices nationwide beginning March 3, but customers can begin ordering them Feb. 20 at usps.com/supplies or by calling 800-610-8734. Some of the new boxes are co-branded with the logo of America Supports You, which is a Department of Defense program that connects citizens offering support to the military and their families.

Military.com and TurboTax have partnered up for an amazing deal for Military families. You can use TurboTax Online Free Edition now. You can also upgrade and save 15% on other TurboTax Online products!

Click here to find out more!

DannyBoy did our taxes there on Tuesday and we should have our refund by this upcoming Friday. Talk about quick turnaround time! It even found a couple of deductions that we didn’t even know about!

The following message is from Neal Denton, Senior Vice President,Service to the Armed Forces:

This holiday season, we have a great opportunity to bring a touch of home to wounded warriors recovering in
military hospitals across the country. As you may know, the American public has a strong desire to send holiday
cards to soldiers staying at Walter Reed and other military medical centers. However, for security reasons, the former military program was discontinued. One of our colleagues at Walter Reed suggested, “If anyone can find a solution to this - it’s the Red Cross.”

We’re proud that this season, communities across America are invited to mail holiday greeting cards along with personal messages of support to wounded soldiers at military hospitals around the country, through a
unique partnership of the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes Mailing Solutions.

Now we have a solution that will not only benefit soldiers at WalterReed, but also recovering soldiers at military hospitals around the nation. With the help of the Department of Defense, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Pitney Bowes, between now and December 27, members of the public will be invited to mail their holiday cards to:

We Support You During Your Recovery!
c/o American Red Cross
PO Box 419
Savage, MD 20763-0419

Red Cross volunteers will sort the cards for appropriate content and repackage them for shipping. Our steadfast partners, Pitney Bowes, will ship the cards to Red Cross stations at the military hospitals.

This project provides a great opportunity for chapters and station offices to coordinate resources and volunteers. Staff members at national headquarters will call each station office before packages are mailed to that military hospital. Those station managers will be looking for chapter volunteer support to help in accepting, storing and
delivering the cards.

A national news release will be issued shortly after announcing the program. Once you know that your field unit will be receiving holiday cards to distribute, I encourage you to contact your local media with the attached localizable news release, to take photos and write stories for your Web sites and to send us your stories at
SAFstories@usa.redcross.org.