It's no surprise that being a military spouse is difficult. In this Minicast, Jade talks about the challenges that military spouses face during the first year of marriage. She talks through the challenges and her tips for getting through them. Here's to embracing the suck together!

Mom2Mom Global is a worldwide network of volunteers who support breast/chest feeding families and advocates for military families. Their purpose is to provide consistent, high-quality peer support through local chapters and liaisons at U.S. military installations, to increase access to accredited lactation professionals for all military families, and to provide a channel to raise awareness and solutions for the concerns of military breastfeeding families.

We all experience pain in this life. In this week’s Minicast, Lindsey opens up about her recent pain and how she has learned that there can be purpose to your pain. We cannot avoid pain, so why not use it? Life experiences can be painful and it can feel lonely at times.

We've all been through bad experiences and it's easy to feel alone as you go through them. But to be there for someone else who is going through something you already went through can be powerful. Author Jessica Manfre has a goal of leaving this world a better place than when she came into it and that's where the book "Never Alone" came into play.

Do you have a song that you can relate to? In this week's Minicast, Kathleen shares some songs from her favorite decade that relate to milspouse life. Her theme song is "I Can't Drive 55" with the first lyric being "One foot on the brake and one on the gas'. From someone who says she doesn't have wisdom to share, Kathleen has some great thoughts (and dare we say tips) on this milspouse life.

The non-profit promotes overall wellness in someone's life and they look at the whole family - the veteran, the spouse, and the family as an overall unit. Hope for the Warriors empowers military spouses through education to change their life roles to better met the needs of their spouses with their Military Spouse & Caregiver Scholarship program. Check out if you are eligible for the scholarship here and apply before April 30, 2023.

Have you found yourself receiving orders to a remote duty station or has the thought of living away from a military base crossed your mind? In today's Minicast, Sarah shares some tips she's applied when moving to a remote location to help make for a smooth transition. Integrating into new communities can feel isolating or unwelcoming, but once you get out and explore your new "home" it makes leaning into your community less intimidating.

The welfare of our families means the utmost importance to us. But have there been moments where you've been left feeling overwhelmed, like you have tried everything and have nowhere else to go? EFM has created a commonplace to support families of all branches and unite their voices. As an advocate, they tackle big problems, in efforts to change policy and laws both medical and programmatic.

We all know what a staycation is and it's becoming more of the norm. Today in this Minicast, Chrissy talks about how to make the most of your staycation. She gives us five tips for how to best plan a staycation. Chrissy gives us questions to help understand everyone's expectations.

Time away from our soldiers can affect the storyline of our everyday lives during their absence. Their departure can set the stage for the onset of unique challenges. In Gretchen McLellan's recent books When Your Daddy's a Soldier, she provides children with the experience of seeing themselves in between the cover of a book. She depicts the real and raw emotions that can often times fill our homes as we prepare for the departure and arrival of our soldiers.