Summertime Celebration of Military Wife Life – 4 Great Books for the 4th of July Giveaway

As a mom, I see summer as a time of transition. My big kid is moving up from kindergarten to 1st grade, and he’s eager to show the new kindergarteners the ropes next fall. Apparently, he’s still an expert at everything — just like I described in this article in Parents Magazine, Preschool Know-It-All.

My husband and I finished Swedish language school yesterday — 6 months of full-time course work and homework, adding up to more than 40 hours per week for 25 weeks. That’s 1000 hours of Swedish, not counting the time I spent thinking in Swedish, talking to myself in Swedish and (yes!) even dreaming IN SWEDISH. I’m thrilled with how much I learned, but I must say, education is exhausting. It’s been 20 years since I was *this* excited to fly home and visit my parents for summer vacation (of course, 20 years ago I didn’t have two kids in tow!). I am desperate for a “brain break” and eager to reconnect with the people I love.

As a military spouse, I am happy to be staying put this summer. We’ve moved 5 times in 8 years, so we’re pretty used to packing up and moving out. But not this summer. (Thankfully.) Instead we’ll be moving during the blustery month of February. You can come back then and see how I feel about it. I’ll probably be complaining about how much easier it would have been to move in the summer time like most everyone else. But maybe not.

In honor of all the other military spouses out there who experience a life in constant transition, as individuals, partners and parents, I decided to host a 4th of July giveaway. My goal? To celebrate the flexibility, good humor and hard work of my fellow military spouses.

Here are the details.

On July 5th, one lucky milspouse will win copies of 4 fabulous books, all written by fellow military spouses. Each author or authors will be guest posting here, on my blog, and military spouses can enter the drawing by leaving a comment each day. That means you can have up to four chances to win the drawing, one for each day! I’m keeping comments on each post open until July 5th to make sure you have a chance to enter four times — so make sure to read all four posts! The lineup looks like this:

Monday, July 1st – 1001 Things to Love About Military Life, by Tara Crooks, Star Henderson, Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer, all long-time military spouses. Kathie and Star are also veterans. Read their guest post and comment to win HERE. (Comments open until July 5!)

Tuesday, July 2nd – Countdown ’til Daddy Comes Home by Kristin Ayyar, Air Force spouse and mom. Offers great ideas for preparing kids for deployment or other long separations and keeping family connections strong. Read an interview with Kristin and comment to win HERE. (Comments open until July 5th)

Wednesday, July 3rd – Detachment Parenting, by Heidi Smith Luedtke, personality psychologist and Air Force spouse. Read Heidi’s tips for minimizing stress and keeping your cool and comment to win HERE. (Comments open until July 5th)

Thursday, July 4th – Confessions of a Military Wife, by Mollie Gross, stand-up comedienne and wife of a USMC Iraq War Veteran. Read Mollie’s guest post and comment to win on July 4th.

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Please share these giveaway details with military spouse friends and family members.

I’m thrilled to have such good company here on the blog this week!