Pea of Sweetness

  • Home
  • My Shop
  • About Us
    • About Emilee & Pea of Sweetness
    • Awards
    • Contact Us
    • Disclosure Policy
    • Privacy Policy
  • Work with Me
    • PR Information & Media Kit
    • Sponsor/Advertising Info
    • Sponsorship Opportunties
  • Proudly Part Of
  • Blogs I Enjoy
  • Faith
  • Family
    • Parenting
      • Parenting Special Needs Children
    • Pets
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Reviews
      • Preschool Reviews
    • Homeschooling Special Needs Children
    • 5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents
  • Homemaking
    • Meal Planning
    • Recipes
  • Special Needs
    • Autism
    • Sensory Processing Disorder
    • Cancer
  • Natural/Eco-friendly Living
    • Natural/Eco-friendly products
  • Health & Fitness
    • Health and Fitness
    • Wellness Wednesday
  • Reviews & Giveaways
    • Current Giveaways
    • Giveaway Linky
    • Reviews
    • Winners
    • Blogger Opps
  • Travel
    • Ohio Attractions
    • Ohio Events

A Note about Memorial Day

May 23, 2015 by Emilee Evans

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means many things to many people. It’s often noted as the unofficial start to summer and many people celebrate the weekend with a cookout or other type of get together with friends. Many summer weather attractions like swimming pools and water parks open for the season. It’s also a time that we start to see posts all over social media reminding us not to forget what Memorial Day is all about.
A Note about Memorial Day
As I’m seeing posts all over my Facebook feed, I have been sharing a few and saying a few resounding “Yeses!” as I read these important reminders. Simply sharing a graphic isn’t enough, though. I knew I had to right a note about Memorial Day because it’s been clear to me that people do often forget what Memorial Day is truly about. Here are the key misconceptions I see:

Memorial Day is a Weekend Celebration

Memorial Day is, indeed, a long weekend, and it is all the things I mentioned – noted as the unofficial start to summer. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with this. Summer attractions have to open sometime, and a three day weekend (and the usually nice weather) is a great time to have a cookout. In fact, my husband helped with a cookout after the church softball game today and we’re going to a cookout tomorrow. Is enjoying the beautiful weather over a long weekend wrong? Of course not! Are we acknowledging that Monday is Memorial Day, though? Maybe not.
Memorial Day is a time to remember those who paid the ultimate price. They sacrificed everything for our country – for our freedom. Should we take some time on Memorial Day to acknowledge this – ABSOLUTELY! We make it a point to look up information on our country’s fallen and teach our children what Memorial Day really means. Whether or not you have children, it’s humbling to read about those who sacrificed it all – to put faces to names and think about what their sacrifice meant. This is what Memorial Day is all about – a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America.

Memorial Day is a day to Acknowledge Current Military and Veterans

It never fails that on Memorial Day, I get tagged in status messages thanking my husband for his service. It makes me cringe. It’s not that I’m not proud of my husband and thankful for his service. He’s a Disabled Veteran. It’s not that I’m not thankful and appreciative of all our Veterans and those currently serving. I know the sacrifices they made and make every day. They have a day for that, though. It’s called Veteran’s Day. There is also Armed Forces Day. These days are reserved for our military and veterans.
Memorial Day, though, is reserved for those that gave all – their life. I think about all the spouses who are now widows, the children who are forever missing their parents, the parents who are forever missing their children, the siblings who are missing their brother or sister – their best friend. Memorial Day means something different to them. It’s the day they remember their loss. When my husband was in The Old Guard and part of the ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery I got a look into this loss, and it’s something I will always carry with me. It reminds me how important Memorial Day is. These families carry their loss every day. Can’t we take time on one day to remember and honor the sacrifice these soldiers made?

National Moment of Remembrance

Now I’m asking you to join me in remembering those who gave all on Memorial Day. The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”
Just one moment out of our day isn’t a lot, but it’s something we can ban together and do in honor of the sacrifices that were made so we can be free. Will you join me?
 

Journey Through Deployment {Book Review}

May 7, 2014 by Emilee Evans

Disclosure: I received a PDF Copy of Journey Through Deployment to facilitate my military family book review. Regardless, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. Please view my Disclosure Policy for more information.
Journey Through Deployment Military Family Book Review
Kathryn, the author of Journey Through Deployment, has been a helpful resource for many military families on her blog Singing Through the Rain. When I heard she took all of that wonderful support and wrote Journey Through Deployment, I was excited to read it. Although my husband is now a Disabled Veteran, I knew there would still be so much value in this book. We made a lot of friends during his time in the military, and I knew this could be a great resource.
Here is the unusual thing – my husband was an Infantry Mortarman, but he never deployed. I know, that’s not typical! He started his career by going straight from Basic Training to The Old Guard at the Arlington National Cemetery. Because there is only one company with his MOS (his job in the military) they can’t deploy because nobody can replace them for the funerals, special ceremonies, etc. He got cancer while he was there. Then it came back and he had to have chemotherapy, which wreaked havoc on his body. That lead us to where we are now.
Regardless, I am connected to so many others that experience it or are about to experience it, and I love that there is such a great resource available. It has also helped me to realize how to best support them as well! Journey Through Deployment is so thorough from the feelings you may have when your spouse gets the deployment orders all the way to reintegration. I love that she has included not just her own personal experiences but those of other military spouses as well because experiences will be different and some will be the same.
In Journey Through Deployment there is also support and tips on how to help your children through deployment as well. I think this is so important because deployment affects the whole family. It covers all of the ways it can affect the family including the spouse that is deployed. It has information on how to prepare everyone for the next *however many months* they will be deployed from important documents, family finances and ways to prepare the children. I was impressed by all the details.
Journey Through Deployment also touches on the hard stuff – the emotions and the overwhelming feelings. It offers encouragement from many military spouses and offers suggestions for coping. I love that it includes prayer and turning to God because we can go to Him with everything. Yes, everything.
Are you getting ready for a deployment and wish your friends and family could better understand the ups and downs you experience on a daily basis? A Journey Through Deployment offers a chapter written specifically for them to help them understand your family’s needs during this time. I was so excited about this chapter because it better helped me to understand our friends’ needs as well!
Although I can’t relate to everything in A Journey Through Deployment, there were still things I could relate to. She talks about when Murphy’s Law of deployment strikes, which apparently applies to Basic as well. Our daughter was a baby and had to go to the hospital, the pay was messed up but I didn’t have a POA (Power of Attorney) because I didn’t even know what that was (which was quite a disaster), and I found out our son (who was 2 at the time) is on the Autism Spectrum.
All I could do, though, was put it all in a letter since they allowed no phone privileges for the first six weeks straight. So although we didn’t experience deployment, I would have loved to have a resource like Journey Through Deployment to offer advice and support during that hiccup. If you are new to the military life, don’t wait until you have deployment orders to check out Journey Through Deployment.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Journey Through Deployment for all military families. It isn’t branch specific so families of all branches of the military can find it helpful. Plus it is just so thorough as I mentioned. There are so many topics covered in every area. I was really impressed by the layout and the personal touches added by including tips and information from other military spouses.
You can purchase Journey Through Deployment on Amazon and Kathryn’s blog Singing Through the Rain.

About the Author:

Author Kathryn SneedKathryn is a young Air Force spouse who has a passion for other military spouses. She served one year as a Key Spouse in her husband’s squadron; helping military spouses in the unit get through deployments and checking in on them to see how they were doing. She also started an online group for the spouses at her base to ask questions, make friends, and get information about the area around the base; planning events that spouses could attend to meet and make new friends.
She started blogging seriously in 2009 and found that her blog was the perfect place to write about her experiences as a military spouse and to encourage other spouses going through similar situations.
In 2011, when her husband deployed, she realized the need was great for encouragement in the area of deployment and set to work blogging her way through that first deployment. Since then, her posts have been featured on MilitaryConnection.com, MilitaryFamily.com, SpouseLink.org, FaithDeployed.com and many other sites as she continues to pursue encouraging military families.
Kathryn currently resides at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia with her husband and two children. When she is not writing or blogging, she enjoys spending time with her family, going on date nights with her husband, making new friends, and reading a good book!

Connect with Kathryn on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.

That was scary!

January 9, 2013 by Emilee Evans

If you happened to visit my blog around Jan 4th or 5th you may have gotten an ugly red notice from Google. If you did and now you’re back – THANK YOU for being a loyal reader! The issue has been resolved! The whole incident was scary for me! After deciding to focus more on my blog and crafting/sewing business (which will be incorporated in this website), you can imagine the uneasiness I felt when there was a possibility I’d “lose it all.” I have been working hard to make improvements to Pea of Sweetness, and I was afraid it would all be for nothing! You may noticed I have removed a few things from my sidebar, and my site may be loading a little slower than before (because I removed a Caching plug-in), but you should be assured to know I will slowly be adding these things back in and finding great ways to make my site faster! I have also added more protection to my site to ensure this won’t happen again! My husband was out of town, so I didn’t have his usual technical help which I appreciate so much, but I knew I needed to get it resolved ASAP. Plus our internet was going in and out! It was the perfect storm to have something go wrong! I am so blessed that a friend was able to fix everything without losing anything. I am SO thankful!
I did have to pay for some updates and protection for my computer as well, so I’m glad we had some Christmas money. Finances have been very tight due to a pay issue with Joey’s pay that has yet to be resolved after many months. This may be a blessing in disguise since we have been informed once his medical retirement from the Army is complete he may not get his first disability paycheck for a couple of months, so maybe all of that back pay will come then! It definitely makes things a little stressful, but I’m trusting God because he knows best! You may have noticed I added a “Donate” button in my sidebar, and if you ever feel led to donate any amount I want to assure you your generosity will be applied to maintenance of this website and homeschooling supplies for the kids. I realized I never explained that before! 🙂
I know my views have decreased since said incident, so I appreciate that you trusted it would be fixed and hung around! I’d love if you’d share my site with your friends! It would be greatly appreciated! I have some great things coming up! I have more reviews and giveaways coming to you, some great homeschool reviews and fun blog cruise posts with the Schoolhouse Review Crew, more personal content, and (finally) adding a page to showcase my sewing/craft business products! The reviews and giveaways that seem to be coming in swarms at the moment are due to not being able to post them while I had the blog issue, but I will relax back to my “normal” amount within the next few days. I appreciate you SO much, and I’m blessed by your being here!

Getting Ready

November 28, 2012 by Emilee Evans

Today we’re finally back to our routine. We got home just before midnight Monday night so yesterday was a recovery day. We enjoyed being in East Texas so much we’re so ready to settle down over there. We do finally have an answer as far as houses go. We absolutely can’t buy a house – at least not for a while. It’s definitely a bummer, but at least now we know. So, we’ll be looking for rentals after Joey’s rating comes back. If we could find a rent to own that would be such a huge blessing, but so far, the only ones we have seen aren’t affordable for us. Rentals, in general, are pricey right now! I know everything will work out the way it should.
God has just blessed me with so much peace. In an uncertain situation where that is hardly fathomable – especially for someone who stresses out easily like me! We don’t know how much disability pay Joey will get. We don’t know hiw soon (or how late) he’ll start getting his disability pay after his separation. We don’t know when the Med Board will be finished. We don’t know if he’ll be able to get a job after or if so, whether he can still take his Ministry classes full time while he works. We don’t know exactly where we’ll live. We don’t know if we’ll be able to keep the kids in therapy financially since they passed it so retired military can no longer keep Tricare Prime if they move more than 40 miles from a military treatment facility or if it would be better to just try to find financial help to get our own therapy equipment. There is just a lot of uncertainty! A LOT! I was able to say all that without a racing heart or panicky feeling, though, and that is a big deal!
I DO know God is in control. I DO know He will take care of us. I DO know we’ll experience the blessing of living near our family and friends. I DO know that despite all the “don’t knows” there is only one thing I DO need to know – it will be OK. In fact, it will be more than OK because everything has brought us to where we are now, and yes, there will be changes, there will be a big transition, and there will be the start of a new adventure and new blessings! 🙂

Next Page »

Top Posts & Pages

  • ABeCeDarian Review
  • What are Cervicogenic Headaches?
  • Castaway Bay Getaway for Family Fun
  • October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month
  • Homeschooling Special Needs Children - It IS possible! Our Story
  • L'BRI Review
  • Learn to Draw a Cat {Drawing Tutorial}

Recent Posts

  • Under Construction
  • How to Manage (and Use) all Those Pictures of Your Kids
  • Castaway Bay Getaway for Family Fun
  • 5 Winner Utzy Naturals Allurtica Seasonal Relief Giveaway! $262 TRV Giveaway!
  • Spend the Day at Castaway Bay {Enter to Win 4 Day Passes!}

Recent Comments

  • catofashions coupons on Affordable Women's Fashion and Accessories
  • Happy Hiller on Keep Your Home Connected with Netgear Arlo Smart Home from Best Buy
  • Pencil Sketch Drawing on Learn to Draw a Cat {Drawing Tutorial}
  • fast apps apk on Learn to Draw a Cat {Drawing Tutorial}
  • strobe light on Learn to Draw a Cat {Drawing Tutorial}

Archive

Categories

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in