Updated: The show is now embedded below.
Work. Career, Two incomes.
It's something that many people take for granted when the economy is booming. Many of us rely on a second salary in the family to pay the bills or to have even a hope of saving for the future. But what happens when the economy is in trouble, jobs are scarce, and you have to move every two years? What happens when you move to a new city across the country or overseas, your spouse is deployed and you can't find quality day care so you can get back to work?
Welcome to the world of the military spouse.
Join me for a blog radio program with Fem 2.0 on Wednesday, April 3rd at 1pm. For the last two weeks, Fem 2.0 has been getting into the nitty gritty of balancing work and family. This week, they're tackling an often forgotten class of women: the military spouse.
Join host Katie Stanton, Director of New Media for Blue Star Families, Stephanie Himel-Nelson, blogger Liberal Army Wife, and the President of the National Research Center for Women and Families, Diana Zuckerman for the program Work/Life and the Military: What It’s Really Like to Work and Serve.
From the Fem 2.0 website:
Military families are just like other families. Soldiers and their spouses are often are dealing with same work/life issues as everyone else, like wage gaps, caregiving, sick leave and more. But imagine dealing with these issues when you and/or your spouse are stationed overseas and serving in often dangerous situations for months or years at a time. Imagine being separated from your loved ones and still being expected to handle the day-to-day. Imagine being uprooted with little to no warning and moving to an unknown city or country, over and over again, and still having to provide for yourself and your family. Three experts who are passionate about military families and the difficulties they face will tell the whole story on what life is really like, how this kind of living affects men, women and children, and what can be done to help.
You can listen to the program Work/Life and the Military: What It’s Really Like to Work and Serve and join the chat. We'll be taking questions via Talk Shoe and Twitter at the end of the program. To participate via Twitter, simply tweet your question and end with the hastag #fem2 or #worklife. You can read more about how to participate on the program website.
For our BSF blogger friends out there, we'd love it if you could spread the word and join in the blog carnival around this important topic. We're all eager to discuss the very unique issues that face working military families and we have an opportunity with a national platform to reach people who are helping to affect change for working families. Let's be advocates for our community and speak up!
Cross posted at Blue Star Families. Stephanie would like to remind everyone that the views she espouses here on her blog are her own and not representative of Blue Star Families or its leadership and members. Blue Star Families is a non-partisan, non-profit organization formed by military spouses to connect, support and empower military families.
We have our very own groundhog. Yep, actually at last count we had three. They keep reproducing.
I suppose you're all dying to know if the groundhogs saw any shadows. Sadly, I cannot report a definitive answer. You see, while we had both sun and clouds today, the ground is still covered in snow. If those Virginia groundhogs are anything like the rest of the people in this corner of Virginia, there's no way in hell they're leaving their cozy den.
We got from 6-8 inches of snow this weekend. And by weekend, I mean it was done on Saturday. But still, the kids have had no school for TWO DAYS. Aaaaaand the Chesapeake Public Schools are still closed tomorrow.
Thankfully, our Montessori pre-school is open tomorrow and I have a sitter lined up just in case. The 5,000 unread emails in my in-box are starting to get to me and I must get some work done!
Back to the groundhogs. It just occurred to me that I haven't seen any of the three large rodents this Winter. Not since Buddy the Dog joined the family.... Hmmmm..... I hope the fuzzy nuisances aren't in a giant burrow in groundhog heaven.
Last night, the MOMocrats hosted a live blog of the State of the Union address and the Republican response. It was an inspiring speech by Obama and, I think, one of his best. The Republican response, however, had me out of my seat hollering at the TV, and not in a good way.
The State of the Union is, I think, a marvelous example of how inspiring our political system can be. I never fail to be moved when I hear the Congressional Cryer yell, "Madame (or Mister) Speaker, the President of the United States!" It doesn't matter whether the President in question is a Republican or a Democrat; it's always a thrilling experience. The State of the Union is required by Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states, "He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient...." Since 1790, the State of the Union has been delivered approximately every 12 months.
All members of Congress, from both sides of
the aisle, are present, as are some of the Supreme Court justices, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's Cabinet, with the exception
of the designated survivor.
(As an interesting side note, the designated survivor for last night's
address was Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development.) While Congress invites the President to attend, it is
typical for the White House to invite guests as well. Last night,
several military service and family members were in the box with Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden.
There are many perks to being President, one
of which is having the military and military backdrops at your
command. This use of the military and its service members as props
became much more common during the term of George W. Bush. The most
prominent being Bush's landing on an aircraft carrier and then speaking
with a huge "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background.
Make no mistake, the State of the Union, while definitely a political event, is not a partisan political event. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and invited military guests attend as part of their service to our country. The
rebuttal to the State of the Union is another animal entirely. It is
completely partisan, begun only in 1966 and traditionally given by a
representative from the party not currently occupying the White House.
Virginia Governor (of only 11 days) Bob McDonnell gave the Republican response from the Virginia capitol building in Richmond. McDonnell had an audience of mostly regular people. (Oh, and some Virginia Republican legislators. Bob apparently failed to invite any Democrats until about 2 hours before the drop dead RSVP time on the afternoon of the speech.) There were even people behind McDonnell on risers as if it were a political rally. The setting was a smart move on the part of Republican strategists. It gave McDonnell and audience responding to him, giving the speech a much more "official" and emotional appeal than canned studio speeches given in the past.
The content of McDonnell's speech was not surprising. It was rendered somewhat irrelevant by most of President Obama's speech, but that tends to be par for the course when you're responding to a speech you haven't yet read or viewed, with pre-loaded teleprompters. Plus, I read the rebuttal before the State of the Union began, so I knew what was coming. No, what surprised me was the individual sitting behind McDonnell and to our left.
It's time to update my progress on the Biggest Loser Moms weight loss challenge!
We're two weeks in today and I'm down 4.5 pounds. Not bad, but I know it's always easier the first few weeks. Now the hard part starts, but I'm all over it.
Devra, Sarah, bring it, bitches! And you know that I mean that in an entirely affectionate way. Mwah!