By Allison Marlow

Mommy zombies are everywhere.

School has barely begun and already my friends are bleary-eyed, hunched in defeat as they drive from tumbling to cheer to scouts to tutoring to here to there to everywhere.

This kid needs money for homecoming. This one needs band shoes. That one has the wrong color folder for science. Another can’t find the three brand new uniform shirts we purchased in July.

There are notes heading home to pump you up for fundraisers! To warn you that one preschooler has already been diagnosed with foot and mouth disease. To gently remind you, to remind your kindergartener, to please not wipe boogers on the classroom walls. And someone in the band wore flip flops to practice. This, the text sent to every band parent screams, is not ok.

My friends have begun disappearing from texts, from Facebook messages, from weekly walks. They are too busy. The school year has taken over.

Like a giant monster, it has consumed them.

I get it. It’s easy to become lost in the swell of back to school neediness. We have five children. They are all involved, they all need something. Every. Single. Day.

And it took every single day of the first 10 years of being a mom to learn that cutting myself out of my schedule is not ok.

I didn’t exercise. I didn’t eat well. I didn’t worry about scheduling time for my own needs or to spend time with my husband. Heck, between his deployments, my job and the kids, there were days I didn’t schedule enough time to pick up the house.

And the monster consumed us. It exhausted us. It made us irritable and mean.

Now, I keep a written list of what I am going to do that day. At the top of it is my daily 2-mile walk. I make the trek, and cross it off. I plan the day before what our meals are going to be – including mine. No more running in and grabbing a handful of Oreos and heading to work. I make myself breakfast, a good breakfast and eat it alone in the quiet after the kids have caught the school bus. It’s delightful.

And sure, we still hustle through the day, and the hours between the end of the school day and dinner are insane to be certain. We still drive here, there and everywhere. But, time for homework is set aside when the running is over. We make a point to find that 30 minutes squashed between the activities to eat together, even if one person is finishing their meal at that point and the rest are just beginning. We are all together.

And bed time is a sacred time. Anything scheduled past 8 p.m. on a weeknight, doesn’t happen. The door is shut. The kids are sent to bed. My husband and I stop worrying about the dishes or the project we are in the middle of and sit down and spend time together. Sometimes it’s 10 minutes, sometimes it’s an hour, but it’s our time.

This is hard to do. It’s hard to shut off the internal voice saying we have to be everywhere, do everything, volunteer for everyone. That daily list of to do’s stares me in the face. Some days it saves me from myself. Other days it feels like punishment, keeping me from what I should be doing – keeping me from everything pulling me in the other direction.

But now, as a mom of five, I exercise daily. I eat better, though Oreos still call my name. I actually get enough sleep.

As we sail the chaotic waves that is fall and back to school time, keeping myself and my own needs at the center of that crazy schedule has made all the difference.  

By Salute to Spouses Staff 

A new study suggests that suicide attempts within a military unit may lead to more.

This summer CNN reported that a study in the JAMA Psychiatry journal found that a suicide attempt by one individual in a unit is often followed by more attempts by other members of that unit. 

CNN reported, “The greater the number of previous suicide attempts in a unit, the greater the individual risk of a suicide attempt for a soldier in that unit, said Dr. Robert Ursano, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Department of Defense's Uniformed Services University.”

Historically, the rates of suicide in military ranks were about half of the civilian population. Since 2009, suicide rates among military members and veterans have remained above that of their civilian counterparts. According to the military health system, about 20 percent of suicide deaths in the United States are military veterans.

September is suicide aware and prevention month. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention urges individuals to be aware of warning signs and risk factors.

“When you approach someone you think might be struggling with suicide you might just have saved a life. If not, the odds are pretty big that they were in distress and needed someone to reach out. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” said Ashley Foster, area director for national organization’s Alabama and Mississippi chapters.

She said to be aware of this list of suicide warning signs:

Talk

If a person talks about:

• Being a burden to others
• Feeling trapped
• Experiencing unbearable pain
• Having no reason to live
• Killing themselves

Behavior

Specific things to look out for include:

• Increased use of alcohol or drugs
• Looking for a way to kill themselves, such as searching online for materials or means
• Acting recklessly
• Withdrawing from activities
• Isolating from family and friends
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Visiting or calling people to say goodbye
• Giving away prized possessions
• Aggression

Mood

People who are considering suicide often display one or more of the following moods:

• Depression
• Loss of interest
• Rage
• Irritability
• Humiliation
• Anxiety

If you need someone to talk to or are having feelings of suicide, call the national suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255. The line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Learn more about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at: https://afsp.org

By Amy Nielsen

Nothing like stepping off the proverbial master’s degree cliff into your next career step - on Labor Day.

While I just completed a year-long, online certificate program, this beginning feels so much bigger. I am embarking on something I had no idea I would ever in a million years need to do, let alone want to do. I am so stoked for this educational adventure it makes me giggle.

My beloved has been working his way through his bachelor’s over the last few years, using various online learning platforms. I have used only the one my last program created as a proprietary system. It did use a module structure, which the current program uses as well. It is very helpful to have someone in the family who has already used this platform. He has figured out all sorts of tricks to make it easier to work with, like importing my assignment calendar into my google calendar. That he prefers this platform over all of the others he has worked with makes me feel more at ease.

I really like the module system. The Instructor for each class creates one module per week. All of the required work for that week is neatly packaged in reading order for you to step through completing assignments along the way. Usually there is a quiz at the end of the week to tie it all together. Each assignment remitted is date and time stamped and often logged into a collective forum where students can interact with each other. It’s like getting a shoebox full of the week’s work, no need to try to follow along with the syllabus.

I am full up with my schedule having chosen the two-year completion option when I registered. That means that I take five full-time classes a trimester. In reading the syllabi for each class some Instructors have neatly detailed out the expected minimum and maximum time to complete each module and assignment. This makes it much easier for me to plan out my weeks.

I had so much already planned for the fall before I embarked on this massive undertaking. I had travel plans, education plans for my homeschooled children, classes and workshops for my startup practice, not to mention regular housework and garden maintenance.

Honestly my biggest hurdle, and my biggest fear, is the timing of this whole process. In my other course, weekly class work was self-paced. If I missed a week for a trip I was on, I could catch up with my work and was not docked for being tardy. The only time-sensitive assignments were the four exams and the six conference calls.

This master’s program is back to hard-on academics. Time management at school has always been a weak point in my educational toolbox. I tend to do best if I can binge focus on a subject for a few days and get everything done at once. My hope is that the Instructors have not locked the modules in such a way as to not allow me to work ahead if I get a few free days.

Interaction among students is key for this degree program. It is highly emphasized through weekly discussion board assignments and chats. Because we are working on learning about the collaborative structure in integrative health care it is imperative that we learn to communicate effectively across a broad spectrum of peoples and fields. This is why timely interactions are weighted heavily and mandatory in nature. That makes it difficult to binge watch physiology.

I am planning to use the free hours between clients at my office to get school work done as well if I can get the internet system worked out.  If I can’t I can at least print out or download the articles I need to read, and then there are always the test book assignments to read. Plenty to do if I can’t get the internet working properly to stream the lecture videos.

There are two other areas in my student interface that I am interested to learn more about. The online access to the library and the open student forum. Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed and we used card catalogues, the library was one of my favorite places on campus. Visiting was like sitting in the chambers of the heart of the campus beast. Every library sort of feels like that to me now. I wonder at the feelings I will get from the virtual library.

I once took my baby brontosaurus butt to the volunteer student run vegan café in the student union for conversations and announcements among the bagels, chunky wool sweaters, rideshare boards, and oily black bean water. Now, this online student forum will be interesting and perhaps a bit less juicy than my previous collegiate experience.

All that being said, the hardest classes are going to be the self-paced mandatory “how to be a college student in the digital age” classes all incoming students have to take. I have a fluid writing style that is sometimes hard to fit into an academic format. I love to read and research but my citations are never done correctly the first time. I have two of these classes this trimester and they are going to be killers.

I am giving myself this first trimester to get my feet on the ground and sort out the ins and outs of this program. I will complete everything but I am also allowing myself a week or two of beginners mind and practice not perfection mantras while I wrap my brain around the amount of work I have just undertaken.

I suspect that within the next month I will at some point look back on today and wonder what all of the fuss was about. I will be running on autopilot, completing assignments with ease, switching from course to course like a seasoned student. I love learning. I love new information. I really dig academics. What I am terrified of is the school part of this journey. The deadlines and commitments. It’s going to be one heck of a march, but I have done harder and this one ends with a really great reward.

By Salute to Spouses Staff

Nature strikes. After the tears and the destruction, it is time to pick up the pieces and start again.

For military families who move between states, and climates, knowing what to do after a natural disaster can be even more difficult. They didn’t grow up learning about tornadoes, hurricanes or mudslides. Every piece of information is new information.

Military spouses around the nation have been sharing - and adding to - a list of things “to do” after disaster strikes. It is the culmination of decades of experience of hundreds of women.

Keep it handy, be prepared and help those around you. Together it will be better.

If your home has not flooded but looks like it will:
* Get a time stamp app and take photos of every room in your house (including closets and pantries)
* Take photos of all your furniture and appliances, including a photo of the label with the model and serial numbers (this includes computers, vacuums, and small kitchen appliances - basically anything with a plug)
* Keep all important documents, insurance information, receipts for appliances, and important photos with you
* Put as many valuable items up in your attic or high in your closets
If your house has flooded:
* Cut off power to the house asap
* Contact your insurance company
* Contact FEMA
* Order dehumidifiers, box fans, face masks, and Microban/sprayer bottle online asap - these things will be very hard to find once clean up starts
* Get a time stamp app for your phone so you can document the damage for your insurance company. BEFORE entering your home, take photos of the water line around the outside of your house. Take photos of the water line in every room, including the garage, pantries, and closets.
* Keep a sample of flooring (1 square foot) from each room in the house so insurance gives you proper compensation for those materials
* Make a list of all appliances, furniture, and clothing that was damaged
* Look up videos on YouTube on how to quickly remove sheet rock. It will save you demo time and it will make things easier when your contractor reinstalls your walls
* Get license and insurance info from every contractor you talk to! Do not hire someone who is not licensed and insured. A good contractor will have this with them and will not hesitate to give proof of these things

By Amy Nielsen

I am exceptionally proud of myself and I thought I would share it with you all. I have been working very hard over last two years to complete a study at home correspondence course with a well-known herb school. It is an intense study and requires presence, forethought, and definite attention to intention to complete.

It seems easy on the outset. It’s only ten lessons long after all. Each lesson is packaged in a neat little fiftyish page booklet with a few simple herbal projects to complete and at most twenty questions to answer for homework. Homework is typed and submitted either snail mail or email. Homework is returned marked within a month of receipt. No sweat right?

Until you finish gathering the first lessons supplies and reading through the length of time required to complete the projects for the homework. Then you realize that several of the projects take four to six weeks to infuse. Others take even longer. Some items aren’t in season when you are ready to work the lesson.

This is no springtime wander through herbal simples and pretty teas. This is down and dirty anatomy and physiology and delving into understanding chemical properties of plants and how they interact. It is about herbal culture, healing, and legalities of plant medicine. Not to mention the societal discussions around plant ethics, plant based medicine, food as medicine, and plant based diets.

I know people who have been working to complete this for very close to if not just over the allotted three year timespan and longer. One thing I love about this school is that they understand life happens and that this course is a luxury for many who take it. So for formal study they allot three years to complete the course. That I am completing it in just under two years feels rather a bit of an accomplishment.

I originally set myself a goal of completing in one year. I knew it was ambitious, but I was also committed and had what I thought was a terrific plan. I was going to be taking the class as a devoted monthly four-hour study evening with a local herbalist and teacher.

It became apparent after our first meeting that several of the students in the class would have a hard time meeting up with the monthly class and we slowly devolved into not meeting at all when the teacher moved away. I continued to plug away at the course, working in fits and starts as the mood, time, and finances allowed.

As I worked my way through the lessons, with each homework assignment I physically popped into the mailbox, I felt more accomplished. I chose to start this course for myself. For me. Because I was interested in it. I wanted to know more about it and I love the gal who was teaching the class. So I went for it.

I could have stopped doing it at any time. I had many perfect reasons to stop and not pick it back up again. But not only was I hooked on the material in the class, I met the author of the course and was enamored with her. I wanted to know more about what made her tick because she is one of the most amazing forces of nature I have ever met. In fact all of the herbal grandmothers I have met are in their own way, just like their beloved plant allies – they are forces of nature.

I was called. Called not to be like them, but to understand them and in turn to find my own purpose and my own nature among theirs. As they will be the first to tell you, like our plant allies, every weed, tree, and fungus has a purpose. I just had to find my nature, learn my soil conditions, and then bloom where I was planted.

When I reached then passed the halfway point of the lessons, I realized I had a drive to finish it. A personal need to have that certificate in my background. Not only could I see clearly how to use this knowledge for my own self-interest, but I began to see how this certificate could help me shape my career path.

My studies began to take priority again when I reached lesson eight. Three more to go before I was done. Little did I know that lesson nine was a killer. My homework regularly topped ten typed pages. Lesson nine ended up being a monster at 26 pages long - so many that it was returned to me for extra postage.

After the ordeal of nine and the entirety of the process, lesson 10 was a simple, week-long process of reading, contemplating, and writing, with no formulation work at all. Somewhat anticlimactic after the whopper of lesson nine. But as I popped that little red flag on my mailbox up, I breathed an enormous sigh of satisfaction. I had done it.

Lesson eight was about when I learned the eclipse would happen across the U.S. I set our epic eclipse trip as my deadline for mailing in my final lesson. Even if that meant mailing it from our totality viewing spot twelve hours from home, typed while riding in the RV.

Next weekend I go to a big conference hosted by the school whose course I just completed. I will begin my master’s classes in this same field the following week. I hit my mark of completing the correspondence course before the conference, before my master’s program starts, and before the total eclipse of the sun.

Right this second I could not be in a better place to ritually begin a new me as I pass formally from one career and phase of life into the next, sitting in my RV one mile from the center of totality for the great American eclipse of 2017.

By Amy Nielsen

Today was the last booth of our season for our local grass roots community flea market. Once a month I have been setting up a little booth there to get my name and face out and about in the community. I decided in the spring that I needed to find a way to study my community, to see who really lives here and who comes in the summer. This was one of the ways I chose.

I have had the pleasure of seeing several of the same local vendors month after month. Some I see around the county at the feed and seed or supermarket, others I know are snowbirds up for the summer, most originally from the area, who are soon to be packing up from the camp ground and moving to their southern roosts along the coasts of Florida and North Carolina.

I have tried several tactics each month to showcase different parts of what my practice offers. The last two have been a combination of bake sale for a national charity organization and business offerings table. Before that I showcased aspects as different as healthy eating, joyful exercise, and local partnership organizations I support.

I have a new shared office space and I spent today promoting that space along with the bake sale items for my chosen summer campaign. It was a fun day spent chatting with friends and familiar faces.

I was lucky enough to have my two daughters with me today. It was an opportunity to have them see me in action. All too often, when I ask my younger students what their parents do for a living, they are not able to articulate what it is they do. I think it is really important that kids see and understand at an age appropriate level what their caregivers do for a job.

I happen to really love what I do for a living and am blessed enough to have to opportunity to be working in my field and continuing my schooling at the same time. I also have chosen to homeschool our daughters. To that end, I was able to count today as a school day by allowing them to be in charge of the donation jar for our bake sale while I met new friends.

The day dawned cool and blustery with big puffy summer cloudy and deep blue skies. I shoveled everything for the booth in the car and zoomed out just as the girls were waking up. I arrived at the site and was greeted by my dear friend and event coordinator. I made my way to my spot and unloaded the booth set up.

Part of the reason I really like this event is that they ask the vendors to arrive early enough to have a leisurely set up time. As I have done this now several times, I have a system that works quickly to get the sun shade up and tied down easily and allows me to take the time to shuffle through my materials and feel out what kind of booth I feel like running for the day.

We were asked to use unbaked goods for our bake sale by the owners of the property. We made cookie mixes in a jar using the ultimate pinterest DIY project evening. They were very pretty and effective on the table.

The combination of holistic health coaching and a bake sale seems at first glance cross purposes, but the tie is that I teach kids meditation and the bake sale beneficiary is an organization supporting summer lunch programs for school age kids in our rural county.

The event started off at a slow trickle being middle of the morning on a Sunday in a rural church going community. Our regular summer crowd arrived right on cue about an hour after opening. There was a small lull in the action as everyone slowed for a long slow lunch at one of the area restaurants. The mid-afternoon crowd ended up being mostly newer deep city summer visitors too chilly to be on the lake or in the pool. Another quiet hour then the end of the day rush.

In the past few months, vendors have started to pack up as soon as the last of the fifty-fifty raffles is pulled. Today the weather was so beautiful and the crowd happy to part with a few more pennies, we all lingered a little long before starting to put away the first of the easy to pack trinkets.

By the time we had packed up the booth, the girls had sold three of our jars, two jump ropes and collected five straight donations to our cause. I had handed out four sets of class information and collected another three email addresses for my newsletter. I ran an informal poll and have decided on the next course of action for my practice.

My girls and I rounded up the evening at our local pizza joint then home for ice cream and scrabble. We are all looking forward to selling the remaining cookies in ajar to our friends online to round out our summer campaign. I am happy with the progress this summer project solicited and the ground I gained in being the newest kid on the block in our small rural community. All in all the few dollars I spent each month to pay for my space was well worth it.

By Amy Nielsen

In my recent reentry into the world of work after an absence for motherhood, I have been casting about for a specific purpose. I am starting a new career in a different field than I had BM – Before Motherhood. I chose the career I did because I can’t help doing it every day. I fall into the service of health and healing with each conversation I hold. I am proud that I have been able to build a structure around something as amorphous as “wellness”.

However, translating that concept into a solid paying job has been a bit tougher. I finally figured out why. I have up to this point not had a specific job that I knew would fit what I am capable of doing. My pre-mom careers had nothing to do with my current profession. So while I have decades of experience, it’s not exactly the right experience. Then there’s that 10 year gap in my portfolio to deal with.

While I say I have gaps in my timeline, those gaps are only of a professional nature. I spent that time very actively volunteering for several organizations. That experience is valid and worthy of mention. I was still engaged in community and working with large non-profit organizations. So while the topics may not have been specifically tied to the work I am doing now, it can be used to support my current desire to work with a non-profit.

I have been networking over the last year in our local community in an effort to discover where the needs are and where I might be able to fit to fill them. What I have found is a good base for growth, but a deeply entrenched apathy for change. The will is there to jog but the butt can’t get off the couch, as it were.

I volunteer with a community activism non-profit organization which has begun the process of creating a spin off sister non-profit working to farther the exact campaigns I want to spearhead. It was announced late last year that they are in the active search for an executive director for the spin off. BINGO!

Now, I am nowhere near ready for prime time or executive directorship. I have read the requirements and description put out by the head hunting agency. With the gaps in my timeline and my previous unrelated career experience, there is no way I would even be considered as a candidate. Applying would be shear folly and probably make more than a few people question my sanity.

However, what I can do is make sure to stay close to those folks who are the movers and shakers creating the structure of the organization. By continually putting myself in the path of this group, I hope to be tapped to join the supporting team, eventually moving up once my degree is conferred.

I know it will take at least another year before the organization is ready to launch public programs, things typically move slowly in the non-profit world as grant funding is a long process.  To that end I will continue to volunteer and perhaps work in a supporting capacity in another like-minded organization until I am better positioned to apply for a position with more organizational responsibility. I know that I have time to work through the beginning semesters of graduate school without being worried that I will compromise my focus on my studies or my career.

My plan of study is two years long. By the time I finish the Master’s, the new spin off organization should be just about ready to jump into high gear, putting me in a good place to move up the food chain into a more senior position.

Two years from now seems like a hugely long time, but as I have kids, I know that two years is the blink of an eye and I had better be ready to hit the ground running if I want to keep up and be in the best place possible to launch into a full time position upon completion.

So while I work through school, and continue to volunteer, I have my sights set on a very specific job. It gives me purpose and drive to make sure I am the best positioned candidate when it comes time to apply. By joining the organization in its infancy, I can follow it through the early growing pains and be in a better place to help it move forward to greater heights.

So what if it happens that when I am ready for the job, the job isn’t ready for me? Well, I will have spent two years developing a career path and reputation within the community that will allow me to apply to other similar organizations. I will have watched this one grow and evolve and I can use that experience to build upon for other organizations. Heck, I might even feel ready at that point to start my own, filling a specific niche that the others don’t.

For now, I have clarity of purpose and a goal to drive towards which is more than I had a week ago. I can begin my Master’s program with a direct intention for its use. I know what I shape if not what color this is going to take and I can now formulate a plan to gather the best set of personal resources I can to make it happen. Today, I will hang the job description post on my bathroom mirror so I can keep it in my focus.

By Jenna Moede

Seize the day, right? I’ve heard it a million times as I know you probably have too, but I agree with it when it comes to college.

People get so hung up on the concept of time when they decide whether to go back to school. They have so many concerns and fears that it becomes overwhelming and ultimately, they decide not to pursue their degree.

But timing doesn’t have to control everything.

If I wait for the perfect time for everything, I will never accomplish anything because in my life the stars don’t typically align so that everything turns out perfectly.

I know a lot of people hope to keep a traditional school schedule - start in the fall and end in the spring.

If you have that mindset, seize the day! I feel fall peeking around the corner already so don’t put it off another year.

I’ve noticed that people with this mindset seem to push their goals to the backburner and let fall after fall go by without starting school.

If a traditional schedule matters to you, apply now. Start the admission process so that you can have everything set and ready with no surprises by the time the semester starts.

Admission doesn’t happen overnight so don’t waste your summer saying you’ll go back but then when push comes to shove let it go because you didn’t turn everything in on time.

It comes down to this: if not now, when? You could put it off another year, but I really want you to ask yourself what will change between now and then before you stall your goals.

Age stops a lot of people from applying too. A lot of spouses married their service members at young ages often at the same time their friends were beginning college.

While many college students pull all-nighters and pursue their dreams, military spouses deal with the challenges of moving, working, and maintaining balance. The sheer number of items on the to do list causes many spouses to put off thinking about college until after the stereotypical period of directly after high school.

That wait scares a lot of students off. They might never come out and say that they feel uncomfortable as the oldest in class, they feel rusty at studying or just that too much time has gone by, but they do find other reasons about why they have to wait.

If that’s you, think about what will change in another year. Will you be younger next year? Will your goals and dreams change?

Also, don’t forget that the average age of college students has increased according to recent studies so maybe you will meet other students in a similar boat!

I’ve watched several of my close friends graduate with their Master’s degrees since we’ve all finished our Bachelor’s, and I can’t help but feel left behind.

I always wanted to finish my Master’s degree, but it feels weird to start after so many people I knew from high school and college have already finished.

As much as I want to let this time excuse win, I’ve decided to quit letting timing dictate what I want. I will start my Master’s this fall. Will you join me for your certificate or degree?

By Amy Nielsen

I am beat. I spent all day yesterday cooking up nine and a half dozen cookies to sell at a bake sale today. I held the bake sale at our local community, monthly fundraiser Flea Market. The bake sale is part of a summer campaign for a large national not-for-profit started by a guy I think is really cool.

I have been searching for ways my business could support a few specific niche organizations that give back to my local, national, and global communities. I believe in putting your money where your mouth is and supporting organizations doing the work you get paid to do for those who can’t afford you. If that means volunteering as the Veterinarian on the Neuter Scooter if you are a Vet, or participating in the weekly Poker Runs wearing your business golf shirt, or planning a day a month to pick up trash in town with other area professionals. It means participating in Rotary or going to the Shrine Rodeo. It means participating in the charity work your business participates in.

The point is there are lots of ways in which to give back using your professional status. Yes, you. You have professional status if you operate a business no matter how small. Take pride in being able to give back even just a little bit, even if it is just you, your time, and your business name.

Earlier this year I started holding an information booth about topics in my field at the local Flea Market. This particular Flea Market is hosted by several town somebodies to support each-other’s community giving organizations. The first month our booth fees and 50 percent of the fifty-fifty raffle went to help buy the Firehouse equipment and this month the funds went to our new animal shelter. The vendors who participate are a mix of the textures of our rolling hills and back country crags. All and sundry stuff can be found from toothpaste to tires to our town lawyer selling her husband’s Harley at her yard sale.

Recently I received an email from a national, professional, not-for-profit organization I have belonged to since I went to culinary school. It detailed the summer fundraising campaign. The campaign is a national bake sale to raise funds to help feed hungry kids.

BINGO! I teach health and wellness education with a focus on kids. This was a perfect match and I knew exactly where to hold the bake sale; at the monthly community Junk in the Trunk.

Today was a very successful day. While we didn’t sell out of cookies, we did make a right smart penny to remit. Many would consider our total paltry, not even breaking three figures, but for our community that is a bang up haul. I made as much in cookie money as the fifty-fifty raffle donated to the animal shelter.

Seeing as we have a few bags of cookies left, I promptly sent out a Facebook missive to my Tribe about extra cookies. Within ten minutes, all but four bags are spoken for by far flung friends with promises of donations including shipping via the donation link I posted. GEESH but I love technology.

Charitable giving is easy these days. It is as simple as googling your profession. Someone somewhere has started a 501(c)3 for underwater basket weavers and you too can join to help your fellow artisans spread awareness. Paypal, gofundme.com, and so many others are out there to make simple to create a campaign, target an audience, and collect funds.

Specifically because it is so easy to produce a slick professional looking campaign, it is also equally important to look carefully into the charitable organization you are putting your hard earned dollars, your limited time, and your professional reputation behind. There are many tools to be able to check out a purported not-for-profit, the first being ask to see a copy of their charitable organization paperwork. If they can’t produce it or they are too small to have it, perhaps think about a larger organization for the first community project you do.

Some of the organizations I support are only loosely tied to my profession and others are directly supportive. The breadth of those organizations helps to define my business’ place in the larger professional sphere. It is some of what helps set me apart from my peers. Who and what a business supports what tell you about the soul of a business rather than the practice of the business.

So as you are building your business start thinking about what you want to support and why. Do you want to support the organization on a professional level because it ties well with your mission or perhaps it is better to support from a personal level? I feel it is important to participate professionally inasmuch as possible on a local, reginal, national, and global scale. We are all on this one marble together and it behooves us to act as such by participating.

I hear you out there; but I don’t have time to donate time to anyone else but my burgeoning business. I can’t make my cash flow let alone give any of it to anyone else.  I am too small a fish to join a global pond. No, you are not. Every big fish started out as a small fish. So seek out who and what you want to support and join those organizations.

I sincerely believe that grace, gratitude and abundance beget grace, gratitude and abundance. By which I mean, if one is sincerely grateful and abundantly give of that which they have to give, that grace and abundance will return in due time. Using ones business clout to support others gives a business depth and deeper purpose and in the end I feel makes them more successful because they are more connected to the pulse of the local, regional and global field.

Anyone want some cookies?

By Salute to Spouses Staff

PCS season is here. Are you renting your beloved home?

Worried about who is moving in? Will they pay the rent? Can you trust them not to cause major damage?

USAA has a page for members that can make this tumultuous time a little less exhausting.

Hidden away in the bank's online advice center is an entire page on owning a rental property. There, military homeowners can find solid advice on determining how much insurance to carry on their rental property, how much to charge for rent and advice on maintaining your property and expanding into more holdings.

Perhaps one of the most important services they offer homeowners is help screening potential rental clients.

https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/tenant_screening_main

At this site, USAA members can sign up to purchase background checks on any potential renters. The checks, completed through TransUnion, are done in minutes and give homeowners a national criminal background check, tenant risk score, leasing and deposit recommendation for each applicant, a full credit report for the applicant and will search nationally to see if they have been evicted.

The fee is only per background check.

And, you can set up your account and set it so that the applicant has to pay the fee. All personal information, such as social security numbers, are sent directly to TransUnion so you can assure potential clients that you will not have your hands on their confidential information.

Can a background check guarantee that a new renter won't walk out without paying or trash your house? No.

But it can definitely weed out the chronic offenders who have left a paper trail of unpaid rent and evictions behind them as they move from place to place.