Showing Our Respect

Today is Memorial Day, a day that we take time out to honor those who have given up the most valuable gift they can sacrifice for our country’s freedom: their lives. Some may believe that Memorial Day is just the “unofficial start of summer” and the christening of grills with all sorts of meat and other entrees helping to begin the next season, but it’s not.
For every serviceman and servicewoman, past, present and future, I want to say thank you. What you do is selfless and it’s an honor to have you fulfill your duty. The long stretches away from your families, those times when they can’t go with you, when the loved ones back home take over and make sure all is well on the home front. The skyping, the short messages that are sent and the eager telephone call that lets you know how everyone is doing.
I remember the life. My husband was in the Navy and on a sub. Wasn’t easy but I was proud of him. The support you have is tremendous and is always there. Don’t take it for granted. I have seen several comic strips honoring today, and one stands out more than others, it was in Sunday’s Indianapolis Star. Dennis the Menace. He walks in the door of his neighbor’s home, the Wilsons, and says, “Happy Memorial Day”. Then he mentions that the reason it’s calls Memorial Day is because “Thanksgiving Day was already taken.” Dennis, you got something there. Saying Thank you is easy to do but somehow a lost pastime. Well, here’s my Thank you for to all have made our country great and allowed the freedom we have today possible.

The food is good and the company is great, but remember who paid the price and made it available. Let us never forget.

Why Can’t We?

There’s a new commercial airing that really makes a statement about our reliance on technology. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about chinet. A woman is walking an “Exhibit of the Lost Art”, a rather dark place with lighted glass boxes where you can see people actually engaging in conversation. Wow, is that considered a relic now?
You can hear the narrator talking about how we visit “home pages” instead of one another’s homes, and how we don’t talk we use things like email or other social media to connect with one another. Unfortunately this is a reality for today.
The narrator goes on to discuss how life used to be, when we did take time to go next door and say hi, and kids played in each other yards, and had cookouts, and just enjoyed a more relaxed time. I remember because I am one of the lucky who lived during the time when you rode your bike up and down the street, asked mom or dad if it was alright to spend the night at a friend’s house, imagined being some cool hero or heroine from television.
I wonder how the young people of today would handle living without all the gadgets? No cell phone, no pc, no laptop or tablet, no electronic gizmo except the rotary phone or touch tone phone, maybe a transistor radio to play music. Hmmm could be an interesting experiment. Now technology is a good thing, it has made the world much smaller, made advances in healthcare, and so on. On the downside, I have seen individuals who really need to have their gadgets surgically removed from their persons because they are so oblivious to what is going on around them. A real shame.
When texting takes the place of conversation at the dinner table, and surfing the web is more important than being with others, then we need to stop and rethink our priorities. Why Can’t we? Just like the woman in the ad, she “finds” her way back.

Visioneering- A Review

You want to plan something? Have an itch that won’t go away? An idea that just might work? Well, Andy Stanley’s Visoneering will give you some great advice on how to get started. He even talks about how one lonely guy, Nehemiah, set about planning for several years just to build a wall for a city he had lived in for who knows how long? And he did it too!
Andy uses the business aspect of having a vision as a example of how to go about what God has set before you. Think about how one must first identify a need, figure out how to meet that need and then start with plans to make it happen. Now a business that is in its infancy stage has to go through a lot of steps. Research, research, discussion, getting proper funding, permits you get the idea. Takes a while before you even see the building or web site go up. Everything must be in place and in working order.
Mr. Stanley gives a “project” at the end of each chapter so that your idea can be broken down in small steps and not so overwhelming. No head spinning. No fainting. He asks all the right questions and rightly so. Bottom line, make sure what you are doing is the right thing and God directed, don’t sacrifice your morals to get ahead and get informed on all aspects from reading, and people you know and don’t know.
I received a free copy of this e-reader edition of this book from Waterbrook Press and Edelweiss in exchange for reviewing it.

The Sweet and Side of Parenting

Today is Mother’s Day and it was a nice one. For starters I spent it with my two sons, my husband and our dog, who happens to be a male too. So you could say I was surrounded by men. We went out to eat and came home and just hung out.
Now what’s interesting about today is what I received. My youngest son, decided to buy some Klondike bars and potato chips for the occasion in addition to some peanut flavored M and Ms.
Both reminded me of the way parenting can be. Think about it, it’s never easy and there is no handbook given to you when you have a child. Trial and error is pretty much your teacher and yes, more error but then you learn what works and what does not. Our children grow and challenge us because they want to be their own person.
True, there are disagreements, tears, not so nice words exchanged, and the rare, “I don’t love you”, but believe me they do love you, they are just mad at the moment because getting caught in the wrong is embarrassing. Attitudes form and are flaunted in front of friends as sign of being cool and wanting to belong. Of course, we moms and dads just shake our heads and talk with our child later.
Homework wars, making sure it’s done and on time, getting to bed at a reasonable hour, and waking up in time to get ready for school. Yeah fun times, hu?
The reverse is like a Klondike bar, sweet and comforting and always leaving you wanting more of it. Joking around, making each other laugh, congratulating on a job well done, those times when your so called “young adult” son or daughter comes to you because they bothered by a problem or sick. You see, they always need mom and dad. That never changes.

My oldest son is twenty one and still like a little boy due to his autism and mental retardation so he will always think mom and dad are alright. My youngest son who is twenty, well, the relationship is on and off. Let me explain. He does love us, and he knows we are here for him, but he likes to be his own person most of the time. He has a job, still living at home since he doesn’t make enough to live on his own yet, but he is free to be his own man.
Hard to let go of the little one you once had, to shed that image you keep in your heart, but they have to grow up and learn as we did, when we walked out the door. The Klondike bar was great, and the chips are good too. What would I do for either? I don’t know, but I would not trade all the good and bad of parenting because the rewards are so sweet. Happy Mother’s Day!