Gold Star Families

My son, Alec, asked me if he could write a post today in honor of Memorial Day. Thank you for listening to him, and for remembering those who gave their lives in service to our country.

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When I was in the first grade, my mother used to read to me for History class. We had a collection of books on American History. One of my favorite books was on World War II, and that's where I first learned of the Gold Star on service banners, those are the small flags you maybe have seen in people's windows. They are the official banners that members of a soldier's family can display in their windows.

I remember the first time I saw a service flag or service banner in someone's window in our small town. I recognized it from the book we had read, and was surprised to see it. I didn't think in our small town, that there'd be a gold blag banner. But even though we only have 10,000 people living here, there are two houses within a mile of us that have a Gold Star in their windows.

There are two types of service banners that people place in their windows, the one with the blue star means someone in the immediate family is currently serving in the military. A gold star means someone from the immediate household died while serving our country. When I see a flag in the window, it makes me wonder who the gold star banner is for.

Once I learned about the Gold Stars, I began to notice them in any city or town I was in. When we went to visit my aunt, I saw a Gold Star Banner two doors down from my aunt's house.

There is an online registry, the link is here. You can enter your hometown and search the registry for any Gold Star families in your area, you don't have to know a soldier's name. You can read their names and send a thank you to the family, or leave a tribute on the pages there. When my family drove through Portage on the way to Wisconsin Dells, we looked up any fallen heroes and I was surprised to see that a green beret had died, from Portage. He was a character portrayed in the movie Black Hawk Down, a Delta Force sniper.

I encourage you to look up your hometown for heroes. It can be something special you can do on Memorial Day. Find out the last name and leave them a tribute on the site. Don't think your town is too small because there are two families with Gold Stars in their windows near our house, and we are a small town.

The people who die fighting for our country are not just numbers, they are people with families who love them, and they live where you live.

Memorial Day is picnics and parades, but also a day to remember and say thank you. Thank the soldiers who fought for us by finding out their names and reading them out loud. They're not forgotten that way and they become real. The flags were started in 1917 by a father for his two sons because "The world should know of those who give so much for liberty."

Thank you.

Photo source: wikipedia

Things I'll Miss About My Life When Summer Vacation Begins

School will be out within a few weeks. Aaaaaaaaaall the children will be home. Having them with me, around me, walking around in the mornings with their summer pajamas and their bedhead heads just hovering inches away, close enough to smell their night time warmness is a top pleasure in my life.

However, there will be changes, and some of these changes, will be difficult.

In no particular order, the shift from me now being left home alone unsupervised to 24 hour guarded by three pseudo husbands is about to begin, and that means:

• 1.  No more Amy Winehouse at volume 48 pleading Vaaaaaaal, Valerieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! off of YouTube while I scrub the floors.

• 2.  The 40 minute phone calls to my niece, hosted from the kitchen table, with my feet all barefooty on the edge of the barnwood, pfffffffft. A thing of the past.

• 3.  Someone will be finding my coffee mugs placed all over the house and again with the comments of "Mom, do you really drink this much coffee or do you need to make an early Alzheimer's appointment?"

• 4.  The questions, the hovering questions, of "How much longer are you going to be on the computer??"

• 5. Bright eyeballs peering over from behind the stove, unhappily commenting on the beginnings of supper. Right now, they come home so hungry from school I could serve up plucked crow and they'd kiss my feet. Also, related: no more being able to lie, "It's not left overs. I just made it."

• 6.  Having to be out of my pajamas and into a bra before the raised eyebrows that judge, "Do you EVEN plan on getting dressed today?"

• 7.  No such thing as running into the grocery store and leaving with only what's on the list, unless the list states 15 containers Pringles, 6 bags Lay's BBQ chips, 2 quarts Mint Chocolate Chip, and half a dozen Ice Cream Sandwiches. Oh. And root beers.

• 8.  Having to take on a third job to pay for the sunscreen and bug spray that three big kids' skin surface area requires. (1500 sq. in. per child x $100.00 per 8 oz of what sunscreen manufacturers think is liquid gold = enough money to make you puke) Especially for someone like me who insists on apply as directed: repeat as necessary.

• 9.  Seek out fourth job (I can work it in between 11 pm and 5 am) to cover costs of filling up gas tank for two teens' worth of summer driving.

• 10. Did I mention the snacking begins? I should have married a food wholesaler.

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 **Seriously, I canNOT wait to get my children back, all three of them, for three months. The teachers have had them long enough, and now it's my turn.

Zach Sobiech

Zach Sobiech passed away yesterday.

The Minnesota teen with terminal cancer, who just turned 18 on May 3, wrote a farewell song to his family and friends, because he wanted them to have something to hold them up when he was gone. His music video, "Clouds" has had over 3 million views, and this young man, Zach, tells us more in 3:14 about living than 20 books ever could.

"Just, try and make people happy, every day. That's it."

Make the time to watch this today, click over, see this with your family. Let them see what it's like to really be remembered and how to make a difference.

Peace to you, beautiful Zach, and to the many that loved you and shared your days with you. Peace.





*To learn more about Zach and his amazing way of living, please watch his story here; 22 minutes of beauty and grace, "My Last Days."

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Chuck That Thesaurus

Books sit in piles in front of me, dollars spent on Amazon in hopes of that one right word, reading late into the night to expand my wordstock, following the monthly "It Pays To Increase Your Vocabulary!" with each new Reader's Digest issue.

For what? For naught, that's what.

I just saw a video where Dennis Rodman answers all these world important questions with freakin' made up words! I sat my husband down and made him watch a news interview done after Dennis' trip to Korea -- when it was finished, I rolled my eyes and turned to my husband, asking his feedback on the ridiculousness of the word vomit just witnessed. My intelligent, well employed husband says, "THAT? Was awesome."

There you go. Awesome.

Read about my word snobbery conversion, at Aiming Low. My post today "I'm Going To Make Up My Own Words."

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*Thank you. xo

I Cannot Tell a Lie

Folded in haphazard half, was my Mother's Day card from my youngest.

It was printed with pink marker on pink paper, which made the letters look kinda of orange-ish, pale -- but I could still make it out when I stood next to the brightness of the kitchen window to read it.

An acrostic poem, and an ambitious one, too. Not just made up of first letters of my name spelling out only one word vertically. This boy had written me a deluxe model acrostic -- he had penned in a complete sentence for the first letters of my name, which he thinks is MOTHER.

It was a wonderful read, and I had tears from the laughter. He, of course, didn't understand what was so funny, and when I couldn't stop laughing he explained, "What? You know cards are hard for me and it feels funny to not tell the truth."

I'd photocopy it but against the pink paper and pink marker, it looks like a dark blob. Letter for sentence, I've copied it here.

Happy Mother's Day

Many sided sides to her.

Other things I can say about her.

There is a lot of stuff that I like about her but people say is weird.

Hours and hours of fun we have doing her favorite thing of nothing.

Everything she says with the faces that go with it.

Realistic, she tells me exactly what she thinks.

I love you mom.  

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*Pretty sure this is a love note, don't you think?


xo (hope you all had a wonderful mother's day)

** BONUS day for me today: besides this wonderful note from my boy, I'm also being featured on mamapedia! Voices! with a post on parenting and teens, "What Happened to the Meat?" THANK YOU mamapedia! Stop over and check them out, you'll find great community voices as well as online resources for all sorts of sharing info. and parenting's nuggets of wisdom.