Return With Honor

Love, love, LOVE how this came out! I put it over my front door, so my children (and husband and I) see it when we go out!

For those in the trenches...

So, I haven't blogged in a while, but I've been thinking a lot about this and I need to get it out there.

I read this book on WWI this summer. I never really understood it before, my schooling always focused on Hitler and WWII. But in a nutshell, Germany and France were fighting over a piece of land for centuries, which at this point France held, and was fortified at its German border. Germany decided to take it, again, but approach through Belgium where there was less fortifications. Britain joined the fight, but the 2 Allies basically sent people to die over the no man's land against a well entrenched German army for years. Then, they started running out of men.

France was desperate. They were losing the war, the war they felt was justified because they were defending their homeland. They were fighting the battles as nobly as they could. Due to extensive circumstance, America showed up, with fresh people, a new resource and new plans of attack, and the war was won.

Why do I tell you this?

It makes me think of our youth. The young people, of my faith and others, who are out there, in the trenches every day, fighting the valiant battle. They feel they are running out of manpower, they feel they are losing the war because they struggle through the battles, and even lose some of their good buddies along the way.

But even when you hit the point of despair, America is coming. There are more of you than you know, there are angels all around you, to buoy you up, you are on the Lord's side, which is the side who will win the war, we have been promised. Just as the people on Earth when the Savior was born began to wonder if the sign would ever come, you must hold to the faith, because the war will end, and we will win!! I love you, the Lord loves you, hang in there!

So, when you leave your blog for four months...

Blogger invents new templates. And then it changes around the setup page. And THEN you remember it's three email addresses behind, and it's trying to start a whole new blog for your whole new email address. And then you find one lonely little comment waiting to be moderated (Sorry Sarah!). And then you wonder if anyone will ever read it. And then you debate putting it on facebook, because you write about your kids on here, and maybe they don't want you linking to their baby pictures to all of the kids at school. BTW, I am friends with LOADS of kids from school on fb, Dustin thinks it's so I can win at the Great Friend Race, but really I know a year from now those kids won't friend me, and I hope to keep tabs on things. There is a reason my kids think I know everything!!

Did I mention my husband and I are both friends with the chief of police as well?

So, what to talk about. I was bored, put it as my fb status, and was reminded that I could blog. That just means I could bore all of you two million (hey, I remember how!) people right along with me! I could tell you about:

-Thomas's foot fetish, we discovered it months ago.
-All the things he puts in his mouth.
-The occasional thing we manage to get back OUT of his mouth.
-Dustin doing soccer doubles.
-HOLY COW MY KID IS A FRESHMAN!!!!!)!
-Zachary driving me crazy looking for reasons to complain.
-Michael begging me for a haircut. Oh, maybe THAT'S what I should be doing, *I feel sheepish*
-Brian announced at his doctor appointment today he hates school. I had no idea.
-Kids all have colds. Except Z, he's just whiny.
-4 boys got shots this week, wanna guess who lucked out (Nicki can't play this game)?
-One has a rash, little spots that showed up this evening, I am hoping viral non-chicken pox spots.
-It's 8 PM and my husband is STILL not home from work.
-He told his boss he needed a raise if he was going to have to babysit coworkers. His boss said he wouldn't ask him to babysit coworkers anymore.
-Our house is supposed to be under renovations.
-The federal government employee in charge of the paperwork is the quintessential federal government employee.
-Michael will graduate COLLEGE before we renovate.
-I haven't eaten because I'm waiting for my husband. I just remembered I told him he should stop and get something. Maybe I will go eat. Good boredom buster!

Any requests for elaborating?

Observations from an ordinary day...

If you need inspiration to clean your floors, I have it. He's 7 1/2 months old, very cute, and works for free. When he's done here I could bring him to your house, you will want to put away everything he tries to put in his mouth, and THAT is EVERYTHING!!!!

The fourth boy is now the first to get stitches AND a black eye. How long before the broken bone? Wanna start a betting pool on which bone?

The oldest takes on such massive mental projects for his age and is so responsible. I am impressed, and now feel like I WANT to bail him out when he loses something, instead of like I HAVE to. It's amazing.

Some personalities need the motivation of an audience to pull out their best performance. They can swallow the pain if there is an audience when hit by a ball. They will take the plunge in swim class, if there is an audience to watch. Then he can apply it to when the audience is gone.

Some of the time, my boy (the only one left to brag about) is able to point out the things clearly and concisely that he tried to avoid at first to spare my feelings. When did he get so good at dealing with other people?

When did they get so old?

How do I slow this down?

I can't? Then how do I make it all last?