The previous Friday, our son came home from school excited about Memorial Day and excited about honoring those who sacrificed for our freedom. {Thanks to his wonderfully patriotic teacher, we are truly going to miss her next year, she has been such a great teacher for him and it’s been a joy to watch him thrive & flourish this year, while learning all things patriotic}.
Fast forward to #MemorialDay, our kids were excited about going to our town’s Memorial Day Parade {while I’m being transparent, if our son hadn’t come home excited about Memorial Day, we probably wouldn’t have thought to attend, so for all you teachers out there, you make more of a difference than you may know or realize}. Our son’s enthusiasm rubbed off onto the younger two; everyone was bouncing around the house. Meanwhile, I wavered between being completely annoyed & irritated with the chaos and indifference, trying to ignore what was going on & focus on the fun we would have as a family later in the day.
We {barely} made it out of the house & watched the parade. Our kids waved an American flag they made at home. They listened intently as the speaker recognized & thanked current veterans and honored those who served & sacrificed by giving their lives for their country. After the first speaker, the entire group continued on about 7/10 of a mile to our town’s cemetery where another speaker shared more about Memorial Day. It was our first time attending our town’s Memorial Day festivities and we were pleasantly surprised. The kids paid attention and enjoyed the symbolic shooting of the rifles {shooting blanks, there was a mad rush by all the children after for the shells from the blanks}.
We feel privileged to live in the United States and thankful for our many freedoms. Often, there is more negativity and complaint on what our country lacks rather than focus on the good and positive of the United States {I’m not saying the US is a perfect country} . Monday was a powerful reminder of what we have gone through as a country {Independence War, War of 1812, American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and currently the War on Terrorism} and what others have lost {lives, husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, friends, wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, grandparents, etc}. The US is not perfect, however we fought, we learned, we survived, we still have more to learn, all the while we continue to honor those who gave their lives for the safety of our Nation every Memorial Day.
After the ceremonies, we took to a local playground, had a picnic lunch and ran around on the playground. The kids had a blast enjoying being together, outside, as family with their silly dad chasing after them. Until, one of the kids had to use the bathroom “real bad” and since there was no good place to use the bathroom at this playground {why can’t all playgrounds be equipped with a bathroom or port-a-potty?} we asked our child to “please hold it”, jumped into the car and headed home.
