manners

So I am sitting at the table with my 3 year old son and my mom. My son is being forgetful about his manners. I am trying to nicely remind him about his manners. He ignores me. My mom tries to remind him of his manners, he ignores her. This goes on for a while. At this point I am getting irritated and he is feeding off of it. In desperation I say to him Army guys have manners they are the most well mannered people and if you want to be an Army guy than you better use your manners. He sat up straight and and was the poster boy for perfect manners.

It amazes me that at the age of 3 he is so perceptive and determined. He already has adventure in his mind that he wants to be an Army guy and he will act accordingly.

We do not preach to him about Army guys or being in the military, but he picks up on the conversations we do have, he is 3 remember. My guess is that there are kids out there that are not around others that talk about the pride of being an American. These are natural conversations in my house and I happy that my kids will grow up that way. Who knows maybe my son will be an Army guy some day, but until then I will use the Army guy manners as long as I can.

Army guy

So on one of our many trips to Sheetz, my husband is slightly obsessed we saw some men and women dressed in their uniforms. My 3 year old son was in aww. He would not stop looking and gazing. So we said to him you can go say hi or give them a high five. He opted for the wave. 

After leaving the store my husband said we should have bought their lunch. I agreed we should have and we will next time.

My son however is still talking about seeing the "Army guys" 3 days later. We could all take a lesson from him.So many times we are oblivious to their sacrifice and it takes a 3 year old to remind us of the aww that our military personnel should bring.

I am back

I am finally back. It was a long summer and fall, but now my life has started to settle down, at least for now. I have not been faithful with writing and even have not been focusing on the food pantry. Sometimes life comes at you and just when you think you are through it God reminds you that He is charge. When that happens all anyone can do is pray and have faith that there is a purpose for all the struggles. 

My summer and fall were not all struggles, I had some great times too. My plan now is to focus on my faith, family and using my recent experiences with life to help others.

Thanksgiving just passed and I was able to spend a lot of time with my family. A relative was asking all the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. The kids were all saying the typical answers, not sure, cheerleader ( my 7 year old daughter), teacher and then it was my son's turn. My 3 year old without hesitation said loud and proud "I want to be an Army guy!!".

Memorial Day weekend

I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I was able to spend a lot of time with family. I took my kids to the Memorial Day service at Beechwoods Cemetery, where my relatives are buried. We had many conversations about what Memorial Day signifies. I know that my kids won't really understand yet, but it is important to start having conversations. I also walked with my family for the wear blue:run to remember in honor of my cousin Michael who was killed in Iraq. This weekend I learned a lot about my heritage. I took pictures of tombstones of my relatives that are Veterans. Here are a few pictures.

This is me and my kids all dressed and ready to walk in honor of my cousin Sunday night. It was rained out so we actually walked Monday.

My Great-Great-Great Grandfather James Welsh served in the Civil War.

My Grandpa Billy Preston was a WW2 Veteran. 

 My cousin Michael's tombstone. He gave the ultimate sacrifice in 2007.

My Aunt Nancy and my mom walking on Sunday for the memorial walk.

Memorial Day

This weekend is Memorial Day.  To some it is the start of summer, to others it is a weekend full of fun going to picnics. To me it is more than that. I will enjoy family for a picnic and enjoy the great weather, but I also will be honoring those that have made the ultimate sacrifice. Growing up my mother would drag me to the cemetery every Memorial Day to honor those that have fallen for our country. I never really understand the significance and meaning behind it until I was older. If it is not for those soldiers that leave  their families, their comforts, everything about their lives we could not enjoy those same things. So this Memorial Day I will be dragging my own kids to the cemetery so they can start honoring those that made the ultimate sacrifice for them.

Wear Blue

Will you be running this weekend to remember the fallen. I will be. I pledged to run in honor of the fallen soldiers at my local cemetery, some of which include my relatives. I pledged through an organization wear blue: run to remember Check out there website and read about how it was started. Then pledge to run/walk in honor of the fallen and help wear blue to reach their goal.

Adopt a brigade?!?!

So I decided that I needed to adopt another soldier. I am hopeful that some day I can adopt many soldiers but my husband gave me a budget. I still need to be able to feed my own family. Well I signed up to adopt another soldier through Herobox and to my surprise that one soldier turned in the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade. I have already been contacted by the SGT, who informed me that they are in the most humid part of Afghanistan. I am so excited that I can help out these troops. I am also thankful for my family who has been buying items and donating postage. I could not do it without you. I almost done for the first round of boxes. Today I was able to get 28 razors for them. I spent $9.80, but saved $40.82. I feel God working though me and I hope that the troops feel that through the boxes.