Day 11 - Veteran's Day

Shame on me for not getting in Day 10. Now I have to be grateful for 2 things today. I suppose I will have to do a 2-for-1 special tonight. Before I fall asleep.

Today I'm grateful for the freedoms afforded me by the Constitution of the United States and for those who have protected and defended those freedoms. Those who have willingly served have my gratitude and those who didn't have a choice but served honorably also have my thanks.

I'm grateful for those men who committed treason to formulate, agree on and sign the Declaration of Independence. The world was never the same. While the ideas may have been chatted about for 50 years or more previous to that moment in time, they weren't acted upon. While the coffee houses of Europe may have produced thinkers, I think that it is fair to say that real action began with those men who put their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line for the belief that government is instituted by men and derives its powers from the consent of the governed. The modern age has no concept of what their honor meant to them but we may want to revisit it and take it to heart.

I am grateful for these rights - the freedom to exercise my religion and the freedom from a government established religion, the freedom of press, of speech, of assembly, of the right to bear arms, to not have to quarter soldiers, to have protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, for due process and impartial juries, protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

I am grateful for the intention of the 10th Amendment. I do not think that it is applied AT ALL.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I've seen and heard a lot of Thank You's to our Veteran's today. It is always popular to day  "and the freedoms they defend". This is my little Thank You to those very first American veterans and all of the veterans since who believe in the Constitution and the ideas that are the foundation for the Declaration and the Constitution. I think that people need to do a better job of understanding what those ideas are, what the freedoms that we are afforded are and how we, as citizens, also need to protect them. 

Day 9 - Modern Medicine

On my way to drop Kaleb off at school this morning, I had to pick Chloe and Chase up from school. Chloe had texted me that her head was (still) really hurting and Chase said he felt like throwing up. I posted earlier on facebook that I was grateful for being friends with a pediatrician because I can call her at home about headaches. I've also called her about high fevers, weird hip pain, weird leg pain, ear pain, spots of misc. kinds, wheezing, coughing, croup... The list is endless. We have now entered the season that one of the kids will be home sick what seems like every single day and any plans I make or appointments I schedule will have to be changed because someone will puke or have pneumonia or whatever.

It will annoy me. It will frustrate me. It will seem like we will never be illness free again. I will feel trapped in a sea of germs which no amount of lysol, bleach or clorox wipes will free me from. When I complain, as I inevitable will, please say to me Day 9.

Have you ever thought back on your illnesses or the things that have happened to your kids and thought  "100 years ago, that would have been deadly"? Top of the list - antibiotics. They might be over used but they save lives. We've had some pretty gruesome wounds through the years. While they've been stitching people up for a long time, lots of people still died of infection. Not to mention the pneumonia, etc. X-rays, MRIs, IV's, surgery (without being awake!) - all AWESOME!

If I had been born in another time, I think I would have been that sickly kid that had to stay inside reading. If I had been in a hand cart company, I would have been a casualty of the elements. Without the c-section (and accompanying modern medicine that makes it more likely to survive a c-section), the twins and I would be dead. Less extreme are the day to day things that make life more comfortable. Antihistamines. Advil. Migraine medicine. Really important in our house (and Anna's) - asthma medicine.

I'm thankful for all of the scientists and doctors who have worked tirelessly to improve medicine in all of its facets and for those who continue to do so. I don't want to live forever but I am glad that the infant mortality rate isn't 50% and that the median life span isn't 40.

Day 8

I like babies. It's not a secret. I'm one of those people who just can't seem to get enough of the little monsters. Newborn baby smell & sounds are without equal. First smiles & coos. Teeny fists waving. How cute is a baby just figuring out how to crawl or walk or run? The transition from babbling to talking? Giggles. That smile that's just for Mom. 

Yes, they spew all kinds of bodily fluid on you (and pretty much wherever they want). And while sometimes it is hard to figure out the exact way to keep them happy, they are never complicated. 

Baby shower for Quincy today had me running around like a crazy person but every baby deserves a welcoming celebration as much as every Mama deserves a party. Today, I'm thankful for babies.

My Little Worker Bees - Day 7

I have to make this one short. I still have tons to do tonight to get ready for Quincy's baby shower in the morning. Luckily for me, my kids all had a short school day today and so were home for a good portion of the afternoon. They were able to do all kinds of work for me around the house, mostly cleaning & some leaf blowing. Sure, my kids moan and groan like most kids but not much. They usually don't volunteer to clean or clean without being asked but who does? For the most part, they pitch in when I need them to. Sometimes when I make my list and plan on how long it is going to take me to finish all of the stuff on it I forget that I have my little army of helpers. They used to be too small to do much but now they are big enough to cut some serious time off of my to do estimate.

Thanks for all of your help today big kids. And all of those other days when Mommy was about to lose her mind! I'm thankful that they don't give me crap very often about helping out. I'm thankful that they know how to pitch in. I'm thankful that, when they want to, they can make a great team.

Thankful on Day 6

As I thought would probably be the case, the hardest part of writing down what I'm thankful for is picking exactly which thing to choose. Today I'm going to try to put into words why I am thankful for those who get me. The other day I made a comment on fb about Jake's assertion that the reason that I find the show The Big Bang Theory funny is because it is a nerd show and I, clearly, am a nerd. Another day this week, a fb friend made reference to TBBT on his fb & so I said to Jake "My fb friends also think that TBBT is very funny." His response, "Uh, right, because your friends are nerds." The facebook nerd-friend community is a new way for him to scoff at my nerdness. It has been a long running understanding at my house that when I am talking to my friend Jami on the phone we are having "nerd conversations" using "nerd words". He really doesn't mean any of this in a negative way. I think what he really means is "I don't get you when you are on a nerd rant, please call someone who does." Jami is a go-to in that situation. (She also listens to my political rants and answers my, albeit rare, grammar questions.)

The cool thing about the modern era is that I don't even need a telephone to commune with those who totally get me. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, thank you. When I make a comment about politics, I know there are people on my friend list who will get it AND, best of all, give me feedback on my comment. When I make a vague reference to some nerdy show or old movie or maybe TLOTR, someone out there will both understand the reference & then add to it. It's like magic. Somehow my sarcasm translates even without facial expressions or tone of voice.

I explained to someone today that I am the odd duck in my family. All of my siblings are science people who grew up to be medical people. I'm the lone weirdo social science sibling. Of course, the answer I got to this was "it takes all different kinds of people & their talents"... Ya, ya. But sometimes, it gets lonely if those who you spend the most time with or who are closest to you or are married to just don't get you. They get parts of you. They try to get you. They love you and listen to you (if they have to), they think you're smart. BUT they can't really commune with you on that special nerd wavelength. The one where they get why you have a image of the writing on the inside of The Ring as the wallpaper on your phone. Or why you have (and regularly use) aps for the NYT, WaPo, The Guardian, WSJ, Real Clear Politics, Drudge and The Economist.

Something occurred to me yesterday while driving with Jake to Chloe's far away CC meet. When I showed him the completed craft that I had been working on his response was "It is very symmetrical. Evenly placed." Huh? The other day at a store he saw a cool metal owl thing and said "I like owls. I think they look cool." My response "Hmmmm. They make me think of Athena." Huh? What I realized is that I give him nerd answers and he gives me art answers. He didn't say that the craft was cute. I didn't say that owls were cool looking.

Yes, everyone has their own talents and interests. Sometimes we need to be with people who get us so we don't feel crazy or alone or lonely. Sometimes it's just necessary to be validated. I'm thankful today that I don't have to feel alone in my own brand of quirky nerdness.