1. We’re approaching Memorial Day Weekend in the US of A…will you mark this in some way? If so tell us how. According to a list found here some things you might do in honor of Memorial Day would be-shop in a Veteran owned business, learn to play a patriotic song, watch the Memorial Day concert, take a virtual tour of the White House, write a letter to a soldier or a soldier’s family, fly a flag, attend a Memorial Day parade, donate flowers for a soldier’s grave, put together a care package for a soldier, and take a moment of silence at 3 PM (the National Moment of Remembrance)….of the ideas mentioned are there any you will try? 

I guess the easy answer is fly a flag. We’re those people who leave it up all the time. I hate to say that it has become a political symbol but I feel like it has. Instead of simply representing that you’re proud of your country – which everyone should be, in my opinion – it represents, I don’t know, Republicans or gun owners now. That’s just my view of it and maybe I’m wrong but either way, we have a nice one out front and I washed it recently so it looks good.

2. What’s something recently that made you ‘come to attention’? 

When I looked at the calendar after my beach weekend and realized how few weeks are left until the kids are out of school. June 10th, to be exact. Then I need to get on it with activities for about a week, then we go on a trip with my parents, then the younger 2 are in camp for the rest of the summer. Coming to realize that we are heading into those couple of summer months made me change how I viewed our life.

3. In what area of your life do you need to ‘soldier on’?

Hmm, I guess I will say in the eating department. I knew we were not “on the diet” this past weekend, at least not for keto. I didn’t eat any more than twice a day. So Sunday we ate once and Monday, twice, so we’re back to the regular schedule. But I do have a taste for desserts now and I definitely had broken that before. Today, I will be aiming to eat my one meal around 2 and make a huge salad with all kinds of good keto things like meat and cheese in it.

4. As a long weekend approaches and summer draws near, what’s a favorite food from your childhood you think about adding to the menu? 

Funny enough, one we probably won’t have but summer always makes me think of country style ribs. My parents loved them and we grilled them a lot in my childhood. Ash is not fond of ribs and I haven’t the slightest about how to actually cook them.

5. Your favorite patriotic movie? 

Hard to say, as I do like a lot of them so here are three: The Sandlot, The Patriot, The American President. (And not to be negative but my least fave movie in that category is Born on the Fourth of July; awful!)

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

As noted in Monday’s post, my son’s leg recovery is moving right along. He got a short leg cast and it’s a whole lot better. I mean, the other one was 3/4 of the way up his thigh and this one is just below the knee. He can bend it a lot more and since he’s proficient on the crutches, he’s much faster. He took a real bath for the first time yesterday morning, which was a huge milestone. The other one was too hard to cover for that but this was easy. He is still a little bratty about the whole thing but we’re making more progress there too.

I actually like summer. I don’t have a ton of work to do all at once. Right now I just have one class until the first when I’ll add a couple more. Sure, I make less money now too but it is wonderful to be less stressed about the work. So I am breathing deeply and focusing on what I can do around here. For example, we have a closet in the garage that has a door and we removed it so I could store more stuff in there. Then I rearranged that area. I am working to sell CDs we picked up at the thrift store. There’s one place that was selling CDs for a dime; a dime! What a steal. They raised the price to 50 cents, which is fair. But I LITERALLY just sold two or three rare ones for over 30 bucks. As they say, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

I am also working to get my closet reorganized and less junky. You know those areas in your house: you can easily stuff things and close a door and stop thinking about it. But the mess is always there! These little projects keep me sane, though. Instead of thinking about what Fall may bring; instead of worrying I won’t get the Full-time position job interview; instead of worrying about what Elliot will do all summer now that he aged out of camps… I can do little things and feel that success and keep my wits about me. Otherwise, I’d totally fall apart.