Happy Sonday, everyone!

"Bravery never goes out of fashion." 

~ William Thackeray ~

Memorial Day Weekend, 2911

I was reading the history of Memorial Day,  which was once called Decoration Day earlier.  Being older than dirt, I remember when it was called Decoration Day.  When my sister and I where growing up, Mama always decorated the graves of family members who had passed away.  Sometimes, it took as long as a week to prepare the flowers and then deliver the "memorials" to the different cemeteries.  One of the cemeteries was over seventy miles away.  It was a big deal, to Mama.

I am not as diligent today.  When I married, I became a part of a family that has a "family"  cemetery ~ a small country cemetery, where honey hunk's family members have been buried ever since they settled in this area, well over a hundred years ago.

Several times during the year, we help clean the family cemetery.  It helps us to remember and gives the younger family members the opportunity to ask questions, therefore learning about family members they never had the opportunity to meet.  They listen to stories of those family members, both funny and sad.  It is one of the ways we pass our family history on to the future generations.

We place flags on the graves of those who served our country.  The younger family members learned which uncles served in what branch of the military.  And it reminds all of us, there is a price to the freedoms we enjoy.

The Vietnam Memorial

The Wall

Mr. Prairie Maid, as well as his brothers served during Vietnam - six brothers, four of which served in Vietnam.  I don't know how my mother-in-love endured that time.  She was a prayer warrior, especially when it came to her boys!

I am thankful that my Marine is alive and well and ornery as ever!  I am thankful as a mother, our oldest son did not choose a military career and I pray our younger two will choose other ways to serve our country.  But if they should choose the military, I will be proud of them and I will be their biggest prayer warrior.

(I do not remember where I got this picture.  Sorry, if it is yours and I have not given you credit.)

That's what Mamas do!

Please remember to pray for those who are serving in our military and for their families and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate price.

I am not keeping extra kids this week!  The past two weeks we have had anywhere from 7 to 11 kids everyday and often two from down the road.   We have fished, stayed in the pool, petted all the baby animals  (several hundred times a day), found a new litter of kittens, gathered eggs, dodged storms and fed horses.

Mammaw is tired and the house looks like one of the storms found it!

(Seriously!)

I loved every minute almost every minute of the last two weeks, but today is Papaw's birthday, which we will celebrate next weekend - after there is a path through the middle of this chaos!

Hopefully, I'll have a little more time to blog and try to figure out why blogspot is not allowing me to comment on your blogs much of the time.  (I know, I am not the only one having this problem.)

Oops!  Gotta get Papaw's berry cobbler out of the over....I can smell it!

Be blessed this weekend and stay safe during your Memorial Day activities!

Hugs,

Cheryl