About Gratitude

Grace took a big tumble down the stairs today, and came out with nothing worse than a little bump under her left eye.

Jacob is the poster child for all the child safety warnings you see on just about everything.  He wraps cords around his neck, he falls headfirst into nearly everything with an opening big enough to fall in to, and he eats and drinks things that to most people would be poisonous.  Not to mention running with sharp objects.  You would think we haven't baby-proofed at all with all the things he does to get into trouble.

Joseph climbed up on to the roof the other day, and was amusing himself by running up and down the slope of it on the North side.  I bribed him with chewing gum to come down, because if you try to go after him, he runs away and thinks it's funny.  In case you're wondering, no, we do not leave ladders leaned up against the house, but the deck railing out back is just level with the garage roof, so he climbed up that way.  Joel took a box of screws and stuck them all along the railing so that it would be too painful to climb.  If that doesn't work, then, yes, we will get barbed wire.:)

Emily just goes to school.  That's danger in and of itself, what with all the lockdown drills, bullies, and bad words that she reads on the bathroom wall.

I have to say, though, that even with all the near misses (that happen daily, no joke), we are a healthy, happy family.  We live in an exceptional neighborhood, in our chosen State (for now), in the US of A.

I look at Google Earth from time to time, just to see what there is out there, and I often wonder how I got to be so lucky.  To be where I am, with all my needs met is really humbling, because it seems that circumstances like mine are the exception rather than the rule.

So even when I have to save my children's lives every day, or see the negative headlines, or hear the latest conspiracy theory that Joel has heard on Coast to Coast, I'm grateful that my part of the Earth is still right-side up. 

It's been awhile...

Something that really shows the sign of the times are the 'lockdown' drills they have for all the schools in Alpine School District.

I picked Emily up the other day, and she told me about the drill they'd had that day.  The instructions were for everyone to run into the nearest classroom and lock the door.  Then they were to turn out the lights and be very quiet.  She was really scared at first, because she didn't know it was a drill, and was afraid that there was really someone with a gun in the school.

I have to admit it was hard for me not to get choked up over that.  The very thought of my daughter cowering in a dark room, hiding from a gunman was way too easy to imagine.

For Joel and I it brought back Cold War memories-- 'duck and cover', among others.  But back then we were hiding from enemies in other countries, not unknown enemies in our own neighborhoods.

It's only been a couple of years since a plan for a shooting spree was prevented at Uintah High in Vernal, where I attended so long ago.  And I'm sure that for some of you who are reading this post, all I have to say is 'Trolley Square' to bring back memories of headlines from Salt Lake City; some of those victims are still in the recovery process.

Would it be a terrible thing to screen kids for difficulties before they reach for the trigger?  Would it label a person for life to know that they are 'at risk' for becoming a murderer?  What if, someday, I have to face the fact that my own children may dream of taking others lives?

How can we help these kids?  Preferably before they turn into criminals?

For my children, I hope that love and prayers and bedtime stories are enough.