Summer Day 6- Thursday, June 16th- Anniversary! and response to Tragedy

It is hard to believe that today marks 9 years of being married.  It has been a wonderful, rollercoaster ride and I could not imagine being on it with anyone else.  The kids were very excited and were making us gifts all morning and singing us songs.  We also called Grandma and Grandpa Ploeger as it was their 49th anniversary which the kids thought was awesome!!!

To celebrate Sierra came and watched the kids for a couple hours so Matt and I could go out.  We had a wonderful lunch at Fridays and then went for a walk to Savers.  You may not think that a date to Savers sounds very romantic, and maybe it's not but it was wonderful.  To walk, talk and shop without distractions.  We will be celebrating our anniversary next week for 3 days in Bemiji, Minnesota and are very excited!

We also have been trying to have down time every day where the kids have to entertain themselves, today Jacob decided to sing his ABCs backwards... just for fun.  We are also trying to focus on Jacob having reading, math and writing time daily.

This past Sunday our country suffered another mass shooting, this time targeted at Pulse, in Orlando, Florida a gay bar that had a mostly latinx clientele.  During this travesty 50 people were killed and 50 more were injured, yet as a society we have not taken any serious steps to make changes to our laws to prevent further atrocities.  Tonight we had a prayer service at church and in our prayers we asked God to help us take action to actively work toward making serious and fundamental change in our society.  In addition to doing this summer I want to focus on being.  Who am I?  Who are we as a family? Who are we becoming?  So this week focused on reaching out to members of the LGTBQ+ community, loved ones, and students, to my muslim students and to Latinx students to let them know they have an ally, they are loved and supported.  I pray that we can raise Emma and Jacob to be advocates for truth, peace, justice, equity and love.