Sunday Gratitude – 21.VI.2026 / 28.VI.2026

I know, I know, it’s been a long time since I last posted. I’ve got a number of posts – including Sunday Gratitude posts – that I started writing and some of them are nearly done… and then I do something silly like fall asleep at the keyboard or figure I’ll finish early the next morning, then each day seems to be as crazy as the last. I know, it sounds lame, but with five kids in three different schools, once we hit the stretch past spring break, it was just one thing after another. With two kids finishing school just before Memorial Day, the number of sporting events, parent presentations, and special events revved up already in April, and with the other three ending a week and a half ago, I feel like I got a good three months of wrapping up the school year. I am tired.

I am grateful that we are finally at the end of school rides and such, at least for a little bit. Last summer there was no plan, and I think my middle daughter really felt like the summer was wasted “doing nothing”, and so I kind of made sure that there were things set up so that the kids were tearing themselves away from their devices fairly regularly. Planet Fitness has a program where high school teens can work out there for the summer for free, and my two oldest have been enjoying doing that quite a bit. Marcus Theaters has a Summer Kids “Passport”, and there’s also “Kids Bowl Free“. I’m grateful that there are free and low-cost programs like this.

One of the things I was really looking forward to doing with my three youngest, at least, was going biking with them. We did a little bit, and I found really nice bikes (for very nice prices) on Facebook Marketplace for the older two of the youngest three, since they have grown a lot since I bought them bikes a couple of years ago. I’m grateful to have found them the bikes, and for the time so far we have spent together on this. Unfortunately, my younger son ended up taking a tumble off his bike going top speed on a trail and managed to break his wrist in two places. I am incredibly grateful for the medical care he’s received (only in America could you imagine a hospital having a pediatric orthopedic team available in the middle of the night) and I am incredibly grateful to the people who stopped to ask if he needed help, and to the former paramedic who stopped and stuck around while I went to get the van. Angels among us, I tell you! Younger son is doing pretty well, all things considered, and will probably have the wrist in a cast for 6 weeks or so, and while this alters the biking plans, it probably doesn’t kill them for the whole summer, particularly because he got a recumbent bike for his birthday, and since the rider is leaning back to ride, there’s no pressure on the wrists. So we’ll see.

I’m thankful for the World Cup being in the US this year. Like many, I had no idea that the World Cup was coming to the US before it started, but the number of videos of visitors to the US experiencing everyday things in the United States is a gift.

And then, of course, there’s an argument downstairs, and mom gets pulled into a situation that takes an hour to resolve… Sigh… So now it’s a week later…

28.VI.2026

Also, while on the subject of the World Cup, I wanted to share a couple of videos from the US-Australia game that took place in Seattle – first up, the US National Anthem

Not to throw shade on Seattle, but they’re not exactly known for their patriotism out there, and to hear thousands of people singing along to a setting not intended to be sung along to is quite remarkable.

Secondly, this:

This gave me goosebumps; I tell you, every German I met while living in Germany knew this song by heart in English. In theory, it’s about West Virginia, but for people around the world, it’s a song simply about the longing for the places we call home, and I would bet you that the Australians out there were probably singing it here as much as the Americans.

So another week has passed by; I’m grateful that the follow-up on the wrist seems to be showing good healing. We’ve had remarkably nice weather, and I’m thankful for that. An old friend is in the area, and even though so far, I’ve only seen her for a couple of minutes, that was really nice. I didn’t manage a number of my Garmin challenges, but I’m grateful for the nice time riding on my bike this weekend – yesterday, I rode just a shade under 40 miles on the regular bike and it didn’t end up killing me. A lot of it was actually a lot of fun. 🙂 I made a short trip to visit an old friend, and though not everything went well on the trip, the visit was really nice. Some of the stuff I can’t really talk about here is easing up a bit…

The weeks just fly by at this point; a friend of mine was talking about how it’s barely summer and her mind has already shifted to getting things done before winter. I’m grateful that I’m not having to drive the school runs! Thank you for being patient with me…

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