November 6

I believe it was Karl Rove (a guy you sometimes just happen to "run into" right Natasha?) who proposed Tuesday night that our county isn't made up of "ask not what your country can do for you..." He continued, and I'm paraphrasing, that we are a country that wants to be great but individuals no longer want to work to make it great. We want the government to do that which is one reason why an Obama led government would win.

I don't think that way. My husband doesn't think that way. My friends and family don't think that way. In fact, if you are reading this, I don't believe you think that way.

Blogging was on my mind this morning and not so much in the what-will-I-post today sense; I was thinking more so about how so many of us post the beauty of our lives with our families. In actuality, in the documenting of our days, we are celebrating. So many bloggers have been criticized for not "keeping it real" and posting about daily trials or the mundane. Jennifer at Life in the Green House recently posted her thoughts about this criticism and I couldn't agree more.

Today, though, in light of the election, in light of where our country is headed or with what attitude, I choose to think that we highlight the joys and blessings of our lives instead of the dwelling on the negative because we are doing it. We are working hard, whether as working mothers, stay at home mothers, or as wives, daughters, friends, sisters, citizens, for the Red, White, and Blue. And we need to see that; we need to acknowledge it and feel it within our being.

We all know it isn't easy. Each one of us, each one of our family members, makes sacrifices on whatever level to keep going, to keep working, to keep building, and when my children look back upon this blog, I want them to see the successes on our journey. They'll already know that difficulties are a part of life. Unfortunately, life hands us these sometimes without warning and always, it seems, before we are fully prepared.  I want them instead to see memories of striving for what's possible and celebrating achieving it together.

I agree that our country may be on a path of "what are you going to do for me?" but that doesn't mean I'm off the hook. That doesn't mean I think we are better than any other family out there. Our country is just changing.

Where we'll go from here, I can't answer. But as a family we'll continue to live as we believe in work, in play, in prayer.