This is the question I can’t stop thinking about.

Why does North America have so much, while the rest of the world has so little?

The little trip my hubby and I took at the beginning of the month wasn’t a romantic getaway. It was an informational meeting with an amazing Christian charity that works in Africa. We wanted to learn more and we did. We don’t know if we have a future with this group, but we are asking God and we’re trying to be patient.

In one of the sessions, they had every person take a colored piece of paper from a closed box. Our classroom was divided into groups based on our colored slips of paper. The medium-sized groups with 10 or more people signified the countries with world’s most wealth, America one of them.

In the far corner of the room, sat the group with the smallest amount of wealth: Africa, a continent with more than a billion people with the smallest amount of money per capita in the world.

It was shocking to see the room divided so unfairly and heartbreaking to know that this wasn’t a game. It was real.

Why is America so blessed? What are we to do with our wealth? We are a nation possessed with achieving more and more and more. I know no one likes these kind of questions. They make us feel uncomfortable. I have always thought that every pay raise, every unexpected check in the mail, every extra in my life was God’s blessing. God’s blessing for me. Now, I’m not so sure. Why would God want me to have more and more and MORE, while so many have nothing?

Every good gift comes from God above, but gifts are meant to be given.

Right?

I received this comment yesterday and thought it was thought-provoking: “Yesterday I read a post on Get Rich Slowly about how frugality is great, but really there’s nothing wrong with buying lots of nice things for yourself as long as you can really afford them. When I’d finished the article, I thought, “Is there no room for giving in this?” I believe there IS something wrong with lots of spending, even if I can “afford” it. Because maybe I have what I have not because I earned it, but because God blessed me with it. And maybe He expects me to share it, even just a little. But probably a lot.”

Why do you think America is so blessed?

Is it so we can build a greater country or is it for us to help that poor continent and others like it in the corner of the room and make HIS glory known?

• My baby had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed on Friday morning. I don’t like things like this.
• The medical staff let her take some comfort items back to the OR, but the doctor had to stop mid-procedure to put the pacifier in the crying baby doll’s mouth. I think they have a new policy now. We like to shake things up.

• I learned that a large majority of kids come out of anesthesia hysterical, kicking and fighting. My kids is above average.
• Her recovery started out rocky when the nurse at the hospital mistakenly gave us the wrong ear drops.
• I learned if you put nasal spray in newly tubed ears, it burns very badly.
• My 3 year old could win an Olympic event in SCREAMING.
• It turns out I like the World Cup. Even when Africa wins.
• I sent my darling older kids to four days of church camp early Saturday morning. But I’m channeling my sorrow by gutting their rooms of all random paper crafts hoarded from year 2004.
• P.S. I never thought I’d be the Mom who puts her son’s clothes in zip lock bags with a label for each day.

• But I TOTALLY am.
• The camp has strict rules about head lice. If they find it, the children aren’t allowed in. I thought about scheduling a quick visit to the dentist. But thankfully, we passed!
• My toddler is trying on her role as an only child. She likes it, but I miss her brother and sister.
• I found out my 4 year old iPhone does not float in the commode. Don’t ask.
• How was your weekend?

My oldest child has fallen in love with mystery books. So, when I heard a tap on my door past midnight, I wasn’t surprised. “I hear a noise,” she said.

My hubby convinced her that it was just her imagination and sent her back to bed. I rolled over.

4 minutes later: another knock. I put my pillow over my head.

“I hear a tap-tap-tapping on my window,” she explained.

I’m wide awake now. I throw the covers back in a huff, “GET BACK IN BED. Every night it’s the same thing. You are too old for this.”

She disappeared for 6 minutes and then was back at our door.

My hubby went to check out the “noise” and she crawled in bed next to me. I didn’t want her there.

I hear my hubby calling from upstairs, “Honey, can you come up here?”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I climb the stairs with my eyes half-closed, when my hubby says, “I found the tapping.”

He points to the dripping water that is leaking from the ceiling forming a soggy mess on the floor. “It’s a good thing she insisted. The ceiling would have caved by morning.”

Oh.

I turn to look at my daughter and she says only like a ten year old can, “I told you so.”

It’s that mother daughter thing…the bits of tension at times, eyes rolled, heavy sighs. The unspoken competition.

I remember it well between my mother and I. It’s faded over the years and a deep friendship has been forged in the ruts created by the hard moments in our mother daughter relationship. I look at my girl and I fret over the dents we are making.

I think of the constant, steady pull away from me. I remember the pull well…it took me thousands of miles away from my mother, on adventures with my new husband. But the draw towards home and her were constant.

I grab my ‘tween and pull her back to my bed while her daddy works on the leak upstairs. It’s the middle of the night, but I’m not counting minutes as I hold her tight, she struggles against my grasp, I wrap arms tighter, she eventually bends, into me.  I say “I’m sorry and thank you” for her persistence and I love you.

My life is still deeply intwined with my mother’s and no matter how far I roam, I know my way back home. My daughters will dream chase and give way to the pull. I will be waiting.

(My daughters and I two summers ago)

It’s that Mother Daughter Thing.

Now it is time for you to join in- You are invited to log onto www.thankyoumom.com and enter to win a travel voucher to help cover the cost of a special reunion with their mom or mom figure in their life. Contest entrants must submit a 100 word essay describing why they’d like to be united with their mom. Approximately 15 winners will be chosen every month through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Be sure to vote on your favorite entries for the Thank You Mom Reunions here.

This post is part of the P&G Thank You Mom Reunion Campaign through Blissful Media Group.

So far, our first weeks of summer have been berry good.

Our favorites about summer so far:

1. Blackberry picking with cousins (no, we did not get new phones)
2. Sleeping in until at least 8 AM!! (okay, this is mom’s fav)
3. Fort  and popsicle-making (preferably together)
4. Swimming (also known as getting a break from the unbearable heat!)

What’s been your berry favorite things so far about summer?

Happy Father’s Day!

Love,

We are THAT family

Swinging.

Sports.

Spraying.

Snacking.

We are in the full swing of summer around here and I can’t keep my pantry or my kids full. They are constantly munching! Our new favorite snack is Ritz Crackerfuls. Have you tried them? They are yummy, packed to grab-on-the go and made with real cheese. And one Crackerful is the perfect snack at only 130 calories.

My favorite are the cheddar cheese and bacon. Did someone say bacon?

I was sent some Ritz Crackerfuls for snacking and sampling. You can grab a coupon here. This is a sponsored post, compensated by One to One Network.

My kids are eating right now. Again.

Your turn….

Summer is for__________.

Last week, my hubby and I went out of town for two and half days to explore a crazy idea. We left our kids with their grandparents.

While we were away, my dad taught my children how to play poker, Texas Hold Em, to be exact.

Since my sister wasn’t feeling well, she and her kids, stayed with my parents too.

It was a full house.

Ahem.

At one point, I called to check on my kids and my daughter said, “We are having the best time at GaGa and PawPaws! We are eating junk food and candy and playing poker. It rocks!”

Of course, I could detect homesickness in her voice, in between bites of her Snicker’s bar and swigs of Root Beer.

As soon as my kid’s got home, they dug out a deck of cards and put on their poker faces.

It turns out my kids are three of a kind.

After two hours of playing, my son looked up from counting his winnings and said with a glassed-over eyes, “Is poker a sport?”

Talk about a Royal Flush.

I think I need to hide the deck of cards-no bluffing.

My kids are pretty sure they have the best grandparents around.

No poker face needed.

At dinner the other night, we opened the book we read from nearly every evening, Window On The World . It offers a different country to learn about and pray for each day.

After my hubby read a few facts, we said a short, simple prayer for the vast country, known for it’s many gods and extreme poverty.

We returned to our food, chatting about the day, when I noticed my oldest child deep in thought, fork mid-air.

Thoughtfully, she said, “Why does America care about forests and endangered animals more than the starving people of the world?”

My son added, “Yeah, they care about plant and animal species more than their own species.”

They are 10 and 8 years old. It is astonishing to me that they see this deficiency in the human spirit and many adults don’t.

What would you say to them?

Other than we live in a very screwed up world.

*Updated* Some of my numbers were causing a stir. I got them off the Internet, but turns out they are many different opinions about how much our government spends. I stand by my opinions, but in an effort to stop all the emails, I decided to take down the numbers.