{"id":284,"date":"2008-05-21T20:33:45","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T03:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/2008\/05\/21\/tanks-for-the-memories\/"},"modified":"2008-05-21T20:33:45","modified_gmt":"2008-05-22T03:33:45","slug":"tanks-for-the-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/2008\/05\/21\/tanks-for-the-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanks for the Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow long has this been there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric looked quizzically at me in response and then his eyes zeroed in on the whitish ring adorning the left side of my pewter blue jacket, the one I always feel very stylish and trendy when I wear. He said all he knew for sure was that it wasn\u2019t there before we\u2019d left for church that morning\u2014at least for a few minutes I was child debris free, but beyond that he couldn\u2019t be sure.<\/p>\n

I probably wore my \u201cchild target\u201d proudly through much of church like I\u2019d been awarded Motherhood’s highest badge of honor. Admirers would say, \u201cOh look she\u2019s got, the crusty napkin badge!\u201d Maybe I should look at this smudge as my practical Mother\u2019s Day corsage: no muss, no fuss, no need to worry about flowers irritating my allergies, little fingers pulling the baby\u2019s breath out of carefully made arrangements, and no chance of anyone being accidentally pin stabbed.<\/p>\n

I recently saw a cartoon<\/a> depicting a mom, of three children no less, applying make-up, clean clothes, and jewelry only to be met in the next panel by her dirt encrusted son. He was grinning from ear to ear offering her both a hug and a wilty flower. In the last frame, you see her children marveling at their mother\u2019s super hero like leap. That\u2019s our mom: able to leap tall buildings and small children in a single bound. She made it to the minivan in one leap. I guess I need to read more comics to get tips for staying stain \/slobber free.\u00a0Then again,\u00a0maybe remaining smudge free is such a pipe dream it could only happen in the funny papers.<\/p>\n

This mother\u2019s day I was showered with hugs, kisses, cards, my favorite breakfast and an \u201cI love you tank\u201d because nothing really says you\u2019re the best mom in the world like a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Through the years I\u2019ve received many dear homemade notes, pictures, macaroni jewelry, and cards from my children. Because I have two boys, quite a few of these forget-me-nots are decorated with skulls and cross bones, Star Wars guys, bombs, knights in armor holding morning stars, and of course tanks.<\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/p>\n

As Ethan and Gerrit went to the front of the congregation on Mother\u2019s Day to sing, my heart clenched just a little because I realized this will be the last time Ethan will troop up to the stand to dutifully sing, \u201cMother, I love you Mother, I dooo-woo\u2026\u201d. He\u2019ll be twelve in the fall and therefore exempt from primary singing. How did this happen? Wasn\u2019t it just him marking my shoulders and pinching my elbows for comfort? Eric and I used to have to bribe Gerrit with a whole bag of candy to get him to go up front and sing\u2014it terrified him\u2014and next year\u00a0he\u2019ll be taking Afton\u2019s hand and leading her up front, jockeying for a spot so we can see her chubby cheeks.<\/p>\n

I love being a mom, stains and all, and I guess it\u2019s OK if my children grow up and stop singing primary songs as long as they don\u2019t ever stop saying I love you with\u00a0tanks.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow long has this been there?\u201d Eric looked quizzically at me in response and then his eyes zeroed in on the whitish ring adorning the left side of my pewter blue jacket, the one I always feel very stylish and trendy when I wear. He said all he knew for sure was that it wasn\u2019t … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tanks for the Memories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familynews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}