First weekday of break.

Today we checked off three things on the list. One I really wanted to do and two were something the kids wanted to do.

Years ago I lost the taste for meat which means we don’t eat a lot of it at home. My son is part dinosaur which means he could eat meat, and only meat, for every meal. When he turned 13 his grandparents gave him a charcoal grill so he could grill all the meat he wants.

Today he put that grill together so he could start cooking tomorrow. His goal is to figure out how to grill a steak medium. He is looking to create a somewhat bloody steak. I’m thinking one reason is Mom would be appalled.

The one thing I wanted to do this break was to check out the newly renovated soldiers memorial. There were a few things I saw today that really stuck out to me and made an impact.

There was this lighter and a medal, neither created by the military. I found it impressive that people were so moved to create these for those who had served. I would imagine the military has some rules against this now, they are very fond of rules. What would we create today to thank those who are serving? Maybe one of those coins?

I would assume this is a part of our local history that we have long since forgotten. There were more anti-German posters in the room and it just left me wondering how much more I don’t know. I am also positive we have replaced German with another group here in St. Louis today. Do we never learn? This had me rather frustrated and unsure how to help.

There was a tiny little pick me up when I rounded the corner to find this poster, I just love it. This comes from Belleau Wood in WWI where the Marines earned the title of Devil Dog. The Marines have this bark used for motivation, and false motivation, while doing pretty much everything a Marine will do. The bark unnerved the Germans so much they nicknamed us Devil Dogs as we sounded like hounds of hell. I will sometimes recreated that same historic bark for the kids just for fun. To be clear, my fun not theirs. Pretty sure it is embarrassing them.

We ended the day at Sugarfire, a BBQ restaurant that was on the kids short list of places they wanted to go during break.