I COUNT MY BLESSINGS ONE DAY AT A TIME! PARTICULARLY THIS ONE;

     I read a posting on FB this morning that set me on the path to thinking about my past blessings as a Father and Dad. The posting of course, was in honor of loving, responsible fathers who did the right thing in the raising of their children. It was right on the mark!
     There is no particular bragging I can do about total dedication to my children, except to think I always tried to do the right thing for their welfare as a father as I worked my way through life in the manner that I did. There was certainly nothing heroic I can point out.
     Being raised in a family of 11 children, the hero in our family militarily was our Dad, who fought with the Canadian Forces on behalf of Britain as a machine gunner, was severely wounded, survived but never really got over those embattled years of World War 1. Aside from that, the true hero in our family from that time on was our mother, Ella Jean (Beutel) McNaughton.
     With our father never truly getting over his ordeal in the Army, he was more of a drag on our family life due to alcoholism and retaining the ability to produce children, which is the one thing he was proficient at.
     After that, my mother and the rest of us were on our own. (Our life of survival throughout those years is a story in it's own.)
     As a result of that, though, we all grew up to remember the bitter years it was like to always wonder where the next meal was coming from. But we made it, and in each and every way of our own, we saw to it there was never a prolonged length of time where the lack of responsibility stopped us men from 'bringing home the bacon', even through the bad times in the economy.
     Whatever faults each of us might have had, the responsible to our children, morally and family-wise was there.
     It was the thing to do, because we felt if our sacred mother who herded us off to church each Sunday could raise us in a proper manner and still retain her sanity, we owed her at least that much.
     But families unfortunately,  usually grow apart eventually, through the necessity of  adventure and survival to achieve their own way of life.  Stuff happens.
     But the "Father" posting reminded me of a particular time in my life where I had the occasion to partially help raise 2 Step-children into their adult years, and as life would have it, they found the loves of their lives and they went their merry ways themselves, raising children, having grandchildren, nieces and nephews etc.
     Recently, one of the most pleasant surprises of my life was to be honored as a Step-father to 2 Children in a past marriage and helped their mother to raise into their young adult years in a church-going, responsible manner.
     They never forgot those times and it was a great photo-taking event at which I was to be joined in happiness by one and all. I love you one and all, Phillip Siemens and Kelsey Berg. Thank you!!