A Family Guide to Washington DC!

I'm currently working on this blog! I will be adding more info (a LOT more), so please check back periodically. Thanks!

My family has been fortunate to have lived in our nation's capitol twice now, so we have about 5 years of time there to draw from when people ask us for recommendations on things to do. I wanted to write a blog for anyone who may be visiting with family, because DC is so  child and family friendly!!! If you have questions, please drop them in the comments, and I will reply as soon as I possibly can. I also am available for customized itineraries as well. I hope this info is helpful to anyone visiting DC!

Public Transportation

The use of public transportation, including taxis, in Washington is recommended as free parking is limited and posted times are enforced. Metrorail, Washington's subway system, and Metrobus link the city with nearby communities in Maryland and Virginia. The Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations, on Metrorail's Blue, Orange and Silver lines, are located near the Mall. Every subway station is equipped with an elevator and most with escalators.

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS

The Smithsonian Institution is collectively the world's largest museum. There are 21 museums, plus the National Zoo, 21 libraries, 14 education and research centers, and historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in Washington DC. I won't be listing them all, as this is a guide on the best places to visit as a family.

The National Air & Space Museum

https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/museum-dc

Hours: 10:00 am to 5:30 pm

Cost: free  

Open every day except December 25th. 

Free timed entry passes are currently required for all visitors, regardless of age, and one person is allowed to reserve up to 6 passes

ADDRESS

6th St & Independence Ave SW, 

Washington DC 20560

202-633-2214

All visitors need to enter through the entrance on Independence Ave.

Highlights: lectures and hands-on family days, discovery stations, drop-in story time held Thursdays at 11am, drop in science demonstrations, and amazing shows at the planetarium

Here are a few photos I have taken on our trips to the Air & Space Museum...

 

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/

Hours: 10am-5:30

Cost: free

Open every day except December 25th

No tickets are required for entry

Address:

The museum entrance is located on Madison Dr. NW between 9th St. NW and 12 St. NW

Highlights:  coral reef tank talk, the butterfly pavillion, playdates on Tuesdays from 10:30-12, covering a wide range of topics geared for kids of all ages

Here are a few of my photos that I took on one of our many trips here.

National Museum of American History

https://americanhistory.si.edu/visit

Hours: 10:00 am to 5:30 pm

Cost: free  

Open every day except December 25th

No tickets are required for entry

ADDRESS/LOCATION

The museum is located on the National Mall at Constitution Avenue, N.W., between 12th and 14th Streets, Washington, D.C.

Museum entrances are located on Constitution Avenue on the first floor and Madison Drive (National Mall) on the second floor. There may be a short wait to enter the building.

Highlights for Kids - 

Wegman's Wonderplace - Wegmans Wonderplace is the first exhibition on the National Mall designed for children 0 to 6, providing the youngest historians with age-appropriate activities and experiences

Really Big Money - Really BIG Money is an exciting new money gallery for children. It features some of the world’s largest and most surprising monetary objects

Spark Lab - Draper Spark!Lab is where museum visitors become inventors

Highlight for Families - 

Change Your Game - This family-friendly, interactive exhibition explores the intersection of invention, sports, and technology

 

Do Not Miss -

The Star Spangled Banner - The flag that Inspired the National Anthem - This immersive gallery features the 200-year-old, 30-by-34-foot flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write his famous lyrics

America on the Move - Includes a section of the historic Route 66, includes amazing automobiles and how the body shapes & design has changed over the years. Kids enjoy getting to walk through a train car! This major exhibition examines how transportation—from 1876 to 1999—has shaped our American identity

Entertainment Nation - Through the National Museum of American History’s extraordinary collection of theater, music, sports, movie and television objects, the exhibition Entertainment Nation features a powerful, ever-changing selection of objects and interactive experiences

Food - Transforming the American Table -From the impact of new technologies, to the influence of social and cultural changes, the exhibition explores the transformation of food and drink in post-WWII America

Lighting a Revolution - Electricity Hall

The American Presidency - 

More than 900 objects, including national treasures from the Smithsonian’s vast presidential collections, bring to life the role of the presidency in American culture

The First Ladies - The inaugural ball gowns of the First Ladies can't be missed. This exhibit explores the important position of first lady and the ways that different women have shaped the role to make their own contributions to the presidential administrations and the nation

The Price of Freedom - American's at War -Surveys the history of America’s military from the French and Indian Wars to the present day, exploring ways in which wars have been defining episodes in American history (The artifacts here are incredible & include uniforms worn by our founding fathers, including George Washington, furniture where important treaties were signed, & even includes a taxidermied horse of one of the presidents.)

These are pictures I have taken on various visits to the museum.

The following photos are not taken by me. They are on the museum's website, and all credit goes to them. These are photos of exhibits that are for kiddos of all ages, and they offer interactive play and education.

Wegman's Wonderplace

Wonderplace is open Wednesday–Sunday from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; closed Monday–Tuesday.

Click HERE to check the events calendar when planning your visit.

This is geared toward infants to pre-school age.

Spark Lab

Ages 6-12

Really Big Money

Children's Exhibit

Really BIG Money is an exciting new money gallery for children. It features some of the world’s largest and most surprising monetary objects. Big in size, quantity, or denomination, each piece can help children learn about the world around them, including communities and cultures, the natural environment, political leaders, and the process of exchange. Highlights include the long tail feathers of a Resplendent Quetzal bird, a 31-pound Swedish copper plate, and a coin head made from 165 Roman coins.

Aligned to elementary social studies learning standards, Really BIG Money teaches children about world cultures and supports the development of financial literacy. It also promotes creative thinking through a blend of object investigations and interactive experiences throughout the gallery. Visitors can measure themselves next to a five-foot seven-inch currency blade and see their own faces on money through customized mirrors. Play the Match the Money game online by clicking HERE now or while you are visiting the gallery! Match all of the objects and unlock a magical animation showing a flying quetzal bird traveling the world through banknotes!

Yikes... 3 Months

This past fall has been a really strange one, for all of us I think. I have been trying to handle my blood disorder, but that has been difficult to manage. Eli has been doing so well at his job, but his hours are long, and we don't see much of him here lately. Chase is doing ok. He's trudging through his Jr. year, and Norman's work has been going pretty well. He has had to make a couple more trips out to DC for quarterly meetings, but that is a small price to pay for getting to live in Oklahoma and be near family. 

We are having our family Christmas get-together on Saturday, so seeing our extended family will be really nice. I haven't seen my cousin or any of his family since Thanksgiving last year, so that will be good.

I haven't updated lately, because it seems like life has just been so mundane, and there really isn't anything noteworthy to write about. Politically, our country is a mess, and I'm not sure anyone can come in and change enough up to actually prevent the disaster we are heading for, and after Trump's 2 failed pew-pew attempts, I worry about the man surviving inauguration day. I'm definitely glad to not be living in the DMV for this change of administration. Between that and the UFO/UAV/Drone situation, God only knows if anyone of us will make it to 2025 intact. Lol Only time will tell. I'm off for now... hopefully I will write again sooner than 3 months from now, and maybe I'll actually have something to write about.💙💜 xo

The One Where My World Changes

It's funny how we can make plans for our life, and all it takes is a few minutes to unravel it all. I have been working on some things to kind of shift my focus away from the Blogger platform, but I think I will stay here, at least for now. 

Last year I was diagnosed with a blood disorder... a blood cancer called Polycythemia-Vera. I had my 1st phlebotemy (blood dump) last May. Since my body makes way too many red blood cells, one of the only ways it can be treated it is by going in every few weeks and having a liter of blood taken out. I suppose I was trying the method of "ignore it and it will go away," because after that appt I just never scheduled a follow up. To be fair, last June Norman and I both had spinal cord stimulator implants, and that device gave me a lot of relief in my legs. Fast forward to this May; however, I realized that I couldn't wait and needed to get an appointment. I was hurting pretty badly, and my stimulator was not giving me much relief anymore. My blood cell count ended up being really high (again), and the pain I had experienced previously was back and it had gotten progressively worse. I did a phlebotemy in May, and my follow-up was scheduled for mid-September. My doctor cautioned me that my hematocrit level had been way to high, and if I started hurting she wanted me to come in as soon as I needed to. Along with this, though, she warned me that at some point we may need to discuss treating this with medication. I really did not want to deal with a daily med, but I was in so much pain that 3 weeks ago I broke down and  went in to have another phlebotomy (which took my leg pain away in just a couple of hours). As much as I knew it was coming, I still struggled to wrap my head around the fact that I was sitting in front of my oncologist discussing chemotherapy. I'm not sure if I just detached a little bit, but I was sitting there, staring at her, looking as if I was paying attention, but my brain had checked out. Thank God for Norman being there, because he remembered everything and asked the questions I would have wanted to ask. 

I have only taken the medication for a few days now, and so far I have not experienced any bad side effects(whoops...spoke too soon). I started writing this over a week ago, (here I am again...the 3rd try at getting this thing written), and I am struggling with a few things now that I didn't early on. I just pray these won't be long term side effects. I have had to take a slower approach to  starting this, because the first problem I encountered was the feeling of being completely and utterly sloshed. At first, I thought it was a completely hilarious side effect. I mean, a pleasant buzzy feeling with no hangover is not the worst way to feel considering this is the warning label on my medicine bottle...

So I stopped taking it for a couple of days to clear my head, (which also included me realizing that I was sick sick. Not med related sick.) So last Sunday I ended up in the ER with pneumonia. Fun. Supposedly this chemo won't make all my hair fall out, but it can thin your hair a whole lot. I'm trying to stay positive and look on the bright side, but it's pretty freaking difficult sometimes. I haven't told anyone outside of my my kids, my mom, my brother & sister-in-law, my best friend Misty, and then I think Norman has told his best friend. And that's it (except for me talking about it here). I guess we shall see how this turns out, huh? The very odd, very non humorous thing about all this was when I went to my 1st appt last year, I had been a bit taken aback when I realized that this was the office of my dad's oncologist. And then when I realized that my doctor had actually been my dad's doctor... that was a bit overwhelming. All I could think about was how this doctor wasn't able to help my dad...I just hope I have a better outcome.

So yeah... here I am trying to finish up this blog and I don't even know how. I woke up this morning starving, but food is not an option right now because I am so nauseous. I remember one of the appointments I went to with my dad, I remember him saying the worst part about his cancer was the nausea and inability to eat. I felt so badly for him to miss doing something that we all do without even thinking about it. But now I get it. 

Back in the summer I had been going to the snowcone stand every time I went anywhere, and I asked Eli and Norman to pick me up a couple for me when they were out.  Let me tell you that $5 snowcones can add up, so my precious husband bought me a whole snowcone maker for my birthday. But let me tell you that the irony of this is wild. What was purchased as a way to give me snowcones until I got tired of them, has turned into a necessity. I don't even want the syrup. But that ice...it's saving me. It helps me get water in my body that I can't stand to drink. And I eat a ton of it when nothing sounds right. 

I'm not sure why I'm writing about this. Maybe it's a way of helping me process everything. I don't know. Maybe because I'm not ready to disclose this experience to people I do know. Maybe because this is a way for me to come to terms with things without having to hear the, "I'm so sorry, what can I do for you?" messages. For whatever reason, some people need the constant prayers and attention, but here I am wishing I could just be invisible and move about my life with nobody noticing.

I suppose I will go ahead and post this... otherwise I'll let it sit here another 6 months requiring change after change. For anyone who still reads these, thank you for sticking around and not bolting. 

**I finished this last week, but I couldn't bring myself to actually post it. This week has been a crap week with crap feelings, crap nausea, and a crap outlook. But I'm going to post this, bc I'm alive and sometimes I suppose that has to be enough.

Thanks for sticking around.

Changes!

I have been struggling to decide what I wanted to do with this blog, because I have been pretty unmotivated to keep up with it as it is. But after a lot of thought, I have decided on the direction I want to go. Several years ago I started working on my Master's degree in psychology and marriage and family counseling. It was about that time that I received my diagnosis of POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). That started to really affect my life, and it wasn't too much longer before I was also diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos, and a probably/likely form of blood cancer called Polycythemia-Vera. Between learning how to navigate the challenges that these diagnoses created, I also was realizing that traditional therapy/counseling was not something I wanted to take on. For a huge part of my life I have been able to read people and as a consequence of that, I have been absorbing the feelings and emotions of others. I finally realized that this is too much of a drain on me physically, spiritually, and mentally. I'm sure everyone has at least some sort of understanding of what an empath is, as the term gets tossed around pretty liberally. But for the true empaths out there, you understand what it's like to be absorbing so many feelings and personalities. It is exhausting, and it takes a huge toll on your body. I have always prioritized my alone time, but for several years I have honestly loved being at home with my family, and I have made a conscious choice to keep being a homebody. 

But that decision didn't take away my desire to help others and do something meaningful in my life. So what I have decided to do, is develop courses, write articles, and offer remote sessions that focus on all things boundary related. I am just now starting on my first program/course, and I am really excited to have found a way for me to do something I love. To be able to help others without the enormous drain on me physically and mentally is just the perfect direction for me to go.

I will be sharing my progress as I go along, and although I will be creating a classroom type portal where all of my courses and other materials will be listed, I will be cross posting a lot of that stuff (early release!)in here, as well as continue blogging about my family. 

My oldest kiddo graduated last May, and he just started with a company this past Monday. So he is on his way to being a full fledged adult! And my baby is going to be a Jr. in highschool in August. So as our kids get older and do more things out on their own, and as Norman and I kind of do some slowing down, my personal blog posts will only be occasional. Of course I've been pretty bad at keeping this blog updated the past few years, so I suppose that part won't change much. 

For anyone reading this post who is interested in boundary setting, please follow my blog, as I will post some things here first, before I post them on my education platform. Please leave me comments with any boundary setting questions you have, and I will happily cover the reasons for boundary setting for your specific situations. Whether it is parent/child, sibling, friend, dating, marriage...I will be covering all types of relationships. I look forward to digging into this topic with you all! Have a wonderful weekend!

Coming Soon!

21 Days In...0 Progress

 I can't believe we have been in our home for 3 weeks now; today is actually 3 weeks since move-in day. What have we accomplished? Absolutely nothing. 😂 When I look at how much we have moved around and figure that this finally is our last move, I figure I will have plenty of time to get settled. Of all the things I planned to do as soon as we moved in and didn't, I am regretting that I waited too long to get ahold of someone to put up Christmas lights, because now it just seems like a waste of money since we would have to pull them down January 2nd. We haven't even gotten our Christmas tree up yet. I am pretty decided that whenever I get around to it, I will just put it up and call it early prep for next Christmas. 

We had a nice Thanksgiving with all of our Oklahoma and Texas family. Well, not all our TX family...just the Brinson side. We haven't seen Norman's side of the family for a while. Several years in fact, and I can't believe it's been as long as it has. 

We are enjoying our new home, to the extent that it's almost weird. The kids' bedrooms are smaller, but even despite that, they both have expressed many times how happy they are here. And even though there is no logical reason for why, I feel safer here. Maybe because this house is smaller, and we have a good feel for the entire space? It's not big enough for someone to be hiding upstairs or something. Regardless, I am so thankful to be in a one-storey house and to have eliminated the stairs and the risks associated with them for both myself and Chase. 

This week the boys will be getting new beds that will fit their space better, and we will get their desks assembled. I also have a standing locker plus standing dressing mirror with makeup and jewelry storage to get set up in my bedroom. Organization is the goal for us, and we have a lot to get put together and set up over the next week or two...or however long it stretches out for us to get things assembled lol. Have I mentioned how lazy relaxed we have been in getting settled? 😆 

Well, I suppose that's all for now. We have been spending this chilly Sunday in bed, snuggling with our kitty cats and getting caught up on our shows. We finished The Crown, at least we got caught up until they drop the next 6 episodes. And now we are getting caught up on For All Mankind. Next up is Bass Reeves; basically we are being bums today, and we are enjoying every bit of the lazy day. So we don't have a lot of news worthy info, but I'm attaching a quick video that has just a very few clips of our new home. The furniture is not ours; I took the recordings when we had gone the day of the inspection. Eventually I will post pictures when we get it settled with our things. I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Ciao bebes!

💗Finally home💗

Israel and Palestine Conflict

**For my regular readers, this is not my normal content. Feel free to skip this post, as it does not contain any family news. I am following the crisis between the Israelies and the Hamas/Palestinian people, and I want to organize some information in a place where it won't get lost. Thanks!!**

The events of October 7th, 2023, have thrown not only Israel and Palestine into the worst conflict since the Holocaust, it has shocked and horrified the entire world. Protests have been happening all over the globe, and there is a huge outcry for the people of Palestine. Cities have been filled with protests on both sides of the issue, and clashes have ramped up all over the world. 

It seems as if every publication or network has a slanted opinion, and they masterfully push their agenda through their reporting. Before I was married, I was a journalist, so I absolutely understand the necessity of unbiased reporting. What I will attempt to do in this post, is lay out some of the context that has been missing for a lot of people. I am not going to give my opinions...I will only be discussing the facts and then provide links to different media organizations who have reported on what I discuss, to provide a better, more complete stance. 

The fact is that I am a stranger to most people who will come across this blog. I have wanted to gather some resources and have a comprehensive list that I can come back to and keep updating over time. I had thought about a separate website, but this blog has kept track of everything my family and I have experienced for the last 15 years or so, and given the magnitude of this crisis and how it has touched my life, I want to have this record here. We all know how the internet works...you can have a deeply convicted belief about something and do such intensive combing through the web and gather sources to back your beliefs. Anyone can do this about any subject. Scholars do it to drive a point home, religions do the same with the Bible to justify their beliefs. I am a stranger to most of you, so you will either read this and listen with an open mind, or you will sort through these sources solely to try to catch me out on something to discredit me. I genuinely love intelligent discussions with people who hold different beliefs, and I feel that it is so important to have conversations with people who disagree with us...so that we can learn empathy and study our beliefs in light of new information. By doing this, we will be able to find out if we still believe the same things we once did, after we hear additional information. If we aren't checking ourselves and continuously looking to understand situations in light of additional information, then we will only be deceiving ourselves, thereby becoming an untrustworthy source.  It is true that there are three sides...his side, her side, and the truth, that lies somewhere in the midst of that. All I ask is that you respect this blog and understand that a lot of work and research was put into this. 

I will be continually adding to this, and if you have any particular questions, disagreements, opinions, I am happy to kindly and civilly discuss these things in the comments and search out more information. I will not reply to anyone who is mean, aggressive, or rude. I understand this is a very charged topic, but we must remain civil. 

****************************************

I may end up moving the order of things around, but for now, I am going to start where this truly began...at least for the world outside of the Middle East. People have come out saying that it wasn't true that Hamas went door to door...that they didn't search out women and children, and that the beheading of babies was a hoax.  The videos below are interviews with members of Hamas, with them discussing what their mission was on October 7th, and what they personally did. 

Accounts from 6 activists

Source - Times of India

Accounts from Hamas, who say their instructions on 10/7 were to kill, torture, rape, and behead Israelies.

More interrogations. This Hamas operative explained how his orders from Hamas differ from Muslim religious beliefs. This highlights the mindset of extremists. 

It's important to understand the mindset of the Hamas leadership, & hear from them what they expect from their own people. Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of Hamas

explains why Gaza needs the blood and sacrifice of the Palestinian people, specifically women and children.

Something that has been an enormous source for outrage, is the claim that the Israelies (IDF) attack, bomb, and/or kill indiscriminately. What people must understand is that Hamas imbeds its members within the civilian population of Palestine. Instead of trying to protect the Palestinian people, they store their weapons and make their staging grounds in civilian areas, such as schools, churches, hospitals, etc. The clip below is of a member explaining that they use ambulances to move around in the area, to set up ambushes, and to transport any materials they may need, for the sole reason that Israel will not fire on ambulances. They use the conscience of the IDF against them, taking advantage of the fact that Israel purposely will not fire on an ambulance out of a desire to not target civilians. This clearly goes to show how if the world didn't know that, and intelligence informed IDF that Hamas would be moving into place in an ambulance, and if Israel acted on that and struck the ambulance, all Hamas would scream out to the world that the Israelies are targeting the civilian medical population. Context is critical in understanding all the details. 

The next videos are focused on the extensive tunnel system underneath Gaza, and the purpose and importance of them. Two of these clips include interviews from sons of Hamas leaders and one is the son of a co-founder of Hamas. Source - Deep Journal Globe.

Another thing that is reported, but then discounted, then reported on and discounted again is the reports of Hamas storing weapons, contraband, uniforms, go bags, intelligence via laptops, communication equipment, and medical supplies (which the Palestinian people say they are out of, but Hamas actually has because it stole it from the civilian population). 

Another disturbing thing, is that schools are used to not only store weapons, but they use classrooms as a staging ground. I am only attaching 1 video dedicated to this, but I highly encourage you to research this for yourself.

Even when other nations provide materials to the Gaza Strip and West Bank to help ease the burdens on the Palestinian people, Hamas spits in the face of such kindness. In the clip below, Hamas brags it will use the gift of water pipelines provided by EU to build bombs for the sole purpose of attacking Israel. 

This is an intercepted call of Hamas, discussing the acquiring of fuel from the public.Keep in mind hospitals are out of power, & the blame is going to Israel, but Hamas is using the fuel to keep electricity & ventilation going deep in the tunnels below the hospital/Gaza.

There are I think three more points I would like to include below, because it is honestly imperative to not just Americans, but other countries as well. I am including this for context, because not only do we need to understand their history, we need to understand the ideology they hold tightly to. A big movement that we have seen, that has touched many people around the globe, are the Pro-Palistenian protests by the LGBTQ+ community. It only makes sense that this group would feel a kinship and solidarity with a group of people who are seemingly being attacked, persecuted, and killed. The issue that we have got to understand is that this particular group of people have extreme religious convictions that are in direct contradiction with the LGBTQ+ community. It is common knowledge that people who are a part of this community are not just outcasts to them...they have a deep hatred and an inability to agree to disagree. It is not an exaggeration when you hear people talk about Palestinian people being murdered by being thrown off tall buildings, an being dragged behind vehicles until they are dead and dismembered, simply for wanting to live authentically. In some of the interviews I watched, Palestinian people, when asked how they feel about having the support of the LGBTQ+ groups, actually laugh, call them infidels, and express that they don't want their support. There are some people who are happy to have the support, but the vast majority of people not only explain that they don't want any support from that group, but they call those individuals all kinds of names and exclaim how stupid they are. This is the religion who justifies honor killings of their own children. It is of no consequence to them to kill a stranger. The irony is that they believe so strongly in their faith, that if a person from the LGBTQ+ community visited Palestine, there is a very real possibility that they would be murdered because of that belief. What Americans get wrong is believing that there is a mutual respect and support for each other, because of the shared feelings of oppression. But you cannot ascribe those feelings of kinship to a people who do not see any similarity when they look at you. 

I also believe it is important for younger American citizens to have a glimpse of how Palestine reacted when we were attacked on 9/11. There are conspiracies galore about the cause of the attacks, but we need to take a real look at who mourned with us and who celebrated in that terrible loss of life. I was a senior at university when 9/11 happened, and I will not waste your time with information you don't care about, but 9/11 set the course of my life on a trajectory I wasn't prepared for, and everything has been shaped by those attacks ever since. We have to look at this with clear eyes, and know who our allies are and who they are not. The entire world watched Palestine celebrate the attacks. There was dancing in the streets, and the joy and jubilation they expressed toward the loss of life in the U.S. is still something those of us who lived through it will always remember. While Americans are gathering in protest for the Palestinian people they feel so much sorrow for, the Palestinian people look at us in absolute amazement that we are so dumb. Do some searching...they think Americans are fools, and they laugh at our ignorance. While we are raising their flag and our hearts are breaking for them, they have nothing but contempt for the American infidels and the members of the LGBTQ+ community, that they would kill without a single care or concern. That is not my impression...my opinion...it is based on the hours of footage and hours of written materials the Palestinian people have taped and written. These clips show a tiny bit of that belief.

Another part of this difficult topic, perhaps maybe even more controversial than the subject of how Palestinians view the LGBTQ+ community, is not just the ideology, but just how young they start teaching these beliefs to children. Coming from a culture where we shelter and protect our kids, it seems almost impossible that this is happening. But it is, and although it is so difficult to see, we need to understand that these beliefs are what they believe in completely. 

Most of the children we know, are not singing children's songs, with Mickey Mouse, that includes the subject of AK-47, death, and war. While the U.S. continues to struggle with differing beliefs regarding gun legislation, in the Middle East, children are attending summer camp to learn how to wage Jihad. This first clip is an interview by a mother who gives great insight on how they view this loss of life in relation to their faith.

The cartoon below is especially unnerving.

And I will wind up this first round of videos with the interview of a Palestinian peace activist: This is a pretty good overall summary of the Palestinian authority and Hamas conflict.  (Forbes)