Happy Birthday America!!

I hope you all feel as fortunate as I do to live in this great nation. We are not a perfect nation, but we’re not going to find one of those – anywhere. I think as long as there are people living in the land, we’re going to be required some measure of compromise and understanding, some measure of giving in to move ahead, and some measure of considering others even though our first tendency is to think of ourselves. Because maybe you’ve noticed, we ain’t all alike.

I really needed a day like yesterday. A day to think about all the goodness and advantages and benefits that come just by living in the USA. A day that demonstrated Unity among the people after a couple of weeks of stress, disorder and disagreements. I was feeling so good about the day that I purposely painted my toenails RED to match our flag, just because I was feeling festive and proud. (It mortified my daughter when I posted this on facebook.)

We grilled burgers and had watermelon and took in some fireworks. (Actually, the kids drove to the big fireworks and the hubs and I just took in the neighborhood works.) It’s awesome when all your kids can drive.

For the past two years, we have hosted children from Uganda during the 4th.They did not come to our area this year and I miss them greatly. I feel like I have five additional children that live far, far away. If you ever need a shot in the arm on just how great we have it in this country, have a few children from Uganda come to stay. See their expressions when they come into your very average house, hear them ohhh and ahhh over the number of books that you have. See them wonder at the food choices you have.

I’ve been exercising my right to read freely these days as well. I just finished The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, that I absolutely ADORED, but I’m not posting on it until my book club meets at the end of the month. I’ve been slogging through Sense and Sensibility for Austen in August for a while now. It finally got interesting to me, like, two days ago, so I’m feeling better about it. I think I just should have chosen NOT another of the sister sagas since I read Pride and Prejudice last, and recently watched the 6 hour mini-series. These girls and their lives and issues were getting all muddled together for awhile. I’m also reading something on my Kindle about the September 11 attacks. And lastly, remember back at Mother’s Day when I told you my husband and I were reading aloud The Rosie Project together? Well, that hasn’t happened for a few weeks now. We are progressing so slowly that when we are reading now I often go, “Wait, who was that??”
We’ll, get through it eventually. We’re tired at 11 pm people!

What about you guys? Whatchu reading? And how did you celebrate the 4th?