Today I am grateful for a mostly restful weekend. I cooked like a fiend on Saturday and slept just awful last night, but overall I feel like my sleep debt is a good bit lower than it was on Friday.

Today I am grateful for feeding my family for another holiday. I have making my own BBQ sauce down to an art form. I made real whipped cream with honey and vanilla extract – which was met with smiles, especially as I let the girls lick the beaters. Neither cost a lot of money, only a little more effort than I might otherwise put into it.

Today I am grateful for going out to see the local fireworks display. The girls really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. Its become a lovely family tradition. I am also grateful to have taken a few minutes to sit, along with Gamer Dude, in the back TV room with Mr Grumpy to watch the end of the Boston Pop’s Fireworks Display on the television. Absolutely breathtaking!!

But, today, most of all, I am grateful for my freedom. I may hide in the proverbial broom closet, but I am free to claim my own faith. I may not be able to always speak my mind in my own home, but I can say what I think, and feel, and believe and not worry about being punished or imprisoned for them. Not everyone in the world can say that. I am grateful to all of those who ever fought, or still fight; who laid down their lives, or who are/were willing to; to those who serve and guard and protect so that the only explosions I had to worry about seeing overhead evoked awe with their beauty, rather than terror over their destruction.

Blessed be

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:blog your blessings sunday, gratitude, Independence Day, july 4th

Today I am grateful for all the work I did, preparing side salads and par-cooking and marinating various meats so that meal time was quick and easy all weekend long.  It allowed us a nice variety of foods and little time spent cooking, which led to happy tummies and more time to spend with a visiting friend.

Today I am grateful for my friend “E”, who’s visits always lift my spirits and make me smile.  Work keeps her very busy and she is not close (about 4 hours away), but we are planning to go down and visit her in the Fall (and visit the MD Renn Faire)  and she is planning on coming back up in advance of Xmas/Yule to share the holidays and once again bake too many cookies.

Today I am grateful for a weekend full of bright blue skies and white puffy clouds.  I am grateful for an uncrowded community pool that we were able to spend time in Friday, Saturday, and today.  We floated, and swam, and sat reading in the sun.  We even had a picnic lunch there on the 4th!!

Today I am grateful for the local fireworks display and for convenient seating on the lawn of a local eating establishment right next to where everything was being set off.  I am grateful to running into acquaintances from the kids’ Taekwondo class which made their evening just a little bit more special as the four kids all sat enthralled on my old woolen cloak as the sky was lit up overhead.

I am almost grateful that the weekend is over, as I am tired from too much sun and too much fun.  But it was one of the best holiday weekends that we’ve had in a long time and I think it was good for all of our souls.

The Fourth of July is a day to be with family and friends.  It is a day to eat too much and get sunburned.  It is a day to light sparklers and lick Popsicles, but it is also a day to remember the origins of our nation, the birth of our country.  And while it, like any other country, has its flaws and failings, today I am also grateful to live in a land where I am free, and for all of those who have given their lives, who have made sacrifices in body, mind, and spirit, to allow it to be so.  I am also grateful to those fine men and women who are willing every day to make that sacrifice themselves that it may continue to be thus.

Blessings to you

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:Fourth of July, Independence Day