Happy 4th!

Are you drooling yet?

For Independence Day, we celebrated by hanging out with the Blackley, Wheeler, and Forbush familes for sixteen hours straight yesterday. Twenty-five people - 15+ of them were children. And I chose to bring the dessert jam-packed with sugar. Brilliant.

I know, we're crazy, right?

I was in charge of dessert and I couldn't decide what to make. The patriotic side of me wanted to make something red, white, and blue, but the chubby little girl side of me really wanted chocolate. The latter side is really convincing. And scary when unsatisfied.

So I made s'mores pie. Besides, what is more American than eating sinful food that has no nutritional value whatsoever?

The best part was having four little girls in the kitchen willing to help me do whatever it took to bake this pie. I remember being that age and following my Papa around the kitchen while he baked chocolate chip cookies - begging to stir and to possibly eat the raw cookie dough.

Then we watched fireworks from our church grass area. This is the first time in my entire life that the weather has required me to wear a coat on the Fourth of July.

I sat there, freezing, and thinking of how grateful I am to live in such a country. I can do things like get an education, write in a blog, and wear booty shorts (kidding) if I so desire - all because of men and women who have served and died for this country. That is significantly more than women can say that live in some countries.

I couldn't think of a good ending to this post, so I'm leaving you with this:

I will have a library in my future home someday with dark wood and Latin writings on the walls. Who needs a living room when you can have your own library?

P.S. - you have two more days to get a lovely good look at my blog before it changes drastically :-)