Our Quiet 4th of July

I knew our numbers would be small this year, so I tried really hard to gear down the amount of food I planned. I was only successful on the level of quantity per dish. I guess I just like a lot of choices, or maybe the traditional stuff just had to be there, I don't know. I didn't get any corn, so we missed corn on the cob and watermelon too. We planned hamburgers and hotdogs, baked beans (courtesy Taya), coleslaw, potato salad, a few chips with homemade Rocky Road and Toffee ice cream with of course a Chocolate Cake for dessert. I was really proud of myself for not making huge amounts of everything. I did leave out some of the variety that we just didn't need. By the time I made two batches of ice cream (which Papa did the freezing for), the potato salad, the coleslaw, and the cake and frosting I was ready to hand the burgers and the hotdogs over to Grumpy. Papa went to Bob and Sydney's for some fine cuisine and had a great time there. We just had Taya and Kevin's “mini” family and Jamie and Summer sans their kids. It was nice to talk and visit. Everyone had a good day and I know how much we appreciate living in this land.

I am on volume 8 of a 9 volume series called “Prelude to Glory” that chronicles (in novel format) the birth of our nation and the years following. It is hard to imagine the sacrifice so many men and women made to secure our freedom to choose. In this series as I read I realize as never before that a central government that is too powerful takes away the rights of individual states to govern themselves. That central government that is too large takes away the rights of us as individuals. I need to write to my representatives and make my opinion known. I am only one, but if I don't at least do that, I have done nothing. I sometimes wonder if what is being called apathy is simply that so many of us don't know what to do to make a difference.

Okay, enough serious stuff, back to the food and family. Our burgers and salads are below. I will post the ingredients for the salads on Nana's blog.




Here's Papa freezing the ice cream and filling up our chocolate dispenser for all of us chocoholics. You can see the new faucet Papa had Bobby get for the sink. Bobby came over and installed it last weekend and it is wonderful. Thanks Bobby for the help with that. The old faucet had definitely given it's due.




I love Rocky Road. It is my all time favorite. I hope everyone had a good celebration and remembered to thank God for this land and what we enjoy here. I hope we will do all we can to preserve it for the unique nation that it is. I do love America.