I don’t really know just how I’m supposed to “celebrate” certain holidays. July 4 is one of them. I no longer care to deal with the crowds to see fireworks displays. We watched the Macy’s celebration on TV but after a while, we fast-forwarded to the end. It was just so much overload to the senses. I cherish our freedom and pray for our men and women who are on the front lines, both in military and in police and fire work. Sometimes we have friends over and grill out but we have no close friends over here.
So this time around, we worked around the house. It was a year ago this past weekend that we moved from a rental house (about 2-1/2 times larger) to this house. Hard to believe we’ve been here a year. We never dreamed we’d (1) stay in California this long and (2) we’d be able to buy a house. The house required new carpet, hours upon hours of yard work (an ongoing process besides just the maintenance), and a complete paint job inside. (Outside could use a coat, but that will have to wait.)
Saturday we were putting the two guest bedrooms back in order after friends had been here a week. Not that they put the rooms in disorder … we just never changed the linens and put away the trundle bed. While doing the later, we decided to completely rearrange that room to make it more usable. Because we had to move things on the walls, and patch holes, I started painting…
Things I never got around to painting before moving in. The master bathroom cabinets. Door and trim to the kitchen pantry. Doors to laundry room. It does look much better and we feel extremely blessed by God to even have a home.
Topped the day off with a dip in the pool and some bar-b-qued ribs and hot dogs (for the Mrs.). Drove over to Long Beach after worship with our church and enjoyed lunch with friends and playing with Steve for their Sunday night celebration. Somehow it was not publicized, so very few people showed up, but I always enjoy playing guitars with Steve and dinner with Steve and Laura that night topped off a pretty good weekend.
Are you still conscious?
Greg England
Sounds like a good day. We drove home from Lipscomb on July 4th, praying most of the way for wisdom about some decisions we need to make and for our Marines in battle in Afghanistan. Must have offered 20 prayers before we got home.
The fireworks at Lipscomb were very well done. For Sunday the 5th, we had a single worship service followed by dinner on the grounds, three concerts, and lots of games for kids. It went on for hours and hours and the whole community enjoyed it.
We did the Sand Mountain, Alabama family reunion, more food than a stadium full of people could eat, fourth of July celebration. It’s great to be in places where life still moves at a slower, more livable pace. I’m at home in North Alabama for a couple of weeks of manual labor on the old farm and to hook up with old, old friends. Hope we get to see you all, maybe in Florida, before the April/May Pepperdine shuffle.
Peace.
my antispam word is “whoa” WHOA I am so sorry we missed you. We were at Mom’s busy cleaning her house and re-organizing for her. The time just slipped away from us. Would have loved to have seen the two of you. Glad to hear you had a great weekend and lots was accomplished…that is always a great feeling.
glad ya had a good weekend,
we got to see the fireworks go off Friday , and saturday. Friday nite, we were going in for the nite , we saw fireworks going off, so we sat on the tailgate and watched the free show, come to find out the fireworks, were from , 2 county’s away ,
and then Saturday nite we watched some more on TV.
have a nice week!
oh my spam word is ( blocked) I don’t like that word
Yes, I’m still conscience….and I agree with you and am actually pleased to hear someone else say they aren’t sure what to do with the 4th of July. We did enjoy a nice evening with some friends, had BBQ burgers, hot dogs and all the trimmings. Even though it rained most of the day Saturday it was still warm that evening. I had a heat stroke a few years ago, so I’m very careful not to stay out in the sun too long. We arrived at our friends house around 4:45pm and left around 8pm. We didn’t stay for the fireworks because I was just too warm. Larry was ready to leave as well. We haven’t purchased fireworks in many years and we don’t like crowds either so we usually stay home. That’s what makes us happy so we do it. No one has ever said anything to us about not going to the places where the fireworks shows are, it’s just that sometimes we felt like oddballs. (little insecurities)
I thought John Dobbs had a good post for the Fourth…the comments left there were most interesting. You may want to check it out.
Sounds like you have put a lot of sweat and love into your home and I agree, we are fortunate to have homes.
I have to share something funny and a wee bit embarrassing. When I first came across your blog several months ago, I couldn’t figure out what
There soitenly are!
‘Soitenly’ was. I even Googled it…still no help. Then one day it just “clicked” when I was looking at the pic of the Stooges. And now you know “the rest of the story” there are really 4 stooges.
Greg -
I think you’re right. July 4th has always been a different, and sometimes difficult, sort of holiday for me, too. And Tom & me. I’ve had some very unusual, but memorable, July 4ths over the years. (You will recall my July 4, 1995 with my dad I wrote about. I sent it in to the writing contest last summer and won 1st place with it. My best of the special “Wind Vane” stories!)
Now that you’ve brought this subject up in the way you have, it makes me wish I felt well enough to write a blog post about some of my July 4ths. Which brings me to ours this weekend.
I’ve been feeling so horrible since last Wednesday night, what plans we had went down the tubes. We had planned to go over to the Mississippi gulf coast to have an afternoon fried chicken lunch with all the fixin’s with several friends of ours and then go down to the seawall at the beach to watch fireworks all up and down the coast.
Instead, Tom had to go into work for most of the day and I stayed in bed until 1 p.m. trying to get relief from the pain. I felt better for just a little while and when Tom came home, he brought Popeye’s Fried Chicken, coleslaw and biscuits, so we had fried chicken after all – just in front of our TV (where it was cool!). Then we watched a really enjoyable new movie on DVD, so all in all, it wasn’t so bad.
celebrating 4th of July in uganda is quite the experience . . . complete with our british friends “commiserating with us in our sadness that we have left the ‘mother country’” HA HA!!!!! We played baseball in which geoff slipped and sprained his wrist (another “over 40″ antic of the body) and then BBQ and American dances–fun and crazy. If anyone is having a flat time trying to celebrate our independence day, I suggest the experience of celebrating it in a foreign country . . . gives a whole new dimension to appreciating your heritage!!!!!!
We were laid back as well….I played tennis that morning, played in the pool, grilled some hamburgers, played in the pool again with the grandkids this time then went to the lake for the fireworks….oh and I watched some tennis too. Wimbledon is part of my 4th of July tradition.
This was the first 4th in over five years that our son was home with us from the Army. He was set on seeing the Macy’s fireworks. We went to a friend’s house for a bbq, and he and his friend and sister left to see the fireworks and we hung out, pleasantly relaxing and enjoying an absolutely beautiful day and evening.
I think the main attitude should be gratitude – for the pledge and deployment of fortunes, lives and honor, that gives us the opportunity to sit back occasionally and enjoy this liberty.
Because of the area I grew up in and the emphasis placed on July 4th, I have always felt little bits of excitement when the holiday approaches. I’ve mentioned before how my hometown celebrates the 4th! Parade, all-day picnic, beauty contest (I was Miss Congeniality one year, if I should say so myself!), live music, political speeches, a raffle for a vehicle (used to be a Cadillac, now it’s a pickup) and, last of all, a big fireworks display. After I moved away, they started doing t-shirts, too! The hearts of the people are very patriotic, and this holiday celebration is a tradition that is as big or bigger than Christmas!
We enjoyed a cookout this year with family and ate too much. I’m with Janice on the hot dogs, by the way. Nothing tastes as good as a hot dog off the grill (preferably burned around the edges!). The only fireworks I saw were a few some in the neighborhood set off. But, hey, it was still July 4th!