Happy Independence Day!

No special stories to tell today . . . just wishes for a wonderful weekend with your family and friends. A weekend filled barbeques and bean bag games, corn on the cob and cold beverages, sparklers and celebrations.

We PROUDLY hang the American flag at our home. This particular photo was taken in 2004. The outside looks a little different today as landscaping has been added and the hanging on the front door has been replaced. But the flag is there, in honor of this amazing country in which we live.

Katie is beginning to understand, more and more, how blessed we are to be Americans. We remind her of the many freedoms we have in this land, that so many others do not have. We talk about the blessings we have in this country, and the blessings we have in our home. We talk about her dreams for her future - and so many of them, I know, are only possible because of the land where we live.

America.

Yes, Life is Good.

(This image comes from here . . .)

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Happy 4th of July, friends!