Happy 4th to All! This my favorite holiday and also the day my mother died, so I am going to set aside all things political along with any negative thoughts that try to take hold in my brain and enjoy the day. Time to reflect, think about my mom and live in the moment. One of the local churches has a pie sale on the 4th. Those church ladies make wonderful pies and I always get there too late to get a slice of pecan pie. This morning I got up early, walked down to the church and was one of the first in line. They only had half a pecan pie left, but I got my slice and, my oh my, was it ever good! After that, I walked over to the local pub and had one of their famous bloody marys. Wasnt much later and it was time to watch the parade. Hubby and I are now resting/relaxing. In a bit we are going to bbq some burgers. What a great day it's been! From last year's parade:

Happy 4th of July!! We normally don't do much but we have Azalea's brothers coming over so we decided to make it really fun for them. I bought a spinning teeter toter, we filled up the pool ( between kiddie and adult size ) got bubbles and even a handful of fireworks. And of course hot dogs and ice cream. Even though no fireworks display I want the kids to still have special memories of the 4th of July. Thank you to every person who has been a part of our freedom. Have a bessed day

Happy Fourth of July to you all, too! We're spending this holiday weekend by ourselves, as both our adult kids (whom we just spent 8 days with all together in Augusta, GA) are back in their respective Augusta and Dallas homes. Our best friends, who we usually spend holidays with, are off helping their daughter's family move out of state, so it's just us this year. It's been nice, though. Our weather here on our Northern New Mexico mountain seems to have leveled off for the time being. We had sunshine and just perfect weather this morning for eating a long, lazy breakfast (bagels & lox) out on our front portal. Beautiful, quiet and peaceful! DH will start making his delicious homemade strawberry ice cream in a few minutes. It's a longtime Fourth tradition for us. This evening we'll be grilling out Green Chile Cheeseburgers, along with guacamole & chips, while we sip Margaritas. And enjoying some of that ice cream. Tomorrow morning, after another breakfast out on our portal, we'll head off to our village's annual parade, which is always festive and fun. I've already got my steak cut up and marinating for tomorrow evening's Armenian Shish Kebobs. Why it's called "Armenian" is beyond me, but I found the recipe many years ago somewhere, and they're incredibly delicious. Also, a longtime tradition for us. That, along with my Wild Rice Pilaf, some grilled broccolini, and then DH's ice cream for desert. Hopefully, we'll be able to watch the fireworks from our front portal tomorrow night. They'll be setting some off down in the town below us. I'm off now to make up the batter for our Salishan (Resort on the Oregon coast) pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast. Another tradition - LOL! Remember . . . Land of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave . . . Happy Fourth of July!!!

@Sueb20 what books are you reading? Any good? I just had a week at the beach and came home Saturday morning. D17 was able to come for a few days then went home with Dh midweek to work, and Dh had an unavoidable/unexpected business meeting in Atlanta. My sons both had to work so it ended up being a vacation mostly for myself! It was actually quite nice. The weather was absolutely perfect. Nothing exciting planned today. Another beautiful day. I was up early and took one of my dogs for a long walk. Dh is smoking a pork butt so we will have pulled pork, corn on cob and potato salad for dinner, We can walk to the end of our block to see the city fireworks tonight out over the bay. D23 flew from her home in San Diego to a wedding outside of Denver over the weekend. No line at security in SD and no flight issues on the way to Denver. They fly back to SD tonight so fingers crossed they have no problems getting home.