Joe has been sick for several days with some kind of nasty upper respiratory infection and Atticus also succumbed to illness for a day so our 4th of July activities were more low-key than usual.  The boys were invited to be part of the parade but since we had been battling illness and the temperature was over a hundred in the shade, we decided to opt out of going this year.

While Joe convalesced, the boys and I worked on a project that we’ve been meaning to tackle for a while now but haven’t been able to find enough time together.  One of our most fun, easiest, and cheapest projects to date: an Angry Birds felt board:

I first saw this idea a few months ago on a message board and I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to try it.  It’s been all over Pinterest for some time now and there are even some patterns and tutorials out there.  We just eyeballed it using our ever-growing collection of Angry Bird paraphernalia.

Later in the day, once we thought the heat was beat (newsflash: we were wrong!), we walked down to the 4th Fest carnival to try to salvage some sort of festive holiday spirit.

Freedom has been on my mind, for obvious reasons.  I am so grateful to have access to so many choices and opportunities for myself and my children.  Patriotism has never been much of an outward expression of pride for me, but more of a quiet gratitude and awareness of the abundance of my privileges.  I’ve done nothing at all to deserve to be this lucky and I came across a quote yesterday by Chicago writer Barnabas Piper that speaks to this idea.

“…Contrary to the insidious song and sentiment of the day, I am not “proud to be an American.” To be precise, I am not proud because I am an American. I am not proud because pride is for those things that we accomplish, those achievements for which we deserve credit. How did I end up an American? I was born one, and I would be a fool to be proud of something for which I can take no credit. My Americanism was granted to me and is a gift, not a status.

That does not make me unpatriotic. Patriotism ought not to be a prideful touting of our country’s greatness but rather a joyful exclamation of it. My parade going and grilled-meat eating are not hypocritical. They are expressions of thankfulness. I am thankful…”

The whole article can be found here.