We had such a lovely Independence Day! Here is what we did. First we had our two big kids come home from college the night before to join in the festivities. We got to bed earlier than usual because we had to get up for a flag-raising ceremony at 7:30 AM at a homeschooling family’s gorgeous home out in the country.

As I walked into their beautiful backyard, I instantly recognized it as the home that hosted the Jill Bigelow fireside that I attended 2 years ago. The things Jill shared on having a gospel-centered home were life-changing for me. She said some things that got me started doing a Family “Power Hour” every morning where I get everyone up and we do our PoWeR actions (p for prayer, w for write in journal, and r for read the scriptures) together as a family.

So it felt good to be back in this lovely yard. The host family had invited my son’s speech and debate coach to speak, as well as my 17 year old son and his best friend.

The little kids had fun playing in the sandbox while the speakers spoke. They all basically spoke about doing things as an individual to bring about liberty instead of waiting for other people to do it.

Here is the wonderful view looking out into the neighbors’ yard. This visit made me want to move to the country even more!

After the speakers were done, the host family graciously served breakfast to everyone: French toast, sausages, fruit, and hash brown. They went all out! Because I am on a grain-free, starch-free diet, I had to abstain and just eat my rabbit food and visit with friends. I got to meet the hostess and that was gratifying, to find out that she is part of the commonwealth school in the county north of ours. She, my friend Katie, and I had fun “talking shop” about running a commonwealth school.

Then we were off to a baseball game for son #3. He got picked to be in traditional All-Star game for our city.

The game lasted 3 hours! Whew! His team won, 13 to 9. He got up to base once with a bunt and got to score a run! It was fun to have our college kids with us so we could talk about their education, their plans, and how to get our middle kids to take the hard classes that they took when they were in scholar phase.

Then we came home out of the heat, had lunch, and watched Episode 2 of John Adams, using our projector and a sheet hung on a wall. I had wanted to watch the whole movie and skip through the few objectionable parts. But I knew we didn’t have time for that. Episode 2 is about the Declaration of Independence, and it doesn’t have any of the bad parts, so it was perfect. One or two of the little kids stayed to watch the whole thing. We bought the episode from Google Play. Now I have it forever and can watch it next year. Then we went to my brother’s home an hour away for a barbecue and fireworks. I got to see my other brother before he moves off to India for diplomatic service. It was a fabulous day!