Happy Independence Day!

   I had a great day and feel incredibly blessed. I hope yours was good too!

   I feel blessed to live in a nation like the United States of America. A country that has a lot of flaws and problems but still was founded out strong principles and one where we still can celebrate more freedom than much of the world. I am grateful.

   There have been a couple of reminders to me today of how we get to choose our perspective and our reaction to the circumstances in our life.

  - One reminder was seeing/hearing various negative reactions on the condition of our country and how they didn't feel like celebrating. There are times for mourning to be sure and times to take a stand but I also think it is helpful to us if we look for the good in the situation and be grateful for the very many ways that we are blessed in this country. Just my thoughts on that. :-)

   - The other one was personal to me. For many years we have had 4th of July parties. I love hosting and it was something we worked together at as a family. And then the kids started going to Teen Bible Camp which is over the 4th usually and then Ken left. This year it was just me rattling around in this big house (Jonathan moved into his own apartment in April). Mara, Thomas and Malcolm had left on Saturday to spend the summer in Wyoming, Aaron and Megan had gone to camp and Jonathan was working most of the day. My first reaction was that I didn't feel like hosting a party on my own. But then I decided to go ahead. I was feeling  a bit blue about this day but God turned it into an awesome one!

Since Jonathan had to work most of the day I checked if he had any time available and he had some in the morning so we met up at 8:30 and biked around the lake. I really enjoyed getting to visit and spend that time with him. Lake Bemidji is around 16 miles around and we did it in 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was a lovely start to the day.

Next up on the agenda was time with these lovely ladies. I taught Barb her piano lesson at 10:30 and then we had Bible study followed by lunch. We usually do it at my place but we usually all contribute to have lovely lunches. It was a great time and everybody came dressed appropriately for the day which was fun.

 I decorated my table for the day which is something I love to do. I used my lovely Paul Revere Cream Pitcher for putting some of my garden flowers in. That made me think about all the lovely ladies that got that set of dishes for me this winter. I am very blessed!

  This evening a group of over 50 came to hang out at my place. Only a few of them did I invite before yesterday afternoon. It was pretty impromptu but people brought things to share - we had a lovely meal and some lovely times of fellowship.

SuSan did the majority of the dishes which was a blessing!

My friend on the left recently published a book and we enjoyed visiting with her about that. If you are looking for a new read which is the interesting story of her troubled childhood where she didn't know who her Dad was to finding hope in God the Father, I would encourage you to check out her book.

It was a lovely evening to sit outside and visit. The mosquitoes don't seem to be as bad as they were for a while this Spring.

This little car usually gets a lot of love when we had lots of little ones over.

The men's area. We do visit together sometimes but often end up a little segregated. :-)

The kids enjoyed using different wheels on our driveway.

Matthias had his own private chip snacking place on the steps. 

  This has been a wonderful day - I am so Thankful to God for it! I hope if you might be struggling with feeling blue or lonely or an any sort of a funk that you will make the choice to be thankful for the good things that you do have and start counting the ways that God has blessed you. Reach out to others and seek to encourage them. I believe you will be blessed!