How Was Your Fourth of July?

All while I was growing up fireworks were illegal in Omaha, Nebraska. People had to buy them in Missouri. They still lit them off, but it was low key. If it got out of hand neighbor's called, cops came, and that was it for them.

Since Mica was a baby, so 13 years ago they became legal.

People go crazy with them! They start in June. The amount they get is about $1,000 worth. The most we've paid is $200.

Our mayor doesn't want to put a stop to fireworks. She wants to lessen the time they can be fired off.

You have 2 groups of people: Those that think the mayor is no fun, and those that think she should ban them entirely.

Then there's me, typically the one that can see both sides. I pretty much stand with the mayor on this. 

Against: Many pets hate them, some people in combat have trouble with them, some people on the spectrum can't deal with them. At least if they were certain days people would know, and could wear sound headphones. They still would have the big shows, where you could see them. They are getting pretty out of hand for individual families. I really hate the liter, and the fact that people literally blow up their money.

For: It's not my money they are blowing up. Many firework stands around here are non profits that benefit from the funds. By having them legal I can literally see them all over my property without going anywhere. We do have to clean up because debris goes into our yard, but it's not all the time. I can sleep through anything, so the big booms once a year doesn't bother me.

I'd be a horrible politician because I usually do see both sides to everything. Either that, or I'd be a good one because I can see both sides to most everything. People would refer to me as a flip flopper probably. Honestly I don't flip flop from one stance to the other. I just rest in the middle usually always, trying to bring the other side to the side against it. That way they can see more than one view. Right, or wrong that's what I do.

Are you for or against mass people in cities lighting off fireworks?

We didn't buy any at all this year. Why? Because our neighbor's had enough for us to enjoy.

Special Foodies:

I did make a special breakfast: Coffee Cake for the main dish. Other things with it. We only have Coffee Cake once or twice a year.

Travis did grill a special meal: Steak, corn on the cob, sweet peppers, and cabbage.

I did make a special drink: 3 squeezed lemons or limes, 3 lemon or lime La Croix, drops of liquid lemon stevia or powdered stevia, 1 cup of ice, and water. It tastes wonderful! The boys love it!

I made Jell-O filled Strawberries: 2 containers of strawberries, or 1 big one. We grew our own strawberries, but I bought some. The ones we grew are really small. The bigger you can get, the more room to pour the Jell-O. Core the strawberries out with a small knife, be careful not to cut a hole in them, put them on ice cube trays, or you can use an empty egg carton for the strawberries to be upright.

Cut the strawberries, and have them cored before you begin with the Jell-O.

Cook 1/2 cup water - you could replace this with vodka but I can't drink, 1 package of blue Jell-O and 2 packages of plain gelatin - whisk while heating up. Pour the Jell-O mixture into the strawberries.

They set up really fast because of the extra plain gelatin.

You could replace the blue Jell-O with any flavor of Jell-O, for any occasion.

Put the leftover strawberry centers in the freezer for a smoothie.

They were cute, and Mica enjoyed helping me make them. Isaak asked, "Where's the white?" I responded, "In the seeds." The seeds are actually a yellow color. I suppose you could top them with whipped cream to get the red, white and blue. Then you can't see the blue in the photo.

If you celebrated Fourth of July, did you make anything special?

Fourth of July

I had Travis waist our money on Sunday. I consider buying fireworks a waist of money. Really you're just blowing up what you've spent.

The boys enjoy them. Maybe the fact that they enjoy them makes buying them worth it.

Our neighbor's light off a wonderful display. Part of me just thinks, Why not just watch their fireworks? 

Mica's in a phase where he's trying to compare what we have to what others have. I know this is only going to get worse. I can't wait. NOT! Mica, "Oh it looks like we have to buy more fireworks next year. Our neighbors have more than we do." Me, "Nope!"

I spent time writing up things for the boys to do this week. The boys were all grumpy that I was doing that. Mica, "My cousins don't have things they have to do." Isaak, "I hate reading, and you know that." I had a talk with them about being happy that their mom cares enough to keep their brains going during the summer, how they need to be thankful, and that giving them things to do prevents them from being bored.

Isaak's in a stage where he wants everyone to watch him. Isaak to the neighbors, "Hey guys look over here! My Dad's going to light off another firecracker." Travis and I, "Isaak leave them alone!" Isaak to the neighbors, "Hey guys look over here! Mica caught a parachute, and he's going to give it to me!" Travis and I, "Isaak leave them alone!" Isaak to the neighbors, "Hey guys look over here! We're going to make s'mores. I'm using the stick that I found. See it..."

Mica caught a parachute, and was nice enough to hand it off to Isaak.

This is Isaak back in 2011. It's crazy how much they change. Apparently he's always been the one that loved getting the parachutes.

We did the American thing and had hotdogs. It cracked me up because Travis got them at Natural Grocers, and got gluten free buns on accident. If it were me that got those buns he would have harped on me. I'm glad it was him. ;)

The boy's watched Independence Day. Travis had to bring up an old TV that had a VHS player. It was the first movie we went to see as a couple. We wanted to take the boys to see the new one, but it has horrible ratings.

What did you do on the 4th? If you're not an American reader, what did you do this weekend?

WW: Fourth {LINKY}

Homemade Doughnuts

The book Mica was reading. His sock was his bookmark.

I made Mica's hair all funky. He did not go out of the house like that. Ha Ha Hey it was red, white and blue. Isaak came out of his room with a homemade comb. We were all laughing.

The boys haven't been swimming for awhile, so we surprised them by taking them to a pool.

A yummy, but unsuccessful red (strawberries), white (ice cream) and blue (blueberries and mulberries) drink. It was supposed to be layered. I even put it in the freezer between pouring in each color. Sadly it just mixed all together. It tasted good though.

Travis made a fire the old school way, so we could have smores. :)

I Hope Everyone Had a Safe Fourth of July!

We didn't get a lot of firecrackers.

Does anyone else feel like when they buy firecrackers they are just blowing up their money? 

I don't know if you can see it, but there is evidence of a S'more face here.

Daddy questioned getting sparklers. He thinks they are super dangerous. They are, but the kids had fun with them. Isaak moved around so much, that I couldn't get photos of him with a sparkler.

Other firecrackers photos. I'm horrible with nighttime shots, or maybe I should say my camera is horrible with them.

We got a few firecrackers, meaning $50 worth. As far as firecrackers go, that's not a lot. Our neighbors buy a lot, so we mainly just watch theirs. Our boys kept asking to light off more. They are not buying them though. Firecrackers just became legal here not too long ago. Now there are stands at many grocery store parking lots it seems. 

Daddy made a fire, I roasted marshmallows for the boys to make S'mores.

I bought the typical food for the Fourth of July, but since we're getting a new kitchen floor, and it can't be walked on I didn't make much of it. In fact we went out for breakfast this morning to avoid walking on the floor.

Now I feel like one of those old people that puts plastic on their furniture to prevent it from getting dirty; only I want to do this to the floor. By the way I won't. I get the dropsies some days. It just feels like on those days I'm destined to spill things on our floor. *Note to self: Lose the dropsies!

What did you eat on the fourth?

We had brats, corn, and a ton of veggies that were left overs. What I didn't dive into was the watermelon I bought. I thought about making some sort of dessert with red and blue berries, but S'mores were enough.

Happy Fourth of July!!! + a Cranberry Scone Recipe

I made a special breakfast. It was challenging because our kitchen is totally torn apart. I'll show what I'm talking about at the end of this post.

Here's our breakfast:

Here's the original recipe for the scones I found. I totally revamped the recipe, so here's what I made:

First heat the oven to 420 degrees. Add the first 1/2 of the ingredients in a large bowl, and mix well. I sometimes add a Tablespoon of Chia Seeds, which are not mentioned in the recipe. Add the wet ingredients in a small bowl, and mix well. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Pour it out onto a baking stone, or a sprayed pan (it will be sticky). Form it in a flat circle. Cut it into 4 to 6 pieces. It does tend to puff up a bit. The pieces you cut may need to be cut again in 1/2 once it's baked. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean.

*Note you can replace the dried cranberries with other dried fruit to give it a different flavor. Seeds, almond slivers, or chopped walnuts can be added. I've used different extracts in this recipe. They've all tasted good.

Cranberry Scones by AlissaSpiehs-Apel on Scribd

The boys asked for seconds. Daddy who doesn't like when I experiment liked it to.

Then Mica got a chance to Skype. I've never Skyped before. One of his best friends moved 2 hours away. Luckily I'm friends with his mom on Facebook, so we made arrangements for them to Skype. It was funny because they kept getting toys from their rooms to show each other.

Hopefully we can get our new floor partly put down today. We tore up one floor before our vacation and two floors after that. We went through 90s, 70s and got down to scraping up paper/glue. One more reason to pause our project is that we had to send in samples to be tested for asbestos. It's something we didn't think of. Anyhow it does have 2% in it. We just proceeded to scrape the glue tape up and left the 50s floor that has the asbestos in it. Scraping has taken FOREVER, and it's hard work. Then there was some type of cement on the sides. Daddy had to get that up to. This project has turned out more than we expected. I guess every home project is like that.

Needless to say I'm so happy this project is moving. My allergies have been so bad, and I imagine that scraping glue/paper up hasn't helped them!

Now we finally have two chalk lines down and the big square tiles are upstairs. I think the boys think this is our new floor. LOL Isaak said, "Mom I liked our floor better before." They think it's pretty interesting that our table is in the living room.

    
Tonight it's firework time. We bought $50 worth, which isn't a lot, but it's some. Our neighbors in the back always have a big show anyhow.

What are you doing today? Anything special?