Days 109-112: A Different Kind of Fourth of July

Friday morning, the kids and I started the holiday weekend with a trip to the blueberry patch. It was a different experience picking in our masks and being assigned a row for our family, but we had a great time:

 The blueberries were plentiful:

 Once we got into the row it was shadier and we could take our masks off since there was no one anywhere near us. The kids have become much better pickers:

 In less than an hour we had six quarts among us! It started the week of blueberry everything! Saturday morning, we started with gluten-free boberry biscuits:

 We also made blueberry ice cream and have big plans for many other backed goods. We spent most of Saturday rotating between baking and watching Harry Potter, complete with cat snuggles:

Frosty likes bathing her people, and Issa doesn't mind one bit.

We opted for more a munchy fourth, which included nachos, brats, and pretzels. My poor mixer can barely keep up with us:

 Thankfully Brad was able to get the pin back in and all was well again:

Mom and Shannon came over for dinner and we watched Hamilton! It was so cool to see the original production. One of the lines has really been running through my head this fourth of July and became our sign:

The full lyric: 

Burr: The Constitution's a mess.

Hamilton: So it needs amendments.

Burr: It's full of contradictions.

Hamilton: So is independence.

This year, Independence Day just feels different. Aside from the lack of usual fireworks and parades, our country is in such turmoil. As I'm relearning some of our history that we have kept safely hidden, the country has lost some of her shine. I see more work needed than progress made. But then...I watch the social media feeds of the next generation. Man. They are leading. They are learning and asking hard questions and doing the work. They give me so much hope. We need a lot more amendments. We need to lessen our contradictions. But I also know we can and we will. It's only a matter of time....