This post is a little late. But hey, with weather as beautiful as it has been, I haven’t been able to make room for checking emails, posting blog posts or doing really anything on the computer.

The 4th of July is oft looked at as another reason to get together – either with family and friends – a time to celebrate. More and more though, as with pretty much all of the other holidays, the 4th has become yet another victim of commercialization – another “reason” to buy stuff that will likely end up in the trash be weekend’s end.

The 4th for us has morphed into something else. Hard work and sacrifice is what it took to earn America’s freedom. So rather than celebrate in the traditional meaning of the word, we celebrated by channeling some of that work ethic it took to found the United States to get some projects on the move around the house. We still barbecued. We still enjoyed the sun. We still took some time to enjoy the little things. But we also took pride in getting some tasks done and firming up our plans to move forward. While nothing we did measures up to what the movers and shakers accomplished back in the day, it still felt great to work hard and affect some change in our little part of the world