Saturday afternoon and I feel like somebody slipped me some sedatives.

Whew.

I am sleepy today.

And Zach even let me sleep in this morning.

And he brought me a Pepsi Throwback when he got back from work.

So, really, I should be good to go.

I'm not. All I want to do is slip back into my pajamas, crawl under the covers and sleep the rest of the day away.

I better not be getting sick.

This is one of my favorite weekends of the entire year, and I cannot afford to be incapacitated.

Not just because I heart the grill outs, patriotic movies, sparklers and watermelon eating contests. Oh. No.

I have got to find my A-Game because my children tend to flip out during fireworks and my husband is somewhat of a firework connoisseur/addict.

And not only Zach, but his brother, and his brother's best friend and his brother's other best friend and my brother's best friend and Zach's best friend and his other best friend....

Ok. So every year we have this get together at my in-laws where the boys blow shiz up all day and at the end of the night give the rest of us a pretty darn good show.

And this year, I've been told that they have more explosives than ever before. (Which is hard to believe because usually they go to Missouri where they have a standing relationship with this tent that gives them like hundreds of dollars of free stuff because they spend so much but because of the flooding they couldn't get down there this year and so went locally.)

Oh.

Also.

They make their own explosives.

It's always an adventure.

And my children, up until this year, have been terrified. Horrified. Mortified.

And any other kind of "fied" there is all throughout the weekend.

I'm hoping for a different outcome this year.

Ok, more than hoping. I'm seriously Praying for one.

There have been fireworks out in the country all week, as soon the sun starts setting, we've been hearing all kinds of booms and crackles.

Plus, since we moved out here, there have been gun shots constantly thanks to our close proximity to a Gun Range.

Well.

And just Country Folk in general like to shoot off their rifles or whatever they have.

Stella has been ok.

And usually if Stella is ok. Scarlett can be convinced to be ok too. And Stryker is a man. So I'm just hoping he has been born with the innate love of all things loud and explosive.

It's genetic on both sides. So hopefully something has been passed down.

Oh. I just love this weekend. And it's more than the family get together and the fireworks, although both aspects take up huge spaces in my heart.

It's about celebrating our Independence and being proud to be an American.

Which I am.

Like, weirdly so.

I'm the crazy person that cries at the National Anthem. And for our troops. And during Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. And not just because those movies evoke the pain of the moment. But because they stand for something great. Soldiers, ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances, that gave everything, and their lives, so we could have freedom.

And it's the same for soldiers today. I stand for Iraq and Afghanistan today because I believe that freedom is not free. That it takes work. And sacrifice. And pain. But that it's worth it.

I come from this Social Justice/Jesus is Peace movement out of college and it all sounds good, yes, Jesus is peace. And Social Justice, the very definition sounds like something we should fight for.

But I also believe in a world that is made up of mostly evil. That greed, and tyranny and oppression will always exist and that if we, the few good people left, don't fight for what really is right and true and just, and I mean fight for it with our bare hands, than it will cease to exist.

I don't believe that everything about America is good. And I certainly don't believe that every American has someone else's best interest in mind.

But I do believe that America is the City on a Hill. A Beacon in the Darkness. A country unlike any other country ever founded.

I believe that because we were a nation created under principals and standards that have stood the test of time and still give this people freedom and liberty and justice for all.

For. All.

Our Constitution is deeply rooted in a Foundation that has God at the center. And he has blessed this nation for generations.

And you can blush, or clear your throat or get uncomfortable because I am an American Elitist.

But please, please show me the country where the national's are ashamed of their birth place. Explain to me why I need to be embarrassed because I am from a country that gives every citizen and even non-citizens more opportunity than any other place in the world.

I will listen.

But I am not going to apologize for believing in a Constitution designed to protect the people from government and not the other way around. Because that is unique in all of history.

I've traveled around the world, to places where the American Dream is a joke, to places where I was the minority and being a Christian was even worse than being an American, to places that blame the West for their problems and laugh at our presidents.

But show me another country with our compassion.

Show me another country that will defend the oppressed like we do.

Show me another country more willing to abolish racism.

Show me another country that offers more opportunity to minorities, women and protects children the way we do.

From sweat shops, to diamond fields, to sex slaves.

I don't just mean our government. I mean our people.

And I'm sure you have examples in your mind, but then let me ask you if they have as much of an impact on the world like we do.

And they won't.

Ugh. I get so sick of people that are apologetic for being American and humiliated by our wealth.

Yes. We have wealth. But that wealth is available to anyone who comes here. Even criminals. Even illegal immigrants. Poverty's chains do not hold the same weight here that they do elsewhere.


I am a capitalist to the core. But more than that I am a Constitutionalist. I believe in One Nation. Under God. Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for All.

Whether NBC does or not.

There are a lot of people in this country that have swallowed the sickness that we are doing something wrong.

There is a movement in this nation to destroy the Constitution and everything we hold dear.

We got off track. I get that. I believe that. The national debt makes me physically ill. Don't get me started on the debt ceiling. Or trying to fight four wars.

But we haven't gotten off track because we were following the Constitution.

We got off track with 3,000 page bills that no one can read or understand and bail outs and greed and bloated social programs and grotesque spending habits. (Like satellites that crash, but cost us a billion dollars to make. Or the EPA. Yes, I'm going to go ahead and throw the whole EPA in there.)

We got off track with being disgustingly politically correct and lay-down-and-roll-over-forgetting-what-we-stand-for-tolerance. (Like trying, non-citizen, Al-Queda terrorists in an American Court under Our Judicial System, or claiming that our borders belong to Mexico because we stole it from them in the first place.)

I have really tried not to get too political over the last year and a half but the upcoming election is going to be my undoing. I just know it.

Don't tell me how you hate George W. Bush and his policies when he gave tax cuts to the rich, put us in two wars and spent to much.

Obama extended those so called awful tax cuts, put us in FOUR wars, and I don't even want to talk about his spending habits.

This country is in a bad place.

But it's still a great nation.

It's still the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

We can still fix it. We can still save the dollar. And solve the debt problem.

We still fight oppression and tyranny. We still stand for liberty and justice for all. We still walk hand in hand, brother to brother in unity for our freedom.

I believe that. And I celebrate that.

And I also kind of apologize, I didn't really expect this blog to go this direction.

To close, I just want to leave you with some lyrics to some pretty great American songs just to stir the heart a little and honor those that have fought for the life you live today.

These are the last two verses to America the Beautiful

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

A couple verses from My Country Tis of Thee

Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom's holy light,
Protect us by thy might
Great God, our King.

Beneath Heaven's gracious will
The stars of progress still
Our course do sway;
In unity sublime
To broader heights we climb,
Triumphant over Time,
God speeds our way!

Grand birthright of our sires,
Our altars and our fires
Keep we still pure!
Our starry flag unfurled,
The hope of all the world,
In peace and light impearled,
God hold secure!

The chorus to God Bless the USA. This one ALWAYS, without fail, makes me cry. Every single time....

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

And finally. The Star Spangled Banner. We all know the lyrics, we sing it all of the time, but do you know the story?

I do. My mom's a music teacher remember??? She reads things like, "The Story Behind Every Hymn Ever Written" for fun.

Anyways.

Francis Scott Key, the author of the song, was detained on a British Ship during the War of 1812 for knowing too much about an upcoming attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore. So, on the ship, with two other Americans, he had to watch as the British attacked his beloved countrymen, not able to do anything about it. Not even warn them.

The Fort had been flying a special flag, specifically designed large enough so the British would not be mistaken when they saw it flying, high above the Fort's walls.

The battle began in the evening during a heavy storm, and all through the night, Francis Scott Key had to watch aboard the ship not knowing what the outcome of the battle would be.

Towards morning the gunfire and cannons grew quiet and through the smoke of fired shots and the haze of morning, Key could make out a flag.

He sat anxiously awaiting more sunlight in order to determine whether the flag was the British flag that had conquered or the large American flag that had defended in success.

Finally, the smoke cleared and the sun rose high enough in the sky to illuminate the still standing, still flying, American Flag.

And it was in that proud moment, he penned these words. (The first and last verse of the song)

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Have a safe and happy Independece Day!