DIY fireworks

Truth: the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. It's all of the GREATEST things in this world, crammed into one incredible day: ice cream, watermelon, SUMMER, fireworks, cookouts with friends/family, sparklers, and a huge celebration of freedom in what is -- without a doubt -- the absolute greatest country on the planet.

But, like all other things in my life, the Fourth of July changed for me when Charlie was born. Last year, he was five months old -- too little for fireworks -- and we were your typical first-time parents with a fussy, out-of-sorts infant: stressed, and very, very tired.

Fast-forward to a year ago, on the evening of the 4th, around 9pm. We'd just rocked the baby to sleep after an hour or two of fussiness, and picture this: I was dramatically pacing the house, frustrated that we couldn't see fireworks, upset that things just weren't the same!!!!!! {cue sappy violin music.}

Marty, my sweet husband, walked outside for a minute... and came running back in.

"Fireworks!" he said, and ran back out the door.

It turned out that we could see the neighboring town's fireworks from our roof... and so, Marty grabbed a ladder, I grabbed the baby monitor, and we climbed up for a bird's eye view of some of the prettiest fireworks I'd ever seen. Afterwards, I did a minor freak-out about almost falling off the roof, and we watched the fireflies light up our yard. With a 5-month-old sleeping underneath the roof we were sitting on, it was just about as picture-perfect as things could be.

And so, this year, we put Charlie to bed, climbed up onto the roof, and watched the fireworks. I freaked out {again} about the possibility of falling off the roof {do I sound like a wimp? well, mmm, I can be, if heights or spiders are involved...}, and the fireflies still danced in the front yard, and we held hands, and in the silence {peppered with the sounds of exploding bottle rockets across the neighborhood, of course...}, in my head, I thanked God for freedom.

Freedom from oppression.

Freedom of religion.

Freedom of speech.

Freedom worth climbing up on a roof, just to celebrate it ;)

Happy Fourth of July!