4 Juli, 2012 in Deutschland

We’ve not hit any kind of a stride here in this land where the potato chips taste like loaded baked potatoes from Applebee’s and the flower boxes overflow with beautiful. Unless, of course, you count the unfathomable amount of screentime my children have been alotted each day for the weeks since we’ve been here.

So I figured the day would bring more of the same. Unless, of course, I devised some sort of a plan, which, to be honest, has never really been a strong skill set in the motherhood realm. Not for me, anyway. But the day before had been lonely, mostly because there’s currently not a lot to do where we live right now except figure out, well, how to live. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great way to begin this adventure. Slow and steady, with time to figure stuff out and not be constantly faced with unknown people after unknown street sign after unknown background noise from a larger city. But the slow pace sometimes lends itself to, shall we say, a certain kind of bored that isn’t always bad. That said, I knew it was time to kick in some we’re-gonna’-actually-do-something-today kind of plans and make it special in some sort of way. A task that required me to step it up alone, since my husband had to work. (Because, although every country in the world does have the 4th of July, only one finds it celebration-worthy.)

When I announced the first part of the plan to my offspring, however, the delight waned when I told them that the it included no more American television on youtube. In fact, the first part of the plan required no screentime at all. (Gasp!) So they got dressed and cleaned up their room (the one piece of routine that we have actually adopted) before the most amazing thing happened! My kids came up with something fun to do all on their own! And it involved being outside! (I know, right?)

They took the little tiny toy cats and animals and lego people and created parachutes for them out of tissues and napkins. Then they took turns testing airflow and gravity by tossing them over our balcony to the porch below. Garfield the cat helped by retrieving some of the fallen heroes.

The creativity was flowing, I tell you! So we took our energy and studied some German before walking to the store to get some craft supplies for our Independence Day Celebration on 4 Juli, 2012 here in Waischenfeld Germany. We got other things too, such as food supplies and drinks. Then we packed up our approximately 20 pounds of groceries and, well, we walked back up the hill to home.

We did a 4k on the 4th of July! With 20 pounds of groceries and horses to greet us along the way. And I thought it was gonna’ be a boring day!

Our 2012 fourth day of July ended with a celebration of sorts. We ate homemade turkey nuggets (which were supposed to be chicken) and mashed potatoes along with the best zucchini I think I’ve ever tasted, before enjoying an array of homemade fireworks in our living room.

Those fireworks techs were brilliant! They dazzled us with splashes of red and white and blue. They even brought the “ka-booms!”

It was a 4th to be remembered, no doubt. At least by us.