Baby Me, baby Lucy
Going to be a bit Grinchy over here for a minute – shocker, I know! – so hold onto your hats. I care about the Fourth of July approximately as much as I care about New Year’s Eve, which is also approximately as much as I care about Ivanka Trump’s thoughts on the ‘male-dominant’ defense industry (which is to say: very close to zero, apart from the potential for mild entertainment via trainwreck).
Here’s a funny little change that’s happened over the last year: I’ve just about dropped all pretensions of adorable-happy-homemaker-ness. I invite my neighbor over for dinner, and break out the Chinese takeout and paper plates (when we eat at her house, we do Thai, just to mix it up). I cook only when I want to, and then only what I want to cook – meaning very, very few things that you’ll end up seeing here, because I don’t want to sprinkle freshly chopped parsley over my food to make it photograph-able, and so it doesn’t get photographed. Decorating for holidays other than Christmas? I don’t think so.
Which – if we’re being totally honest here – feels a little sad, because I miss being that person. I do love to cook, and entertain, and…I don’t know, craft festive star jars. I just don’t right now. I wonder if I ever will again.
So, in a throwback back to less complicated (and far more energetic) times, here are a few Fourth of July-related ideas for you. I will not be doing any of these things this year, because I can’t. But still: They represent an attitude towards life that I sincerely hope returns before my next trip around the sun…and even though the sadness is always there, nipping at the edges, looking at these bits and pieces of my past makes me happy. Hopeful, even.
