C'est la 14 Juillet

Translated: It's the fourteenth of July. which is what they say to each like we say "Happy 4th of July". It's Bastille Day. Liberty, equality, fraternity represented by the blue, white and red in the French flag.

There was a series of 3 French films done in the early-mid nineties respectively titled, "Blue", "White" and "Red". We saw "Red"and loved it and would highly recommend it. It deals with a lot of things, families being one of them. "Red", which represents fraternity, an ideal of Bastille Day.

Which leads me to the last couple of days spent with my family. My uncle and aunt left this afternoon and our family history has been on my mind a lot the last few days. [/b]

I was able to ask my uncle about our German roots, which comes from his father, my grandfather's side of the family and can be traced to Duehren, Germany. His wife, my grandmother was of Irish descent. My paternal grandmother is also of Irish descent. And my paternal grandfather is of French descent. So my French blood honors this day in history which is celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity.

The last few days have been a gift and delight, spending time with my mom and her brother and wife, and my dad. The more I know about my roots, the more grounded I feel. I'm blessed with great family on both sides of my family tree. Flawed, imperfect, but still great and loving. My dad is from Oklahoma and I'm blessed to have family here that I get to see often. My mom is from Colorado. I was born there and my earliest, sweetest memories are of my days there.

There is a Chinese proverb, (I think it's Chinese) that talks about giving your children roots and wings. I love the idea of that. Roots keep us grounded, from being easily blown away, uprooted. Wings help us fly when the time is right.

My day started by picking up Eli. I got to see their new chicken coop and watch Eli try to pull the carrots out of his own vegetable garden, but it wasn't quite time. We then headed to the Science Museum on this hot day to explore inside. We went to the planetarium and watched the stars and planets. We watched the sun set and the sun rise; discover constellations and galaxies and the North Star. (Best part of that, he knew the where each direction was when the speaker asked.) Experienced the tornado room at 78 mph which is part of our roots in this part of the country.

This picture of Eli is on our way to the museum, in his car seat, under an umbrella which gave us shade out in the sun, keeping our roots from withering in this unbearable heat.

Having roots, being grounded, knowing our own true north are gifts families give us.


Please forgive my lack of commenting on my favorite sites and pictures as I've done very little with company in town, and I'm planning on catching up both on the photos and comments over the next couple of days. Thanks to those who have taken the time to see the pictures and for those who have commented as well! I love this community and miss it when I'm not as active as I would like to be.