Danielle Pelkey

Commentary

Watermelon, swimming, family, bar-b-cue, pies and homemade ice cream… it must be the 4th of July! I don’t know about you, but we sure do love going to the river and spending good, quality time with family on this day.

The fun part about Independence Day falling on a Saturday is that most people get off work on July 3. That makes for a long weekend and even more time to spend with the ones you love.

We are fitting all of the family get togethers that we can into two days. It pretty much feels like Christmas without the presents.

There will be swimming in a cold, dirty river. There will be dads and granddads swinging in the hammocks after slaving over the bar-b-cue grill. There will be kids playing and fighting and playing again throughout the day with lots of kisses from the grandparents to top it all off.

Of course, all relatives will bring their signature dishes to the lunch buffet table. We will all eat a big lunch and then spend the rest of the day grazing on the leftovers. The funny part is that at the end of the day I will tell myself that I didn’t eat too much because I only ate lunch. But when your lunch spans over a five hour period, I think it counts as two meals.

I know that there are also many moms and grandmoms in the kitchen doing all of the real work for the day. They prepare all of the food (even the food for the grill) and clean all of the dishes at the end of the day. Usually my mom spends most of her time in the kitchen trying to keep it from turning into the leaning tower of dishes. She really doesn’t get as much credit as is due her. She cleans the whole house to get it ready for us and our kids to destroy it within five minutes of our arrival. She cleans the whole time we are there and then at the end of the night when we are heading home, she is left sweeping and mopping out the dirt and grime that we brought into the house.

My motto on that subject is “better her house than mine!” That just goes to show that she is a much better woman than I am.

Think about your family get-togethers. There is always that one person, usually a woman, who does most of the cleaning throughout the day. We should really give these people more credit.

When the day starts to wind down and our bellies are full, it is then time to set off the fireworks that serve as the candles on the cake for our nation’s birthday (or at least that’s the way I think of them).

When you are driving home and your kids are sleeping in the back seat and your spouse is trying to stay awake for the ride, remember the men are women who have given and are giving of themselves for the freedom that we still have in our country. Say a little prayer for them throughout this week.