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Last Sunday, I was so excited to have our very first family Fourth of July celebration. I haven’t been to a family July Fourth celebration since 1976. My parents decided to host a Fourth of July bicentennial picnic that year.

I was ten years old and was so excited to have so many people come to our house in Iselin, NJ. A lot of my mom & dad’s close friends and their children came. A few of my dad’s cousins and their families and my grandmothers Nana & Mema were there.

Whenever I think of the Fourth of July as a kid, I remember my dad always made cream cheese pinwheel sandwiches. These pinwheel sandwiches were popular in the 70s. You flattened down slices of bread with a rolling pin. Then a meat or cream cheese is spread on the bread, and it is rolled up like a pinwheel. The pinwheel sandwich is wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and put into the freezer. Later it is taken out of the freezer, unwrapped, and sliced into slices.

My dad’s 4th of July pinwheel sandwiches consisted of white bread, cream cheese dyed blue, and maraschino cherries. Red, white and blue. I loved these so much, probably because I love maraschino cherries.

We had an above-the-ground pool which I was in every day in the summer. I ended up with swimmer’s ear at least once a summer; ouch, I still remember how painful those were. Who would have known that it took me until I was an adult to learn to put a solution of 50% alcohol and 50% peroxide in both ears when done swimming. You can literally feel the water run out of your ears after tipping your head over, fill the ears with the solution, let it sit in there for a minute, and voila! No more swimmers ear. I also heard you can only get swimmer’s ear from pool water.

All the kids were in the pool all day and looked like drowned rats with pruned fingers and toes. Our parents had to beg us to get out to eat and, what was worse, not go back into the pool for 30 minutes after we ate. I hated having to wait and thought it was a bunch of bullshit.

The park in our town, Merrill Park, held a fireworks display on the Fourth of July. My Uncle Chet, not a real uncle, but my Godfather owned a tire shop called “Chet’s tire shop.” The tire shop was literally just on the other side of the busy Northeast corridor Amtrack railroad tracks across Merrill Park.

When it got dark, we all walked to Uncle Chet’s place, which was only a few blocks from where we lived. I remember us kids lying on our backs watching the fireworks. This is probably one of the best summer memories I have. It was magical and historical celebrating America’s 200th birthday.

When we got back to our house, everyone jumped into the pool at 10 pm! I remember some adults were drunk off their asses, and everyone had a great time. I slept like a baby that night. It’s a good thing I got a good night’s sleep since there was a lot of cleaning up to do the next day.

So back to this year…an unfortunate situation came up mid-week, and we had to cancel my sister’s visit. I was so excited to not only spend time with her but really get to know my niece and nephew better since I had only seen them one time in 2019. Jennifer and I have only been biological sisters since April 2019, when she found me on Ancestry.com.

We had fun outdoor activities planned for the kids; our cookout menu was solid with classic cookout favorites. We were going to decorate a flag cake for dessert. Sparklers for the kids, a campfire, s’mores, and camping out in our house. Shit! Jen and I were both so disappointed. Hopefully, we can make this happen still this summer.

At least the shitty-ass weather makes me think it’s ok they didn’t come, and we can reschedule, and the weather will be perfect for tubing down the Battenkill and all of the above. There are a lot of people’s schedules that have to align like the stars for this to happen.

Today our Fourth of July celebration will be just like always. Just like most holidays, actually. We never get to celebrate with our family members. It used to really make me depressed and sad, but now living on the journey, I realize that is the way it is. We can still enjoy a cookout and celebrate without family.

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We are still planning a classic cookout. There’s nothing fancy, no new jazzy recipes, just the shit I grew up eating at picnics in NJ. Burgers, hotdogs, watermelon, corn on the cob, potato salad, and beans. I think it may just be a Jersey thing since the only people I know are from NJ who eat their potato salad and beans as we do. We put a scoop of beans onto the potato salad and eat both together. Before you say yuck, think chocolate-covered pretzel or salted caramel. The blend and balance of sweet and savory are perfect! Trust me on this one.

My father and my Uncle George (one of my dad’s best friends) called me Beans or Beansie. Not only did I love beans, but I’ve been making my own version since I am a kid. I guess my palate knew what it was doing and what I liked early on, I made the beans that my parents took to other people’s picnics, and I always made them for us. Hotdog buttons and beans are still one of my most favorite dishes ever! Hotdogs are cut into “buttons” and beans; the rest of the world calls it franks and beans. I still make it for lunches. Mmmm!

I say a half-assed cookout because while all the flavors are the same, everything is as basic as it can get. The potato salad that I make is the same recipe my grandmother used. One day my mother ate my potato salad and said, “Oh, your potato salad tastes just like Nana’s.” It does; it also tastes just like Mema’s. How do I do it? I used the same recipe they did; I use the classic original Hellman’s potato salad recipe. This is one of the only recipes I don’t make my own. It’s perfect just the way it is, and since my grandmother’s made the same kind, it has a special place in my heart and taste buds.

Today the only thing that I topped the potato salad with was just a sprinkle of paprika. I always decorate the top with hard-boiled egg and green pepper slices. The egg slices go in the center of the bell pepper rings. It’s just us today, so I didn’t bother.

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My baked beans are usually…baked. Today, I just added some ketchup, mustard and maple syrup. The baked version has brown sugar, bacon and onion wedges. I’ve made “real” baked beans, they were good but not worth all the time and work. I actually liked my version just using canned beans. I told you I am not a food snob, everything doesn’t have to be over the top, just delicious. I don’t know one person who doesn’t like my beans and no one accuses me of cheating and not soaking my own beans.

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Our corn on the cob I will try what a friend of ours from the Troy market does. He removes the silks of the corn but keeps the husks in tack. Then he soaks them as I do and grills. Soaking them helps the corn steam on the grill in the husks, and the husks give the corn a lovely flavor. We stopped grilling the corn because removing the silks and husks at the table is a mess; I’m eager to try this new way.

We are having our cookout earlier in the day; we were invited to our friend Martin’s for dinner later tonight. Wine, good food, and friends sound like a perfect way to end our July Fourth celebration.

I wish you all a happy Fourth of July. Independence Day is America’s birthday, but it’s a born-again celebration for America this year. Last year during the pandemic, no one could get together, celebrate with family or friends, and many were mourning the loss of loved ones who didn’t survive Covid. This year, we can celebrate again.

Screw the rain, hug your loved ones, party your asses off, cook some great food, have fun, don’t blow your fingers off with fireworks. Say thank you to our Founding Fathers for this great land we live in. I love American history, especially the Revolutionary war era. The masterpiece “Hamilton” solidified my love of that time period. I count myself lucky for our freedom, our country, and to be a citizen here. God bless America! 🇺🇸

Marty had a surprise for me last week that was coming from Amazon. His surprises always make me nervous thinking, “What in the world did he get now?” He promised me it was a fun little surprise for my “pool.” Alrighty then!

Burt, our UPS driver, dropped off a box from Amazon that Marty took outside to set up. It was a mister! One that I didn’t have to hold up to cool off. I was pleased he got it for me.

Once Marty set the mister up along with quick connect hose parts, I could easily go from mister to sprayer attachment. He knows me so well that I get frustrated when I have to fool around with stuff like that. Right after he installed it, the weather turned cool. Of course, it did, silly!

The last three days, we’ve been having a heatwave here in Vermont, a real one with temps in the mid-90s and down to the mid-70s at night. Oh blue and white striped mister, how I love thee! It’s absolutely perfect for keeping me cool at the pool.

My husband scored major brownie points with this little surprise. We have yet to play the darts he surprised me with up a couple of Sundays ago. Maybe we can try it out this weekend when my sister Jennifer and her two kids come up for a quick 4th of July visit. 🇺🇸

We were in production all week and out in the production kitchen early every day. Most nights, I didn’t get to sit down to relax until 8 or 9 pm. We even had our state health inspection on Tuesday and passed with flying colors.👍🏼

Last night we had our Friday night farmers market right here in our town of Arlington. It’s a great little market that runs between 4-7 pm. By the time we packed up from the market, unpacked, and repacked for our Saturday market in Troy, it was 9 pm when we ate our dinner. By the time I cleaned up the dishes, thank goodness my dishwasher is fixed; it was 9:40 pm. 

I started to panic and rushing around to get into bed by 10 pm since I had to get up around 4:20 am. Ugh, I hate getting up that early. Just thinking about how little sleep I will get makes me more anxious, and I can’t sleep. Most Saturdays, I’m going on only 3 hours of sleep. 

The great thing about summer is I put my hair up in a bun since we are sampling our spätzle again at the markets. I pick one of my colorful new sundresses and put on a little makeup. I love that I can wear lip gloss again since I’m not wearing a mask. Thank goodness for this easy-breezy living; summer living at its best even at 5 am.

I’ve recently reintroduced earrings into my life. I couldn’t be bothered when they got caught in the mask loops constantly. I forgot where I put a lot of them and keep finding new pairs almost every day. I forgot how much I like wearing earrings! 

I originally wrote a completely different blog post in the van this morning on our way to Troy. I reread what I wrote and thought, “Holy shit, my thoughts were all over the place.” I couldn’t tell where things ended, and other things started. 

I immediately remembered what my friend Jon Katz told me about writing…always think of the reader and ask myself why they should give a shit about what I am writing. I deleted the post from my notes on our way home. That’s what I get for trying to write at 5:30 am after a lousy night’s sleep. 

I did snap this photo at 5:30 am in my new colorful sundress and wearing lip gloss—my first lip gloss selfie in 16 months. I used to be the selfie queen, but I don’t take as many anymore. 

I hope you all have a nice Sunday tomorrow; I plan to relax, I mean really relax. I originally took a big rack of St. Louis ribs out of the freezer to barbeque. We haven’t tried smoking ribs low and slow yet; that may be more work than I want to do on my only day off. If I get a great night’s sleep, then that’s a whole different ballgame. 

I jinxed myself for boasting about my monster petunias. The thunderstorm we had the other night left one of my petunias flattened in areas, and it looks droopy. She looks half her size. The other one came out of the storm unscathed.

I read up, and it’s recommended to leave the petunia be and trust it will come back. I tried fluffing her up, which is exactly what the articles said not to do. Crap!

The soil was very moist, but the leaves look like they need water. I sprayed the petunia with a fine mist this morning. 

So now, besides verbally encouraging Petunia, watering her, and maybe doing a little reiki, I will let her be. Fingers crossed, she rebounds; silly as it sounds, if she doesn’t, I’ll be heartbroken. 💔 

This morning I made a quick coffee cake and ham, egg, and cheese cups for Sunday breakfast. Nothing fancy for Father’s Day, just things Marty likes, namely coffee cake. The egg cups were for me. 

While I was making the coffee cake, I could hear Marty’s phone making notifications sounds. That sound is Facebook messenger…he was wheeling and dealing again on Facebook Marketplace. 

He came into the kitchen right after I put the cake into the oven and announced he made a purchase. No shit, did I call it or what?

I think I asked, “Oh God, what is it? How much did it cost?” That’s my standard question when he buys something. 

“It’s an activity for us.” “Oh no, I don’t like activities and games,” I told him. I hate playing anything with him because we are so competitive. He plays to win, and he’s a sore winner if that makes sense to anyone. 

“What is it?” I couldn’t even imagine what was going to come out of his mouth. “An electronic dartboard from Germany. Never used. It keeps score, and the whole thing is in German.” 

Whew, that wasn’t so bad. It was only $20 bucks. He reminded me that I like to play darts; ok, at a bar while drinking, I never played at home for fun before. 

After we ate breakfast, we quickly got dressed and headed to Dorset, VT, to pick up the dartboard. 

Afterward, we stopped at the Dorset Farmers Market and walked around playing tourists. We got to talk to a few vendors we know and checked out the market. 

On our way home, a rescue tone went out. When Marty heard it, he turned on his lights and sirens and stepped on the gas. When I say lights and sirens, I mean it; his huge truck has a lot of them. 

The crew needed an advanced EMT for the call and it appeared no one else was available.

I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. As we started coming up on cars in front of us, they didn’t pull over right away. It took some cars quite a while before they pulled over. One car actually passed a car that did pull over and sped up….until Marty hit every horn and light on his truck.

What was really scary was when the cars pulled over partially, and we had to go around the car with oncoming traffic headed straight towards us. It made me gasp every time.

That’s how it was the whole way from Manchester to Lake Shaftsbury. I kept my eyes covered, broke out in a sweat, and was a nervous wreck by the time we got to the park. Marty arrived at the scene just 2 minutes behind the crew. 

I drove Marty’s truck home since he was in the ambulance with his patient heading down to the hospital. I came inside and laid down on the couch to literally chill out.

I knew before this ride I would never be a candidate to run on a rescue squad since I can’t even look at an eyelash in someone’s eye. Now I know I’d have agita responding to every call. 

Sam was awake (he works overnights and sleeps during the day) when I got back. I told him about my first rescue squad ride. He said it happens all the time. People don’t move over. People don’t care. I was stunned that it happens all the time. To him, it was the norm, and he’s responded to hundreds of rescue calls. 

If the same people who didn’t pull over right away had a friend or loved one that was hurt, sick, or dying, they would want the ambulance to get there as soon as possible….right? Ugh. 

This bothers me that my son and husband, their rescue partners, and everyone else in EMS risk their own lives to save others, and people can’t pull the fuck over? 

When Marty got home from the call, he and Sam had a big laugh at what a nervous wreck I was. So now I will be nervous whenever they respond to a call…because this is what they experience every time they go on a call. Yikes!

Thank you to all the EMS firefighters and rescue folks out there; stay safe. People need to pay more attention while driving and pull over as quickly and safely as possible. 🙏🏼

We have doggy doors on both our front and back doors. When we put them in Klaus was an active young dog. Him and Otto would charge through the doors at bullet speed. 

These days Klaus isn’t an active young pup anymore. He is such a sweet and loving boy but has gotten more stubborn and picky as he gets older…and lazy.

After we got home from our farmers market, Marty was sitting on the front porch; Klaus sat there looking out the doggy door, deciding if it was worth the squeeze through the door. 

I wish I had a photo of when he is outside and sticks just his head through the doggy door. He’s taking a peek at what’s going on inside while he’s lying on the back porch. All I can think of when his head pops through the door is, “Does this door make me look fat?” As if he’s trying on a pair of tight jeans. 

He still loves playing ball and going for walks, but when it comes to anything else, he takes his sweet ass time deciding what he’s going to do. Klaus is a bulldog through and through. The one thing that he does do very quickly is shed; a lot. 😆

Today was a busy one! We were in the production kitchen extra early today; we filled wholesale orders for deliveries today and tomorrow. We make our spätzle to order so when customers buy it at retail stores sometimes it’s only a few hours old, like today.

I made us a quick lunch, and we headed over to Saratoga to make a delivery downtown. The traffic was terrible. It seems they are tearing up every road along the way, just in time for all the summertime tourist traffic.  

Downtown Saratoga was popping with lots of cars, people, and more traffic. Our luck, school was getting out, and we were either behind a school bus that stopped every ten feet or at every crosswalk with kids walking home from school. Poor kids, I thought they’d be out for the summer by now.

We wiggle-waggled our way home going a different way, taking country roads with less traffic. We basically drove to Saratoga, made our delivery, turned around, and came home. It needed to be done, so now it is.

After we got home, I started going through our farmers market totes. Friday starts the Arlington Village Farmers Market right here in Arlington at our rec park. The market is from 4-7 pm. It’s less than a mile from our house, less than 5 minutes away, so at least we don’t have to travel far to this market. 

Yesterday our Governor, Phil Scott, dropped all Covid restrictions and reopened our state. We are the first in the nation to have 80% of our residents vaccinated. Thank God! 

For the first time since Covid started last March, we will be able to sample our spätzle again at the Arlington market. Yay!  Our product speaks for itself when people try it, saving potential customers and us from our “Spätzle Spiel.” 😂

I went through everything, restocked, and organized it all for Friday night. We have a second tote box for the Troy Farmers Market on Saturdays. We haven’t gotten the ok to sample in NY yet, but fingers crossed it will happen soon. 

The dogs have been fed, and I made myself a rum drink. We are sitting on the front porch just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. There is a steady stream of “rush hour” traffic going by. It’s hardly traffic at all; just more cars than usual with people coming and going to work. 

We moved to VT way back in 1989 to get away from all the NJ & NY traffic. Although still only a quarter as much traffic as NJ, a traffic-filled delivery run is a strong reminder of why we moved in the first place. We live here for a better quality of life, which we appreciate every day! 

One thing I can tell you, even after living in VT for over 30 years, whenever I hear a horn beep, I still say, “Oh, blow it out your ass!” You can the girl out of Jersey, but you can’t take the Jersey out of the girl!

Kathleen and I had a Sahidi Sisters photoshoot last Wednesday; her coworker Karena is also a photographer and wanted to shoot dancers. I completely butchered Karena’s name last week, so I apologize.

Karena sent us an email on Saturday morning with a whole slew of photos she took. I went through them quickly and found a few immediately that I loved. 

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The photos that I loved were ones when we were actually dancing or some that looked mysterious. We put all of ourselves out there when we dance, sharing everything we have, including our hearts; it was nice to see a little mystery in the photos.

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I found the ones that focused on our faces or specific parts of our costumes some of my favorites. I loved the shots of us both of us holding a flamenco fan. I love flamenco dance and music. I tried studying it myself online, but I need a real teacher in person to really learn. Many of our dance moves come off flamenco dance, so it feels almost natural to me.

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I laughed when I saw some of the photos…I am pretty tan, but not my belly. Karena offered to photoshop my belly and add a tan, but I didn’t need her to do that; it’s life. Real-life photos of real people.

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There are so many photos of Kathleen that I love; she’s so photogenic! There are a couple of the two of us that I love too. Although, of course, I am always hard on myself and should have had better posture in some photos, the ones that focused on my whole figure weren’t my favorite; at least I can accept that’s how my figure is right now. 

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Returning to dance completely has given me my groove back. That little sass in my walk again and a big smile on my face! 🥰

I love summer! It’s my favorite time of the year—way back when I spent countless days at the pool or the beach. When our boys were young, I took them almost every day to a pool, lake, or beach with Marty. 

When I was young, I didn’t have to readjust my schedule to make time for the pool or going down the shore; I just did it. No guilt. They were carefree summer days.

When I was a full-time mom, I did everything I needed to get done early in the morning, packed everything up, and we spent the rest of the day, sometimes until 6 pm, at the rec pool or lake. No guilt. Sort of carefree summer days, at least as carefree as a mother of two young boys could be.

A couple of years ago, I realized why I wasn’t enjoying my summers anymore…I didn’t spend afternoons going to a lake, pool, or beach anymore since the boys are all grown up. 

As I am older, I don’t particularly appreciate swimming in lakes or rivers…too many bugs. Lol. We don’t have a pool, even though we’ve considered getting one. We both know we realistically wouldn’t use it enough with the short Vermont summers and many iffy weather days. 

I now realize that I’m not really missing the pool or lake; I am actually missing those carefree summer afternoons to relax in the sun and work on my tan. However, I still miss going down the shore and the beach a lot! Marty and I both do.

A couple of years ago, whenever I saw we were going to have a sunny & beautiful afternoon, I would plan on going to the “pool.” The pool was just a metaphor; it means I would sit in the sun and work on my tan, cooling off with a mister from the garden hose. Guilt-free. 

Last summer, during the pandemic, I forgot about the “pool” since I wasn’t in the mood to lounge around carefree all afternoon. I didn’t care if I had a tan; it didn’t matter. We did have a campfire every night, though, which was awesome. “Campfire” was another metaphor for going camping.

This year I remembered my imaginary pool. I picked up right where I left off two summers ago. I put on some shorts and a bikini top, grab my towel, hose mister, stereo, and head outside. Carefree summer days!

“Does anyone need anything before I go to the pool?” That is my way of telling the guys that I’m off duty. I still get everything done earlier in the day, so I can at least get outside by 4 pm and stay at the “pool” until about 6 pm. Guilt-free. 

Is it silly I say I’m going to the pool? My imaginary pool is what has given me my carefree summer days back. Having somewhere to “go” inspires me to get stuff done and to relax and enjoy our short Vermont summers to the fullest. I invite Marty to come to the pool with me; he did on Saturday after the farmers market. Yes, he squirted me with the hose. LOL!

Holy moly, the petunia hanging baskets that I got at the produce wholesale market back in May are growing like crazy. This is how my hanging baskets are in August! I love them and can’t believe how big they are already. The woman Lisa that I bought them from again this year has the most amazing flowers!

Every day I give each of them a whole watering can of water and give them both pep talks. I pluck the petunias that are dried up so more flowers can bloom. Fingers crossed they stay nice for the rest of the summer. Have I mentioned how much I love summer? 😎

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