#1) Happy Birthday America! - 4 Simple Tips To Help You Have An Easy Americana 4th:

July 4, 2019
​It’s Independence Day!
​Go ahead... run that race you’ve been wanting to run. Eat that slice of pie you’ve had your eye on. Wear that red, white, and blue hanging in your closet. Or, better yet, wear that perfectly 'instagramable' and completely pre-planned spirit wear you knew for months was going to be your Independence Day apparel. Celebrate! Live free! And do everything you please, and nothing you don’t.

The 4th of July can be an easy holiday to celebrate, or a hard one, just like any other holiday. It’s you and your mindset that make all the difference. You could work all day in the kitchen, serve a bbq to a hundred people in your backyard, and never sit down once all day. Which is great! - - If that’s your cup of tea. Or you can do a slightly different version, which I’m calling the Easy Americana 4th. Don’t get me wrong, I’m calling it easy, but I don’t necessarily want it too easy... or lazy. I like a challenge, I like to be busy, and I like constant improvement. But after so many very busy and chaotic holidays celebrated in the past traveling to multiple locations in a single day, I found that it’s the simplicity of a holiday that will make it the best one ever. Living in Florida has done that for me. And every single holiday I spend in this great state is my best holiday ever.
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Yes, I did wake up at my usual five am before sunrise hour. I got a great workout in by running a race, I walked the dog, got ready, made coffee, and l wore my favorite new spirit wear from Old Navy’s 2019 Americana clothing line. As well as going out to lunch and work in my studio. We also ate my completely fabulous dinner, all Americana food themed, yet utterly simplified. I can accomplish all that while at the same time absolutely NOTHING about the day is chaotic, and nothing about the day is anything but celebrating the reason for the day and chilling out of course.​

So How Can You Have an Easy 4th of July?...
                  Simple - Easy As Pie.
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1) Choose ONE Event To Attend: 
First, choose one event, ok, maybe two, that you want to or need to attend. Then, bypass everything else and make some time to yourself. No is the answer to every other invite you get. For example, I planned that I would run my local 5K at 7:30 in the morning. I knew after that the rest of my morning was open. I ran in the Celebration Run 5K which routed through the quite streets of the Baymeadows neighborhood in Jacksonville. I then was able to go home, walk the pooch, get ready, and get a bit of work done. The one other thing I knew I wanted to do was go out to lunch - and go somewhere fun. I left the place wide open, to have some spontaneity and for my hubby and I to pick the place when we left the house, no reservation needed or wanted. We chose Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, a local restaurant at the beach with a very casual vibe, has multiple locations, and headquartered in Georgia. We had never been so that was part of the fun, trying somewhere new. And we ate lunch in a bus!

​2) Make Time For Yourself:
Then, make some down time. Holiday or no holiday, it’s really important to have time to focus on what you love to do. The remainder of the afternoon I worked in my art studio. I finished off an 8x10 red, white, and blue themed piece while my puppy sat right next to me. She was terrified of the brief afternoon lighting and thunder that came through as usual on a steamy hot Florida summer afternoon. And whenever it storms she becomes my shadow and looks up at me and says with those precious eyes, ‘Is everything going to be ok?” Yes, I say. We’re all good here, no worries. Eventually, even she settles in, falling asleep by my feet, and took a long nap... Dogs are natural pros at making time for themselves.

3) Have Dinner - Simplified:
When dinner time came around, I was all ready for my quick and Easy Americana meal. I chose the time in my studio today over cooking from scratch. So on July 3rd, along with every other person in town, I went to Winn Dixie and bought my holiday meal, working mostly the perimeter of the store. First, the bakery = because dessert is imperative. I grabbed a Winn Dixie Bin Apple Pie from a display very near the front of the store. Next, the deli - I grabbed a tub of potato salad. I walked past the meat fridge and grabbed the hot dogs. We use 100% wheat bread as our buns so then I grabbed a loaf of bread. Two more quick aisles in to grab frozen steamable corn and a can of Bush’s Baked Beans. All we had to do when dinner time came on the 4th was to quickly heat things up and our meal was set.

4) End the Evening with some Relaxation: 
And as we quickly prepped our meal and binged watched some Scandal on dvd, I decided to call this evening my how-to-get-dinner-done-in-two-minutes-flat plan. I’ll choose this holiday meal any day if it means doing what I want all day long before the meal. Because I got to spend the morning with my hubby at a road race, the afternoon with my puppy in my studio, and an evening at home with both - all together, no stress. I watched the local town fireworks show literally from bed, looking out my bedroom window, which granted me the perfect end to my Fabulously Simple Florida 4th. 

*****Now get out there and have YOUR best 4th - ever. Easy as pie.*****