Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hi. Everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is about the
Speaker 1: choices we make. And today we're gonna get festive. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get sparkly and just maybe a little bit nostalgic
Speaker 1: because it's the fourth of July weekend. Now, Okay, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I love this holiday. I've
Speaker 1: always loved the Fourth of July. It's I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's something so American about it, so Americana, so like
Speaker 1: days of yester year gone by, and it's always sunny
Speaker 1: and warm, and there's the fireworks, and oh the excuse
Speaker 1: to wear red, white and blue. I mean, you save
Speaker 1: your outfit, you know that one Fourth of July outfit
Speaker 1: you have that you're like, oh, I'm definitely gonna save
Speaker 1: this and wear for the fourth of July. I've done that.
Speaker 1: I do that, Red white and blue. Gotta do it. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna share some of my favorite summer memories, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how holiday tradition shift as
Speaker 1: our kids get older, and of course I will share
Speaker 1: how I am choosing myself this holiday weekend. So grab
Speaker 1: your iced tea. Actually grab your sun tea. Did you
Speaker 1: ever make sun tea? You know when you put the
Speaker 1: tea bags in the water and you set it out
Speaker 1: in the sun for a few hours. Oh, it's the best.
Speaker 1: So grab your sun tea, get comfy, and let's just
Speaker 1: light up this episode like firecrackers. Okay, first, I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you what I love most about Fourth of July.
Speaker 1: Ever since I was a little girl growing up in
Speaker 1: the Midwest, it's always been just a huge gathering of family.
Speaker 1: And when we lived in the Midwest, we had so
Speaker 1: many relatives, so many cousins, so many aunts and uncles,
Speaker 1: and we had the farm where everybody would come and
Speaker 1: everybody would bring food and would be a giant like
Speaker 1: picnic table put together with the red, white checkered tablecloths,
Speaker 1: and it was just the best time because it was
Speaker 1: summery and you just felt free. Some of my favorite
Speaker 1: memories of fireworks in general, because I don't know, I
Speaker 1: forget a lot of things, but I can remember a
Speaker 1: lot of fireworks shows. I think, you know, the bang
Speaker 1: and the sparkle of it all really has an impact
Speaker 1: in my brain. But there was one year when I
Speaker 1: was in Illinois and my sister and I were driving
Speaker 1: and the fireworks started going off, so we literally pulled
Speaker 1: the car over, went out into the middle of a
Speaker 1: field of grassy stuff, like hey, put down a blanket
Speaker 1: and laid and faced up under the fireworks. The biggest
Speaker 1: fireworks I've ever seen, and it was so magical. It
Speaker 1: felt like you were, I don't know, in another world
Speaker 1: and it was so glorious. Another time I remember a
Speaker 1: really cool Fourth of July was we just were in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I was doing QBC, so it wasn't that long ago,
Speaker 1: and we came across this like county fair thing and
Speaker 1: we just spontaneously went and we had the best time,
Speaker 1: petting the cows and seeing all the award winning fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables, and there was this great fireworks show and
Speaker 1: we sat like on a little hill and it was
Speaker 1: front row fireworks. Just small towns, so good, so good.
Speaker 1: I think I loved the food the most. When I
Speaker 1: was a little girl, I you know, I would eat
Speaker 1: burgers and my dad would grill, and there were hot dogs,
Speaker 1: of course. And the thing about pot looks that I
Speaker 1: love is everybody brings their best, you know, they bring
Speaker 1: that one dish that they're going to make and everybody
Speaker 1: loves it, so it's always full of asserole dishes upon
Speaker 1: casserole dishes of your favorite things. I think one of
Speaker 1: the things for me is obviously potato salad. That is
Speaker 1: a winner. My mom always made the best potato salad.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I loved so much was the
Speaker 1: Fourth of July cake. Have you guys ever made like
Speaker 1: a pudding cake right in a rectangular pan and then
Speaker 1: you poke the holes in it with a wooden spoon,
Speaker 1: and then you put the pudding on so it like
Speaker 1: seeps into the cake so it's super moist and yummy,
Speaker 1: and then whipped cream icing, and then you decorate the
Speaker 1: top of it with red and white and blue sparkly
Speaker 1: things and it looks like the flag and it's such
Speaker 1: a memory of mine. I feel like I've got to
Speaker 1: make that this weekend. I gotta do it. But now
Speaker 1: as a vegan, it's a little more challenging, but not
Speaker 1: really because there's garden burgers. I know that probably doesn't
Speaker 1: sound that good to you, but if you're a vegan
Speaker 1: and you miss hamburgers, a garden burger kind of tastes
Speaker 1: like a hamburger, at least in your mind. You really
Speaker 1: try to make it taste like a hamburger. And the
Speaker 1: other thing is the hot dogs they make fake what
Speaker 1: are they called, well, fake hot dogs. I can't really
Speaker 1: think of anything else, but they are just like hot
Speaker 1: dogs now, so I don't even know what's in there.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know, but it looks like a
Speaker 1: hot dog and it tastes like a hot dog, so
Speaker 1: it must be a hot dog. You can really make
Speaker 1: anything vegan if you just use the right substitutes. So
Speaker 1: we make potato salad every year. We use vegan sour caream,
Speaker 1: we use vegan mayonnaise, and it's just as delicious and yummy.
Speaker 1: So maybe try it, like give cutting out dairy a
Speaker 1: try this Fourth of July weekend and see if you
Speaker 1: feel better. I think you might. As the girls get
Speaker 1: older and we are celebrating as a family, still it's
Speaker 1: always the best. Just getting everybody under the same roof
Speaker 1: is such a monumental feat. I feel like, so when
Speaker 1: that happens, I'm so so happy. But what's been happening
Speaker 1: lately as the girls have gotten older, we will spend
Speaker 1: the day together in barbecue or whatever and hang out outside,
Speaker 1: and then the girls usually peel off and go to
Speaker 1: their own parties or whatever their plans are, and I
Speaker 1: just lay at home and worry about them. No, Dave
Speaker 1: and I have found the perfect place in our house
Speaker 1: to watch fireworks from our bed. It is so crazy,
Speaker 1: you guys. I figured this out because I went to
Speaker 1: bed early before fireworks one year, and I was laying
Speaker 1: in bed, and all of a sudden, I just started
Speaker 1: to see this amazing fireworks show out our window, like
Speaker 1: a little bit in the distance, but you could see
Speaker 1: it perfectly from our beds. So that is Dave and
Speaker 1: My favorite place to watch fireworks from our bed. I
Speaker 1: sort of wish I could go back to the way
Speaker 1: it was when I was kid and do Fourth of
Speaker 1: July like we used to do it. I know, we
Speaker 1: would go to the lake and we would just camp
Speaker 1: out and dog our boat like tie it to a
Speaker 1: tree and just hang out in lawn chairs, and you know,
Speaker 1: eat fresh tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob. Oh. I
Speaker 1: can taste it now, the tastes of summer. Very excited
Speaker 1: about that. But it just seems so simple and so
Speaker 1: American and so free. I want to go back to
Speaker 1: that because things are different now, you know. For a
Speaker 1: lot of people, especially this year, everything is different. But
Speaker 1: actually America is turning two hundred and fifty years old
Speaker 1: next year. So this year we're two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: nine years old. Noxture, You're going to be two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty years old as a nation. And it makes
Speaker 1: me feel like going back and looking at how it
Speaker 1: all started, you know, and the history of America and
Speaker 1: the Fourth of July and how it turned into what
Speaker 1: it turned into. It's really interesting. I love history. So
Speaker 1: anytime you can kind of look at the past or
Speaker 1: make sense of the present, I'm into it. And one
Speaker 1: thing I know about the Fourth of July this year
Speaker 1: and every year moving forward, is that I am going
Speaker 1: to take a moment to choose myself. I am going
Speaker 1: to take a nice bath, I'm going to lotion up
Speaker 1: my body. I'm going to do some stretching, and then
Speaker 1: I'm going to get in bed and I'm want to
Speaker 1: watch the fireworks from my bed with my husband. Happy
Speaker 1: Fourth of July everybody. I hope whatever you're doing, however
Speaker 1: you celebrate it is the best of the best. I
Speaker 1: love you, and stay safe.