Tag Archives: july

stars and stripes.

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The designer of our current 50-star flag was Robert Heft. It was 1958 and there was some talk that Alaska and Hawaii were going to officially become states 49 and 50. One of his high school teachers capitalized on the current events of the day and had his students design a new flag incorporating the two new states. Inspired by Betsy Ross, (and cutting up his parents’ flag), Heft did just that, arranging the stars so it wasn’t very evident that he had added any. His teacher gave him a B-, saying that the design was unoriginal. When Heft balked at the grade, his teacher told him that if he could get the flag adopted by Congress, he would bump the grade up to an A. Heft jumped at the opportunity, sent the flag to his congressman, and after a long campaign and a refusal to give up,  he ended up getting the flag approved. Heft got his ‘A’ as promised. Since then, Heft’s original homemade flag has flown over every single state capitol building, over 88 U.S. embassies, and over the White House for five administrations. He is now deceased, but has left behind a design with 51 stars ready to go if the need arises.

 

happy 4th of july!

 

 

 

credits: mental floss, quora, wiki, readers digest

july light.

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“that beautiful season the summer! 

filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; 

and the landscape 

lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.”

–  henry wadsworth longfellow

 

 

 

 

image credit: the firefly dance, pinterest

this year.

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what a year it’s been

on July 15th of last year

I put my 100+ year old cottage up for sale

through 2 sales – (the first a near miss, the second a hit)

showings, open houses, fixing, cleaning, clearing, minimizing, negotiating

a roller coaster ride

filled with lots of ups and downs

lessons learned

money spent

tears and laughs

fingers crossed

then moving and storing and staying with family

while waiting for the place I wanted to be next

hoping someone would be wiling to sell it

at just the right time

at just the right price

and with all this

somehow

it has fallen into place

here I am

exactly 1 year later

on july 15th once again

and today

I’ll be taking ownership

of the place that is exactly where I want to be

a simplified life begins

 in the perfect home for me

happy to make it my own

in the ‘july’ of my life

near family, near the trees, near the water, near the town

what a wonderful difference 1 year can make.

 

“my life, i realize suddenly, is july.

childhood is june, and old age is august,

but here it is, july, and my life, this year, is july inside of july.”

-rick bass 

 

 

photo credit: mark bugnaski – MLive.com