All-American Trifle

The hit of my family's Independence Day: this All-American Trifle. It tasted like an improved version of a strawberry shortcake. I followed the instructions closely. Although mine was not as pretty as the one with the recipe, it was very tasty. This is a great summer dessert - easy, cool, and refreshing. I highly recommend it.

Review: Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion (1956) - starring Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire.

We watched this movie this weekend and really enjoyed it. It is a nice family movie. It really has very little Civil War fighting in it but rather deals with beliefs, relationships, and obedience to God. You can read a mom's review here. (Warning: spoilers!) You can also read more here and here.

Happy Independence Day!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Read the text, see the house where it was written, read biographies of the signers and their wives, read Jefferson's account of its writing, read the timeline of events, and learn more from the National Archives. You can also learn about two other important men in America's quest for Independence: Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry.