I s’pose it goes without saying that posting around here may (will?) be a bit sporadic. It’s hard to sit and think and ponder and write when you’ve got a limited number of days to visit and chat and catch up and participate.

I will try to keep my thinker working, and probably that will show up now and again here in the form of a post.

I will also try to remember that I’m going to have a baby, and stretch and exercise and all of that once in awhile. (It’s kinda nice to just sit on the side porch, breathing in peonies.)

Before I sign off and get back to my bird-listening, coffee-sipping early morning (when everyone [and you cannot even imagine how many everyone is around this house] is sleeping except Mama and me), a few snippets:

:: It’s green here. The glowing, living, overwhelming green of early summer.

:: Detours abound, thanks to our trusty bridge and its failing, and so there are back roads to be driven. And back roads, around here, mean rolling field of grass and corn, hemmed by tree lines of varying green, and over all, a vast blue sky. Space. Growing, beautiful space.

:: The first thing I noticed as we pulled into this little speck of a town last week was a fire engine sitting in someone’s front yard. Wow. Could we just pretend to not be quite such… hicks? (Then again, it’s provided me with a chuckle every time I pass by, so leave it there. I like to laugh.)

:: I spent an hour dead-heading gardens and watering baby plants yesterday. Then I cut a few bouquets to freshen up the house, and everyone told me how beautiful they were. This is gardening at its best: let Mom kill it and grow it and be frustrated and then figure it out at last. And I’ll take the credit for how beautiful it all looks today.

:: The Little Yellow House was finally visited yesterday. We joined the rowdy bunch of fun-loving toddlers for dinner, ice cream, and a walk to Merrick’s ballgame. I love how zany and crazy and loud in their talk-over-each-other way it all is. I’ll be sad when they all grow up and stop telling the worlds dumbest knock knock jokes.

:: I’ve been here almost a week. Anywhere else, that would feel like a chunk of time. Here, in this busy house, with this busy family, it’s just a start. Do you know how many siblings I have yet to catch up with? Well, here’s a clue: there are eight, total, and I think I’ve got about one or two crossed off the list. By the end, I hope to have hunted them all down for a little catch-up chat. Wish me luck!

:: I have a camera. It has batteries. It’s sitting in my bag. I’ll try to do better and maybe actually snap a few shots while I’m here. That would be nice, huh?

::