My fingers are dyed pink-red and I pause to put my wedding rings on again. The watermelon sugar cookies are nearly done in the oven and I send them outside with a promise to call them when the icing is ready. The cookies are easy — just a bit of food coloring, store made icing and slice-and-bake dough. It’s the being present and engaged that takes all the work.

I want to write. But the words come syrup slow, like trying to play tag in the heat of the day – you want to and it’s fun, but it’s just too hot. And so you find the shade and sit against the bark and let your knee-pits air out a little. And you pull the wet curls from the nape of your neck and dream about lemonade that isn’t too sweet. The gnats begin to hover but it’s too hot to move. That’s where my blog writing life is this week – sitting under my front yard tree, airing out her knee pits.

In other news, the book writing is in a full springtime swing. The words pour out like petals from a mason jar. Fresh. Colorful. New. But I can’t share those words with you yet, and that’s why it’s brown-grass summer over here on the blog. Slow. A little weary. Thankful. Reflective. Quiet. I have a Man who has been gone for a while and some children who haven’t been. So we’ve been eating like kids and staying up too late and trying not to get sunburned. And any words I come up with go directly into my next book, tucked away for you later. And so this is just a little note to let you know the quiet and slow may remain around here for a week or so. Pit-airing in progress.