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Not long ago, I glimpsed out the window a collection of ducks--a mama and five little ones--toddling around in our newly fenced in yard. My photos come from the window, that rain-blurred barrier, with no sense of decent perspective, and what I really wish I could capture was that sound--the sweet cheeps of baby to mama. Our little backyard on the corner of a four-way stop can be a magical place, indeed. I've been known to see deer in our yard too.

Life has been epically quiet in these parts, mainly because I struggle through the many layers of my first trimester. If it isn't nausea and bathroom-runs, it is restless legs or insomnia. I am grateful the baby is healthy and that when I do feel miserable, I am doing it in the best of places--in the beauty of summer, as a graduate student who doesn't need to be anywhere else but soldiering through, with the kindest of husbands.

Our home is so very slowly transforming, bracing itself for the major shifts. I have finally and officially finished the attic--it is an organized place, complete with bookcases full of knitting and sewing books, bins full of old clothes and dishes, a few mementos I could not part with. Ryan has begun sifting through the sea of paper that is his little computer room; eventually, that will be painted a fresh coat, and I will move my poetry bookcases, my desk, my futon from the second bedroom to these more cramped quarters, and Ryan will have the reign of the basement (which is fine by me--some glimpses here, but this is really the vortex-of-hell, as opposed to the two rooms that are legally a bedroom and den). The great room-shuffle is well under way, much to my absolute surprise.

Currently on my nightstand: Let the Great World Spin. I just finished Little Bee last night, which was very interesting--a smooth read, not without flaws, but one I'm glad I paused to read. I've been trying to write a little something each time I read a book, and you can find those little blurbs on my Good Reads profile. It's nice, when your memory is as shot as mine is, or when you read too many books in one year to maintain any semblance of differentiation, to have a few quick notes, and I know I appreciate reading the notes of others.