Yesterday afternoon I made an emergency trip to the store for basic sustenance to keep my family fed. Mary came along, though conversation settled into this before I even made it up out of the valley.

This was The Big Wedding Weekend at my grandparents' farm. The girls were flower girls. I was a bridesmaid. Dan was chief baby-wrangler and meal-blesser.

My house looks exactly like one would expect it to look after a weekend where I was home only to shower, sleep and pack up another series of clothes. Dishes piled up in the sink. The clean dishwasher, never unloaded, just slowly picked from. Totebags of clothing-changes, empty hangers waiting on the stairs. Laundry. Oh, the laundry. Bathing suits. Half-eaten muffins. And a kitchen table which, for the past three days, has never been completely cleared of a collection of cereal boxes. In fact, at eleven o'clock last night, I heard Emma down in the kitchen fixing herself a bowl after realizing she had pretty much played through dinner and forgotten to eat.

I'm sifting through mess and sifting through pictures and feeling like this weekend, without a doubt, is probably the highlight of my summer.

I'll trade the mess for all the good living that happened in the past few days.

Back with more tomorrow.....