This blog is nearly five years old. Wow! I've been having so much fun with it, but for a while now I've wanted to change things. I always held myself back because I wanted to be able to keep all of these entries going when I moved. That, though, requires a lot of knowledge that I just don't have.

So just the other day I decided to finally release the baggage. Not baggage in the negative sense. I love this space. These words. These memories. These images. They're me and my life and my family and friends and experiences. I'm going to hold on to them in some way, shape or form. It just won't be here. On this blog.

Instead, I'm starting anew. I'm not shaking things up entirely, mind you. I'm simply moving a short distance down the street to some new digs. I designed this thing in all of its pinkness, but I'm letting go of that control and using a template (egads!) because otherwise I fear it will be another year before I make the move.

So anyone who's visiting here regularly, you can find me here.

I'll keep this spot open for a bit until I decide what to do with it. But I'll be doing my future posting from the new location.

Thanks, as always, for your readership and input. I hope you'll continue to read and share!

He found a lightning bug tonight. As we were playing cars on the front porch. He in his PJs. Me barefoot and snapping pics, of course. Summer. It's when you can get away with such things.

We'd come across one the night before too. A tiny little mite that seemed unable to fly. His wing looked slightly damaged, so I advised Dev that we should be gentle with it. He seemed fascinated by the tiny visitor.

He was equally intrigued tonight, abandoning his cars (on our freshly chalk-drawn roadway) to watch the lightning bug's journey across the coarse cement. He carefully tried to coax the bug onto his finger, but LB was interested only in escape. So I took a leaf and placed it before the bug and it climbed right on.

My kiddo brought the leaf very close to his face and watched very excitedly before carefully placing the leaf, and its passenger, back on the ground. As he told me, "We can only hold it for a few minutes, Momma, because it might miss its mommy and daddy."

The aforementioned storms? They zapped our power. For four days. It wasn't that tragic for the most part. Annoying that we lost most of the food in our refrigerator and that I couldn't turn on the ceiling fan last night when it was getting warm in our room. But the weather this past few days was the ideal weather for living like the pioneers did. It never got too hot around here.

Plus, it was slightly fun to run around with flashlights and light candles each evening. Devin's dog flashlight got plenty of use. Better yet, he got to sleep with Daddy on the futon in the basement since the fireworks were popping off each and every night.

I struggled with only two things: not being able to blow dry my hair and not being able to read with the help of my bedside lamp. I conquered #1 by going with the ponytail most mornings or hitting the shower at the gym. Number 2 involved the elaborate candle ritual above. Whatever works, right?

I really didn't miss the internet all that much. My laptop battery died by the time I got home Wednesday night and I had no desire to head for the nearest wifi location. I liked the excuse to disengage myself from the online world for a few days. It's something I've been striving to do a lot more often. My productivity level goes up, I've noticed, when I move away from the computer screen.

Still, it's nice to sneak in a few minutes while Scott's watching the Yankees/Red Sox match-up and the neighbors are STILL shooting off annoying fireworks. Now I'm off to read my book club book!

I love my blog. I just haven't had the most organized schedule of late. I even thought about updating yesterday, but three outlandish thunderstorms kind of upended my afternoon plans. It was a very bizarre weather day. Ask anyone in West Michigan. Ask the huge tree limb that's resting in my back yard. Or ask my poor traumatized dog who followed me throughout the house as the thunder boomed about us. She's much happier with today, I'm quite sure.

Anyway, I've found a place to share my pithier thoughts. I seriously don't need another place, but what's a tech-addicted gal to do?