Welcome guests

With a small house and seven family members, our home is always full, but we've managed to add a few extras for the last two weeks. Sleeping arrangements have been "creative", and our guests have been patient and flexible with the options. It has been one big party. Big celebrations like a high school graduation and Fathers' Day, little celebrations like dutch babies and Movie Fest Day, have kept us hopping. We've eaten, we've imbibed, some have even puffed on fat cigars. There have been two flat tires, a (temporarily) lost vehicle and many a wrong turn in big cities and on small, dusty back roads. Favorite music has been shared, sleep has been lost, laughter has been uncontrollable.

Slowly but surely the numbers have shrunk; we lost two on Monday to Boy Scout camp and two more back to Idaho. One left in the wee hours today to head to the Resolved conference. Two more leave tomorrow for Idaho just before the scout campers return. Maybe we should get a real, true revolving door for the summer?

The rooms will be quieter, the focus more on responsibilities and routines, and we will surely get more rest now that the numbers are dwindling. But the buzz of excitement will be missed, along with the explosions of laughter, the sparkle of blue eyes, and the comfortable, companionable togetherness of shared life.

Come back soon, friends.

*The outdoor smoking lounge on Fathers' Day*

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran,--
But let me live by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.
~ Sam Walter Foss

*Dear friends gather for Zack's graduation*

It is not the quantity of the meat, but the cheerfulness of the guests, which makes the feast.
~ Lord Clarendon

*How many friends can you fit in a room?*

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
~ Bible

*Father, son and tutor at graduation*

What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?
~ Aeschylus



*A late Fathers' Day meal under the stars and the rising moon*


Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair
Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,
Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.
~ Oliver Goldsmith

*Singing silliness*

For 't is always fair weather
When good fellows get together
With a stein on the table
and a good song ringing clear.
~ Richard Hovey

Anticipation

I have been busy planning menus and seating arrangements and sprucing up the garden for the dinner party/graduation fete we are having on Sunday. So busy, in fact, that I almost forgot the most important part: some of my very favorite girls in the whole world will be here. Knit to my heart like family, three girls are traveling long distances to be here to celebrate with us. I know little snatches of how they are, but I long to hear their stories and their music and their laughter and their reading aloud. I am ready to welcome them with arms thrown open wide, to see their beautiful smiles and the glow of their budding lives around our party table.

Over the next few days we will be stringing up the twinkle lights, ironing the linens, getting the silver sparkling. But my heart will be eager to head to the airport for my Southern California girl, and my ears will be listening for the popping gravel that signals that my adopted nieces have arrived from Oregon.

I cannot wait to see you girls. Hurry home!