Thank you all for your lovely comments on my post last week. Erik will deploy before the month is out, and we really don’t know what to expect of the next president. We’re told that this will be a typical, seven month deployment, but Erik and I are planning on a full year or so. I’m glad we decided to make the move to Oregon to be so close to family.

In the mean time, we’re all settling into our new pace and responsibilities. I’m still staying home with the children most days, and we’re discovering all sorts of fun things to do here at Grandma and Grandpa’s place. Olga is now the Official Gatherer of Fresh Eggs, and visits the hen house five or six times a day. Gavin is on the Poultry Cross Country Team, and chases the chickens around the yard.

I’ve been working a lot from home, getting a jump start on the new issue, fiddling about in the garden, laundry, meals, etcetera. Not a whole lot has changed, for me, except the size of the household. It’s a lot busier with eight people in the house, and that is taking some getting used to.

Lenie had quite a bit of dill volunteer in the garden this year, so I harvested quite a bit of dill seed over the weekend. One of the easiest ways is to cut the stalks after most of the seeds have set, and hang the stalks upside down inside a bag to dry. As the seeds dry out, they’ll drop neatly from the stem, leaving you with clean lovely seed. There are some lovely fat pickling cucumbers in the garden, so I’ll be using up some of this seed making dill pickles in the next day or two.

I took Erik down to the airport on Friday morning, and I only cried a little bit after I was back in the truck. I’ve been thinking about what I should write since then, and I can’t figure out how to put down what I mean, so I’ll just leave you with a picture of Erik from a few days ago, here in our big wood.

We arrived home Saturday afternoon, after a day and a half stopover in Utah to visit with my mom and her partner.

Spent yesterday afternoon up the river with Erik’s family. Fell in love with our little chunk of heaven all over again.

We only have a few more days to spend with Erik before he flies back to North Carolina to deploy, so I’ll be scarce for a few more days. Just know that we are happy, healthy, and loving every minute of being back home.

On Saturday two of the Marines from Erik’s unit came over to help us move boxes and furniture into the storage unit. They made quick work of all the packing I’ve done for the past couple months. (Thanks, Gents!)

Today is Erik’s last day of work before pre-deployment leave begins. We were hoping to load up the truck tonight and leave bright and early tomorrow, but it ain’t gonna happen. There is still too much to do. Now we’re hoping to have everything wrapped up by Sunday afternoon or so. Luckily I had the foresight to keep the house until the end of the month, just in case anything like this happened.

Yesterday the kids and I drove to Wilmington, about an hour and a half from here, to pick up a used camper shell for our truck. What a score! I’m really pleased with it, and it will make the trip so much easier on us, and it will keep us much drier when we get back to “our” coast.

I’m so ready to pull stakes and make tracks. I’m bored (my sewing has been packed for ages), the kids are bored (almost everything they own is packed), and we’re all tired of eating instant and take-out (the kitchen is all packed, too).

I’m not sure if I’ll have much time for blogging on our trip, but I’ll tell you all about it when we reach our destination.