Dear Blog,

I'm so sorry I've neglected you. I miss you and I still need you. You keep me sane and let me write out my life in neat little sentences and paragraphs when everything else around me is anything but neat or little.

Everything's fine, don't get me wrong. It's just that I'm on constant potty watch and/or cleanup. And then there's my little Lucy girl who, by the way, is the bestest baby in world. But she still requires her mama's undivided attention for feeding and burping and changing and cuddling and giggling.

And in between we're trying to squeeze out every precious moment of summer that we can. Minnesotans do that because we know it's all so short. Ninety five and humid? Bring it on baby. Meet you at the pool.

All of this has recently been followed by a phone call telling me that there's been a request for a showing of our house. In two hours. So I scramble to clean up the breakfast dishes. Make the beds. Arrange the house just so. Get the kids dressed and in the car. And, besides the crib, hide any evidence that kids live in this house.

It's this crazy, necessary chaos so we can get to where we need to be.

I've never felt so humble during prayer as I have in these past few weeks. I don't know how we're going to do this so I close my eyes and leap in faith. We'll get there.

And then there's the man who makes it all possible. He calms. He provides. And he has this wonderful way of putting it all into unemotional perspective for way-too-emotional me.

He doesn't care that there was no time to purchase a proper Father's Day gift. His idea of a great Father's Day was a day at the pool followed by a trip to St. Paul for mass and ice cream to remind us why we're doing all this maddening house stuff. We need to live in St. Paul. We become alive and energetic every time we enter that city. It's where we belong.

I'm three days late but it's still important that I say it here: Happy Father's Day, Brian! I couldn't have handpicked a better daddy for my kiddies. It is so evident to every one you meet how much you love and adore your children. But more importantly, it's so evident to your children how much you love them. Oh how easy Lucy smiles for you. And those belly laughs from William. No else can make him roar like that.

And so, dear blog, that is why I have been absent. I love you too but there's a pecking order and unfortunately you're pretty far down the list. But soon enough I know it will all be back to normal. Soon.