...for amber waves of grain/ for purple mountain majesties/ above the fruited plain...

Jim and I got to talking about what our plans might be for Independence Day this year, since - miracles! - we both have the day off and we're not going out of town.

I actually feel really strange about this situation. Growing up, the 4th of July was always the time for my family reunion, where all sixty-some descendants of my granny would congregate together at a cabin on a little lake in Wisconsin and spend the day (or week) together. We have all kinds of family traditions - the annual bean bag and bocce ball tournaments, the big lunch buffet that everyone contributes to, the annual family photo, taco-salad-in-a-bag for dinner (ugh, northerners, you have no idea), fireworks on the lake at dusk, camp fires and smores and (now that my generation is older) booze, late night games in the basement...

The essential components, out of all of this, the things that have stuck with me more than anything else, the things that make this holiday an actual holiday done 'right', are apparently the fireworks and the family togetherness. Since starting college (wow, seven years ago?), I've missed more reunions than I've attended, but for all but one of them I still managed to spend time with family (family-in-law counts!) and do fireworks. So I told Jim that I wanted to do those things again this year. Even if it's just him and me spending the day lounging around the house and then lighting up some sparklers at dusk, that would do it for me.

Jim has a week-long vacation that overlaps the 4th, but I have work the day before and the day after, so we can't get up to anything crazy. But it'll be nice to make the holiday happen, to get that same feeling that I had growing up. Hopefully I can pass on some of that feeling to our kids, too.

I wonder if it's possible to make smores on the stove...

...just because everything's changing/ doesn't mean it's never been this way before...

small pregnancy update.

apparently the new symptom of the week is swollen feet. it's very weird. the first couple times this happened, last week or maybe the week before, i didn't even notice until i got home from work and took off my shoes, and my feet did the equivalent of 'oh thank God' and made their displeasure known. the first time it happened, i thought it was just because i'd worn heels for the first time in a week, but it's started to happen more consistently, regardless of what (if anything) i'm wearing on my feet, and it's getting more noticable now that i know what it is i'm feeling.

it's not all that much to complain about, at least not yet - on a scale from "ow" to "praying for unconsciousness" this barely ranks an "ow" - but it is... very uncomfortable. the feeling is difficult to describe, actually, because only once or twice have i had anything swell up that i hadn't first jammed or smashed or otherwise caused external damage to. the swelling by itself isn't so bad, so long as i don't put any kind of pressure on my feet. of course, that makes walking a bit of an ongoing "ow" situation. it also makes flexing my toes weirdly difficult. but only my toes - the swelling starts below the ankle joint, so it's literally just my feet that are affected. very strange.

other than that, not much has changed. my baby belly is growing prodigiously. :D onward!