My blog has been mostly cricket chirps lately … it’s been silent. There are two good reasons for that, though.

Reason 1: Tapping out more chapters of “The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill” during Camp NaNoWriMo .

Reason 2: I’ve been setting up a new writing space. A really big writing space.

At the end of April, this happened:

That’s the husband and I in front of our new house. And it’s full of great writing spaces: A big front porch, a backyard deck, a sunroom, a room we set aside as an office.

It also has a great reading spot: There’s a window seat in the stairwell.

One of my favorite things about the new house is that I’m not the only one telling stories here. The house itself has dozens of stories to tell.

There’s a redbud tree in the front yard that was planted the day the previous owners’ son was born. The basement door is a timeline of children’s heights, with a name and date penned beside each mark. There’s a mural in the basement and the name’s of daughters’ junior high crushes scrawled on the underneath side of the breakfast nook’s table.

And there will be more stories written here — not on paper, but in our family history. These walls hold tales and secrets from families and generations before ours, and we’ll add our own to the mix.

I’ll have more updates from the big white house soon. In the meantime, I have to finish unpacking and catch up on some reading and writing.