Hi Reader, Happy 4th of July weekend to you and yours. This holiday always brings up a certain kind of feeling for me. Fireworks at night with kids in awe of every single one. Ice pops. Fruit salad. The small, specific traditions that somehow become the things you remember most. The moments that feel ordinary while they're happening and then turn into something you'd give anything to have back. That's actually what this week's post is about, even though I wrote it about college drop off....
2 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Something happened this week that I want to tell you about. I've been having a hard few days, kind of like when life feels like it's moving faster than you're ready for and you're just trying to keep up. I won't go into all of it, but I will say that some seasons have a way of reminding you what really matters, and this has been one of those weeks for me. In the middle of it, I posted something on Instagram about a walk I took in the woods, about being a lifelong people pleaser who...
16 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, This morning I had a thought. It came out of nowhere, the way the real ones usually do. I was thinking about lunches and making them for school all those years. Then this morning, I'm making them for work. Somewhere in between the school lunches and work lunches was a lapse of what I thought was a lot of time... that's the blip. That's what I want to talk to you about today. Life doesn't slow down and hand you a moment. It moves fast. Your people come in and out, the rooms are...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Something happens this time of year that I don't think we talk about enough. The calendar shifts. Summer starts. Kids come home, or they don't. Plans change. Life rearranges itself again, and you find yourself standing in the middle of it thinking, okay, now what? Nothing is wrong exactly. It's just different. That particular kind of still that settles in after a season ends, or a chapter closes, or the house gets a little bit louder or a little bit emptier than it was before. I...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, There's something I've been wanting to say to you for a while now. When I started this blog, I was deep in grief. I had lost my mom and my dog Molly close together, and I needed somewhere to put all of it. So I started writing. For a while I wrote mostly about loss and grief. Then that started to feel heavy, even to me, so I shifted toward finding joy and purpose. Then momentum. Then back again. If you've been here for any of that, you might have noticed the zigzagging. I just want...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, I just published something that I wasn't sure I wanted to write, but I did. It actually felt good to get it out. It's called He Graduated. My Parents Weren't There. It started as one thing and turned into another. Big moments in life have a way of carrying all the other moments we've experienced inside them. The joy and the grief don't take turns. They just show up together, and sometimes you can't control which takes over. If you've ever been in the middle of something wonderful...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Happy weekend, friends. This week's note is just that...a note. This was an emotionally draining whirlwind of a week. It felt like one big transition all happening at once. The baby birds finally left the nest within my front door wreath. After weeks of watching them grow bigger by the day, suddenly one morning… they were gone. At almost the exact same time, my boys came home from college. It all felt strangely symbolic. One chapter ending while another begins. This past week was full of...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Happy Friday. This week has felt emotional in a lot of ways. The baby birds in the nest on my front door wreath are getting big now. Every day I check on them and they look bigger, braver, and a little more ready to fly away. Watching it happen has been so amazing and emotional at the same time. I don't want them to leave! Maybe that’s because as they get ready to fly this week, my own boys are coming home too. My son’s college graduation was supposed to be this Sunday, but because...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Happy Friday and first day of May. 😊 If you read the last Weekly Joy, you know I found a bird’s nest tucked into my front door wreath. Five tiny blue eggs, sitting in a space I pass every day. It felt symbolic in a way, as we navigate a somewhat empty nest of our own. Well…three days ago, they hatched. Now it’s a whole different scene. Tiny little babies, beaks open, parents flying back and forth, constant movement, constant care. It went from stillness to activity almost...
2 months ago • 2 min read