Lovely Little Things, 28

This week’s lovely little things.

routine

The last few weeks took us on a wild ride. One of those wild rides that is fun at times and makes you want to throw up at others. There was a lot of living in those travels and out of the ordinary days. But not a lot of writing. Or quiet. Or breathing. And, of course, there is living in the writing and the quiet and the breathing too. So we’re back to that this week. And it’s been rougher than I thought it would be, to settle back into the normal rhythm of life. Probably because life right now follows anything but a normal rhythm. But man is it lovely to just stay put for a bit.

friends

My list of close friends has morphed and changed throughout the years. Some of the people I am closest to right now were not at my wedding. They were not invited. I didn’t know them then. I didn’t know them when my daughter was born almost five years ago. Some I didn’t even know when my son was born. And yet, when we travel or they do or for the plain ol’ reason of ‘life gets busy’ we don’t see each other for a few days or a week, I feel it. And when we reunite, I feel that too. I felt reunion this week and, yes, lovely.

The strange thing about making close friends after you’ve married and birthed all of your children is that opportunities to really celebrate the big occasions of life feel rare. Fortunately, one in our group is bravely walking into the world of 3 children this month. She is the first in our group of friends to be pregnant since we’ve all become close and the first (most likely only) of us to grow her family beyond 4. So we took advantage of the opportunity and we celebrated. In a little after-tuck-ins soiree, a surprise that went off with only an almost-hitch, we showered her with cake and sparkling lemonade and gifts for her third little one. Lovely is celebrating whenever possible.

fall music

I know, I’m early here. As in before it’s Fall, before it’s cold, before school has even gone back for us. But with all of the travel I’ve done in the past few weeks, I can’t help it. I want to nest and stay home and organize and be cozy. So this week, we’ve skipped afternoon trips to the park and stayed home instead. And I’ve brought back my Fall music. I said this among a group of friends, sort of as a passing comment as I assumed that everyone categorizes their music according to season. Turns out, I was wrong. But I organize most things (food, drink, music, colors, etc.) by season. So this week, I switched from my Dave Matthews and Rusted Root stations on Pandora for The Lumineers and Carla Bruni. And it sounded lovely like Fall.

sharing super

My belly still flips a little whenever I see my name and headshot on the front page of Huffington Post. My friends still flip a little too! But this week, I felt even more honored to see my words up there because they ran a post I feel so strongly about. They helped me say to every mother within their reach, you are a Supermom. This post sprung from me one afternoon after I felt like quite the supermom, accomplishing a series of tasks in a short amount of time that I was so sure would fall apart spectacularly. It’s rare that we take a moment to recognize how super we are and it’s easier to focus on the spectacular falls. But we are super, all of us. We are.

favorite words

Happy weekend, all. Wherever you go this weekend, I hope you go wholeheartedly, one-directionally, and without regret or reservation.