Hi, hello, it’s been awhile.

The Internet is about short missives these days, fancy memes, witty infographics, stories and tweets and clickbait and I kind of miss the long form blog. It felt a little like sitting down for coffee and talking things over.

If we were grabbing coffee, there is so much I would want to tell you about this summer, this moment, in our lives. I would start with the obvious, a lamentation that summer is ending too quickly, as it always does. Perhaps it is because Henry is in school now so the summer has a definite end date, or perhaps it is because I will be technically full time in the fall for the first time ever so it feels like these lazy days are precious, or perhaps it is because the very nature of parenting is to crave and simultaneously grieve the passing of time.

If we were grabbing coffee, I’d ask what you all have done this summer. It has been a Summer of Swim for us, with a first noble attempt to benefit from the shockingly cheap DC parks and rec swim lessons… all of which were canceled, so we caved and enrolled the kids in private lessons. We have plunged into every body of water available. Pools and creeks and splash pads and the buckets of water we haul to keep our new hydrangeas alive.

If we were grabbing coffee, I would tell you about chore charts, about how I decided that this summer would be the time that the older two kids became Contributing Members Of The Family… with limited success. Sometimes it is them, dragging their feet about the daily tasks they are assigned. But sometimes it is me, not wanting to interrupt their free summer play to commit to the tiny moment of learning I included in each day or the chores that are important, but also maybe not as important as whatever mud play is happening in the back yard. I would ask you how you are forming the minds and wills of the tiny people in your lives, and are you failing at it all too often and constantly wondering if you are doing it right?

If we were grabbing coffee, I would tell you about my favorite moment of the summer. I would tell you how the kids and I have spent all summer trying to catch every summer storm, to race outside as the sky darkens and the wind whips the branches of the trees and we stand our ground as the thunder rumbles and the big fat drops start to fall. I would tell you of that one day, where a storm rolled in as cookies finished in the oven and we carried the tray to the front porch, watching the clouds roll over us as we ate hot and gooey chocolate bars with burning fingers. I would ask you what it’s been for you, the moment you have loved best, the moment where you thought this, this is what I dream about all winter.

If we were grabbing coffee, I would probably unburden myself like the over-sharer I am. I would tell you of the couple brushes with danger we have had this summer, moments that make me question if it is wise to raise kids in this city. I would tell you of Maddie Lo’s slowly disappearing babyhood that makes me question daily -are we done? Should we do that again? Is our family complete? But then I would think of how easy so many things feel without the tiniest neediest members and the adventures that we can have now. I would share my professional heart and the way my career has surprised me and the ways I am daunted to take on more work this fall, as I stay committed to being present at home. I would ask you how you are weighing all the things that you are carrying and how you know which ones to drop.

If we were grabbing coffee, I would tell you of my newfound love for tennis skirts with roomy pockets and of this dinner that everyone ate without complaint and of this book that has motivated me to actually do what is needed to get 8 hours of sleep a night and how I started taking my coffee black. I would gush about this cake that I just made from the blackberries we picked in our annual pilgrimage and I would share how much less angry the world seems since I deleted Instagram from my phone, but how I also miss seeing everyone living their small lives in the big world. I would talk your ear off about this show that James and I are obsessed with and I would share that one of the happiest parts of my life right now is how James and I end so many evenings sitting on our back porch sipping the artisanal cocktails that James has mastered. I would ask you what it is for you, the myriad recommendations and passions and finds that are filling your life.

Here’s to grabbing coffee.