I know so many people are just hitting their summer stride, but we are already wrapping things up over here. The kids start school next Tuesday!

I've been kind of dreading this week, even since before summer started. I knew that our vacation to San Diego would be over, that we would not have any camps or childcare this week, and that it would be scorching hot. All true!

This week I'm straddling being a summer mom and a back-to-school-work-mode mom, and I'm feeling very ready to shift into school routine and work days. To make the most of our last week of summer we're planning one last family pool hangout and picnic, a pool day at a local resort (gifted to us by my parents, thank you!), a cold treat at the kid's favorite spot that we haven't visited yet this summer, and undoubtedly abundant screen time. I'm going to try to tap the last remains of my summer fun mom energy before we close out summer 2024.

On the back to school front, I nerded out with a color-coded school supplies matrix so that I could easily order the right quantities of everything for all three kids. Does anyone else with more than one kiddo in school love to do this? I also ordered a few new clothing items for Maeve and need to get a few more. It seems that the minute Maeve grew into girls size XS she grew right out again, sob!

I was feeling significantly behind in my work as we headed into the weekend but Chris gifted me a work day all day on Sunday. I'm not sure that many people would use the phrase "gifted me a work day" but I really mean it. I was up before 5 a.m., filled my coffee cup, and headed out to the studio. Nine hours later I had made great progress on a big work project and feel optimistic looking at my work landscape for the fall. I love deep work days like that. I'll tell you more about the work project that I've been working on in two weeks when I'm ready to announce it!

For this last week of summer I'm taking a deep breath and reminding myself of my summer mantra: be where you are. It has served me well and has had me pondering what being present truly feels like. I realized that sometimes being present feels like being bored, and that's okay! It's still better than escaping into my phone and subjecting myself to an onslaught of content. It's so good to let our minds be with just our thoughts and what is literally in front of us. I felt this especially during our beach trip when I did not check email, social media, and barely my text messages. It was glorious!

I'm going to wrap up this short post and dive back into our last week of summer.

I hope you are finding summer joys and are able to have moments of being where you are!