It's one of my favorite mornings of the year: coffee + pie for breakfast day! Chris even gifted me a quiet house by taking the kids out to a mall to shop for each other. (! have they ever even been to a mall??) On Black Friday! What a hero.

November was a month with highs and lows. Since we last met for coffee, the big things in my life have been:

+ Getting a follow-up all clear ultrasound and mammogram (my first one) for which I'm very thankful.

+ Living through and processing a lot of feelings around the 2024 election. I wrote about the election before it happened and haven't felt any desire to write about it since. I was hopeful and excited about Kamala and dreaded the alternative, and, as you know, my candidate lost. It was shocking and for the rest of election week I felt zero energy for much of anything. I did share some "where do we go from here" thoughts on a recent podcast episode if you'd like to listen.

+ Launching my workshop Your Year to Shine 2025. I'm excited for the updated format of this year's workshop, and that we'll be meeting quarterly throughout the year! All the content will be available on December 15th.

+ Volunteering at my kids' school a lot over the past month: school movie night, doughnut morning, a field trip, bring your parent to P.E. (for two kids), "Day of Awesome" inflatables day, and a preschool Thanksgiving feast. I love seeing my kids at school and getting to chat with other parents and teachers -- we have such an incredible school community and I'm so thankful. I'm also thankful that my 6th grader will still hug me at school and I love to see the now very tall 6th graders (many of whom I've known since kinder) looking so cool but also so young. It was also helpful to me to realize how much I've been volunteering and to see why my weeks have been feeling so full.

Second tier big things have included:

+ I loved being able to show up for Erica in a big way and spend the day with her girls while she had surgery. It was also really fun to see what their home school day looks like!

+ Planning Christmas gifts and our holiday budget in my Christmas spreadsheet, feeling kind of overwhelmed about all the decisions, money, and everything I feel that I want to express with gifts (generosity! knowing a person well! gifting something truly useful or wanted!), and then getting a lot of purchasing done.

+ Chris being super busy leading a multi-million dollar grant proposal. Gooooo Chris! And also I can't wait until it's turned in!

Other bits and bobs

What else might I share if we were having coffee over pie? Well, I've been in a bit of a reading slump but am currently enjoying The PLAN by Kendra Adachi. So much permission giving to be an actual human with a real (not internet-ideal) life.

I'm also not quite in a workout slump but not feeling on top of my game. Partly this is from a couple of wonky weeks and being out of my groove. Partly it's that I haven't found my way back to consistent 4-5 workouts/week which I think is what I really love. I need to bring some attention to this part of my life and see what would work best for me going forward.

And finally, over the past few days I have been intentionally slowing down where I can and also noticing. To slow down I do things like start my work day with 15 minutes of reading near the Christmas tree, or taking a deep breath and reflecting on what I'm grateful for. To notice, I'm taking a minute to appreciate when Maeve is playing independently nearby while I do something I'm enjoying, or when all three kids are peacefully watching a Christmas movie together. These moments don't often last for long, and I remind myself not to expect them too. But we keep glimpsing more ease in our parenting and I want to be appreciative of that. These are the days.

I'm going to sign off before my crew is back from their mall outing – I can't wait to hear the report. And then later we're all going to Moana 2!

I hope you found good things in November, friends! I'd love to hear what you've been up to.