A Little Bit of Brandy

Hello November! 

Loves, you know I'm a sucker for cool weather and pumpkin spice and red-and-gold leaves and snack-sized chocolate. (Give me all the Reese's peanut butter cups please.)

One thing I also love about this season is the influx of holiday-themed stories. From the time we start putting pumpkins on doorsteps, I start looking at what books are coming out that I want to read for winter.

Loves, the big kids went back to school today. My youngest started back on Monday. Summer is long and short and ends suddenly for us. After weeks of an easy routine and freedom, we're thrown back into the world of alarm clocks and backpacks and after-school activities--tied to a strict schedule. And both of those lifestyles are so good and necessary for my little family.

Now I'm alone for what feels like the first time in forever.

Hello friends! How are you? Summer has arrived and I'm here for it. Easy days. Sunshine. Watermelon. Kids all around. A few scattered trips here and there (including flying off to Denver for the Taylor Swift concert in July. Yes please!).

I’ve already told my children that this will be the best summer of our lives. To be fair, every summer is the best of our lives. Just like every Christmas is the best of our lives. Because—well, these days are the best. Family life is a gift.

Hello May! 

Darlings, I can't believe it's May, to be honest. For one thing, that means school will be out soon. For another, that means the book I've been working on for THREE years is about to release. 

For this book to release around Mother's Day is actually perfect, because the story is so much about family. In all of my books, family--or a sense of community--is a theme throughout. This is because family/community is important to me.

In just over two months, my newest novel Just One Spark releases. 

Here's the truth:

I'm incredibly nervous about that. 

I was eighteen when these seven characters came to life in my head. That was almost 25 years ago. To be honest, the story The Last Summer came to me during one of the most difficult years of my life. 

That's how it goes sometimes, I've found. Light finds a way through the dark.

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve already? This month is always such a blur. Somehow it manages to both fly by and yet feel like six months packed into one. There's no doubt it's a busy season. 

The first words I heard this morning were Lily whispering to me, saying, "Merry Christmas Eve!"

And it is. It's a merry Christmas Eve over here, darlings. 

Last night I was folding a mountain of laundry and feeling just so weary. But it's a good kind of weary.

It's 44 degrees, loves, and that means it's really and truly fall in Virginia. Early light is coming through the trees, I've got a candle burning, a mug of apple cinnamon tea, and the Jeffster's on his way with breakfast. We're getting closer to Halloween, which is where the holiday season starts really getting crazy over here. Nothing stops till January after that. 

I love the holiday season so much, but it can be so full and busy that it's hard to catch your breath.

“September was a thirty-days long goodbye to summer, to the season that left everybody both happy and weary of the warm, humid weather and the exhausting but thrilling adventures.” -- Lea Malot

So, this year, as our summer finale, on September 2nd, my birthday, this little family of mine packed up and flew to Florida for fun and sun and a little Harry Potter-inspired magic.

My youngest turned six recently. I'm still processing, to be honest. Six years ago I left work on a Friday, thinking I'd have one week off to get ready before baby arrived. Lily was born on Monday. Two days later! And she's our third greatest treasure ever.

Jeff and I adore our kids. Some days are a lot, of course. Some nights we're exhausted. But Ashtyn and Lincoln and Lily are so delightful and fun. And Lily--she arrived and completed our family. I can't imagine my life without our kids.