On Summer & Heartbreak & Poetry

Hello from the in-between! For almost two weeks I’ve been in this funny little summertime creative cave-but-in-the-city. The kids have been in and out of town (mostly out), and when I saw that shaping up on the calendar a few months ago I blocked out these days to basically only sit at my kitchen table, scribble things on index cards, walk to Mr. Mango, and test recipes. Aaron and I went for a lot of evening walks and watched the Cubs games in the evenings. We went to bed early and I had weird cooking dreams. It’s been lovely and a little strange but in a good way.

Henry’s back now, which is wonderful—the house is once again filled with guitar sounds and we’re getting ready for his college orientation next week (OMG). After his orientation, I’ll head to Michigan with Will, and Aaron and Henry will join us a few days later. Lots of time with my family, which I look forward to all year, and this year, his family is coming, too. They used to come to MI every summer, but we had a couple years off that rhythm—several big moves, health stuff, etc—so this year feels sort of like a reunion. I’m looking forward to lots of beach time, buying everything we can from the farm stand, burgers on the grill, watching the sunset like a movie.

Between now and then, though, a few more very summer-in-the city things—I really do love the contrast of city life vs lake life, and I feel enormously grateful that we get to experience both, especially in the summertime—my favorite season in any location.