Happy Sunday, friend-

I am just returning home after attending a wedding for my best friend's daughter.  I've been graced with the opportunity to watch her grow from a newborn into a beautiful bride and an amazing young woman. And I spent a good part of the night watching and talking to the other moms in the room.

You may be one of them and know many of them.  The mothers who have spent twenty-some years making everything perfect for their kids, especially their daughters. Up before everyone to make sure they were ready to go. Holding tissues, smoothing dresses, quietly checking that everyone else had eaten and was hydrated. The ones who, even at the party thrown to celebrate all of it, somehow still never sat down.

I watched my friend, in particular, look like the picture of elegance, soaking in the moment.  All her work was done.  The planning, organizing, and hours spent in front of her computer and Cricut machine were over.  I saw her finally sit.  I could tell she was focused on taking in the moments unfolding before her. She earned that, every minute of it. But I keep coming back to how long she had to wait for it. She let herself feel it only once there was nothing left to do.

I think that is sometimes the problem with self-care, especially for moms. We don't rest until we think we've earned it, and even then, we treat it like one more thing to do well, and one more to-do list item to finish. Maybe the bravest thing a tired woman can do is the opposite of all that. Nothing in particular, on purpose. Not earning the rest first. Not waiting until everything's handled. Just sitting down while the thing is still going and letting herself be in it.

Summer is good for this, if we let it be. The long evenings. The porch. That hour where nobody needs anything and the light goes gold, and there is genuinely nothing to fix.

If you want one small marker for an evening like that, Front Porch Breeze was made for exactly this. Lighting it isn't another task on the list. It's the part where you sit down. 

You spend so much of your life making things lovely for the people you love. This summer, let one lovely thing be for you.

love & do good - Debbi