Drumroll please…here is an update. You guys my kids are back in school. It’s been less than two full weeks and I already miss having them home. From the lazy mornings to the stress free afternoons and being witness to their academic discoveries….it’s been an adjustment. Emilia is definitely the one, aside from me of course, to be handling this transition the hardest. It’s been a lot of crying, and negotiating and trying to bargain early pick ups every day. She says she misses me, and I don’t think that’s exactly it. I think it’s more that she thinks I’m doing hella fun things while she’s toiling away and learning all the third grade things. In reality I’m doing laundry, cleaning the counters, again, and mopping and vacuuming downstairs. Maybe a little furniture rearrange here and there but seriously sister, nothing fun. Owen and Gabriel have taken to 5th and 8th grade likes baby ducks in a pond? Is that the saying? I mean….they’re killing it. Julian too, but he’s really always been that way.
In the same way that I’m not really doing anything that Emilia would classify as fun, I have been busy. On the first day of school I totally tore out some bushes and plants and weeds, so.many.weeds, to make a little place for our trash cans to reside on the side of the house. I planted new bushes (oh the life of a crazy plant lady) and rearranged some of the older bushes. This summer I performed a similar makeover on the hump by the palm tree. Ripped out so much ornamental grass and replaced it with a tropical oasis of plants. Hibiscus, Oleander and Philodendron, oh my. I need to work on the side yard next and rip out weeds and maybe some terrible plants the builders left and replace them with something amazing. Stay tuned for the next side yard update.
Would you believe I’m still rug-less in Santa Rosa Beach? I still feel unfinished and uninspired in my room! The pieces are all there but something, one thing, I don’t know what, isn’t clicking. I’ll keep trying and moving plants from one shelf to the other. Then back again. I have so many other projects on the docket and seriously every time I step into another room I find something else I want to work on. (I’m looking at you custom closet *with big ol’ heart eyes of course). I did find *A* rug that stopped me in my metaphorical tracks. Ruggable did a collab with Jonathan Adler and I am straight swooning. I don’t know he will fit the vibe I’m wanting or maybe change it completely.
Come on…swoon with me.

Eventually, I know things will feel ‘normal’. I’ll be accustomed to the kids leaving every morning, and getting up early to get them where they need to be. I’ll head to work until it’s time to get them from school and drive them to their activities. For now? I’m kind of wallowing. I’m neither here nor there. Settled or unsettled. Maybe this laundry-list of projects I keep adding to will keep me fulfilled and busy? Maybe I need to figure out what I want to be when I grow up? Either way, here ya go. The update nobody was waiting for.