Summer doesn’t always match the picture-perfect image of summer in my mind. Often, instead, it’s full of dripping popsicles, scraped knees, and overtired children who are up way too late giggling under the covers. But it’s full. And there is a richness to that.

Going away on vacation is always amazing, but I am a huge fan of staycations, which is how the boys and I have spent our week.

As we were walking to our cars, our children were running ahead—the way children do. And we saw them stop to look at what seemed to be a brown leaf floating across the sidewalk.

I started writing these while on an airplane yesterday, but then I didn’t manage to finish them until today. But it felt a little like being in Green Eggs and Ham. “Can you write takes on a plane? Can you write them on a train? In a car or on a tree…?”

As I was boarding, a flight attendant said, “This is a crowded flight, so we are going to make some friends today.”

Sometimes we ask St. Anthony to help us find something that is missing. And sometimes we don’t realize what we are missing until we find it.

Mental illness isn’t always something a person can navigate even with a strong, wonderful family and a compassionate friends. It often requires professional help and medication and sometimes switching to different professional help and different medications.

The night our new cousin and nephew was born we went out to dinner to celebrate—and also, maybe more accurately, because I didn’t want to make dinner. We went to Pappas, where I had the absolutely delicious crab cake.

I make messes by accident and on purpose over and over and over, and God continuously offers forgiveness and strength and peace.

Backpacks were packed, shoes were on, and we were gathering things to head out the door when the phone rang.