Community is what we were looking for all those years ago when we were fresh out of college and deciding where to live. We didn’t even think of leaving this state, but we moved somewhere where we had no family or friends. Even though it took time, we made our family here and our lives have been richer for it.

I’m not done yet! We've all seen the back-to-school supplies in the stores and have started to get the catalogs and emails, but I’m here to tell you - summer isn’t over until we say it is! We have a whole bunch of days ahead of us and I plan to make sure that we squeeze the fun and the sunlight out of them!

What is the best part of where you live? Do you enjoy it and make time for it? How often do we make time to act like a tourist in our own town and enjoy the scenery, festivities, or culture?

Summer to me means time on my front porch. Sometimes it's time for morning coffee as the sun warms us up, afternoon cocktails when we quit work a little early, or evening meals when we linger and talk about the day. They all seem better when they are on our porch.

I love the month of May! I love to give gifts (and receiving is fun too) and enjoy seeing the earth wake up from the brown and bare end of winter. The lime green of new leaves, bright pastels of tulips, the abundance of flowering trees, and days where we can feel the warm breeze of summer coming. 

Spring can give us hope - a tangible example that we can get through the hard, cold seasons and not just survive, but bloom. It reminds us that a season is temporary and they always change. Spring comes every year and there is beauty in that change.

But if we, like Marie Kondo, only keep things that "spark joy", then I am going to keep the items around me that help me celebrate where we live and where our life has taken us. And yes that includes some of my home goods too. But the rest? It's time to start letting go.

Perhaps this Valentine's Day, if you normally give a card maybe you shouldn't. Let's not do the expected, but instead offer to go for coffee or a walk and give your words in person. If giving a card isn't your style, maybe surprise them this year with one or a handwritten note. I'm excited at the thought of bringing a bright spot in the middle of February to those I love. 

You get to choose your own adventure. In this new year, I hope you celebrate where you live & where life takes you!

As we come into the last two months of the year, it is a time typically marked with family and friends, making memories, and celebrating together. Too often we race through our busy schedules and discover we haven't connected with others meaningfully, or worse we find out later that we have a friend that has felt isolated or alone.

This is a season of patience. We wait for the leaves to turn beautiful colors seemingly made that way just for our enjoyment. Our gardening patience is rewarded with the harvest.

In this in between time when change is all around us, let’s embrace being in the middle. Enjoy the hot and the cold, the dark and the light, these uncertain days. They can be an unexpected gift, filled with warmth that we can't take for granted since we never know how long it will last.