I hope everyone is having an easy transition into the fall. Our kids’ school starts on Monday (late, I know!), which means we are still wringing out the last of summer while feeling the first signs of the fall. I’m wearing a bathing suit under my sweater. 

We are recently back from our vacation in California—which was the first time my kids saw my parents in nearly two years! Here are some takeaways from our trip: 

• Southern California remains my forever home away from home.
• The ocean is, as my friend Mollie Chen says, a tonic.
• Watching my kids befriend my oldest friends’ kids is just the best.

It was such a thrill to see family and friends together at my first IRL book party at Pages bookstore in Manhattan Beach. I stood up and spoke about how much it meant to have people come together to support me and my book, and then I read from the friendship chapter of my book, mentioning some of the partygoers by name. It’s a moment I’ll always remember!

Real Simple recently ran an excerpt from this chapter. Pick up a copy of the magazine, or download it below. The accompanying watercolor paintings are so pretty!

Now that I’m home, I’ve started listing the people who went out of their way to help make our trip great (a familiar task if you’ve read the travel chapter of my book), and thinking about how to thank them. I might turn pictures from the trip into postcards (perhaps using the 4x6 Everyday Print Set in Artifact Uprising). 

While I am writing this out, I am starting to feel the stress of the task—that it’s one more thing on an already long September to-do list, that by the time I order the prints and make time to write, too much time will have passed. But I am pausing to tell myself as well as you: There’s no big time crunch. Gratitude notes are a gift, and will be appreciated whenever they arrive. 

And writing the cards will feel good: They will allow me to bask in the warm, sunny feelings of our California trip, and that might be just what I need as our family transitions into the school year in this strange and uncertain time.

Thank YOU for reading.

PS While we’re talking about friendship, check out this charming Washington Post story about the friendship between a two-year-old and a 100-year-old. 

PPS Forward this to a friend you’re grateful for?