So, happy Monday everybody. I spent most of the weekend feeling like congealed gravy. It was a a mixture of (deep breath): Allergies/menopause/overwhelm/parenting two boys who are tweens/AND also I finished a really good book and didn’t have a NEW book to replace it this weekend so I was adrift.

You know what I mean. Right?

But it’s MONDAY and I’m gonna just MONDAY the living daylights out of it. This morning, I got up before dawn and put on a hoodie (#nobraseason) and left for very early coffee on my friend’s front porch. Her porch makes me feel like I am on an Alpine vacation and since it’s very possible I will be spending a good part of my day later doing very un-vacationey things like cleaning and working, this little Alpine retreat was a great start to my day. One can always hold a tiny slice of 7 am Swiss Alps in our hearts to help tide us over when later we are trying to understand why teenagers leave trails of Slim Jim wrappers everywhere they go, like slugs with a thing for protein.

Four of us were there, surrounded by fuzzy blankets and a whole lot of pumpkin spice creamer, and at 7 am, before the sun, we proceeded to dive into: insecurities/overwork/children/fear/parenting/healing/perspective/aging/& how chobani pumpkins spice creamer are the best.

Again, this was all at seven am. We are like the Navy Seals of introspective self-healing folk.

All this mental communion then motivated me to go for a run. So basically I have turned a corner on the congealed gravy thing.

Look, I’ve been married for a while now, and my husband is my best friend. But. My girl friends? They are my sister-friends. I need them so desperately. To be honest I wasn’t always like this. It took turning fifty, menopause, and just a whole lot of life to really help me see and value and NEED these women in my life.

And, I’m thankful for early runs and Monday restarts and sun that slants on a crisp morning and makes you feel like anything in this life is possible. Oh and pumpkin spice creamer because I’m basic I guess?

And allergy meds. Oh thank you sweet Lord.

But today I am just mostly forever grateful for my girlfriends.

My sister friends.