Monday Musings.

Happy Monday, pretties.

Still having issues with the blog — sorry it pretty much looks different every day of the week, but at least you can still read along?!

The last 10 days were a glorious and exhausting parade of family and friends visiting us from all over–San Francisco, Boston, D.C., London–to meet minimagpie. Now that the house has cleared and the dust has settled, I’m left straddling two broad swathes of contradictory emotions: on the one hand, a deep, startlingly biting sadness that my siblings and parents don’t live nearer; on the other, a sense of renewal after so much family time.

I already long for the alternately deep and frivolous conversations with my sisters and mother, as they sat on the floor of mini’s nursery or in bed with me while I nursed; the joyful sound of my nephew’s feet toddling around downstairs; the walks around the neighborhood, flanked with dogs and strollers, taking in this new phase of life and the turning spring weather; the glasses of rose, sitting around, talking for hours with brothers-in-law about life decisions, big and small; the smell of coffee and toast from the kitchen as we woke in the morning; the laughter that punctuated the entire weekend. I will always cherish the night we celebrated C and A’s birthdays. Mr. Magpie had been smoking a brisket since 5 a.m., and the rest of us has been fussing around in the kitchen making sides on and off throughout the day, stirring a pot of stewed green beans by the stove, icing the carrot cake, mincing chives, nibbling on things, grating gouda for the mac and cheese, back-seat-cooking. As we drew closer to dinner time, we were all sitting around the breakfast nook, reminiscing about how dorky we were as children, teasing one another (there was a long and epic joke about my sister L., undisputedly the most gorgeous of our sisterly brood, who had a brief stint as an awkward teen when she wore transitions lenses and braces at the same time….woooooffff…), laughing with reckless abandon, to the point of tears–and our three husbands, laughing along with us. I remember looking around and, in the space of a few seconds, feeling the most intense happiness and profound sadness. Funny how those two opposite emotions can live so closely adjacent to one another. I felt so joyful to have these beautiful, loving, funny people around me–and at the same time, so forlorn about the brevity of their visits. It was the kind of moment that made me wonder why the hell we live so far apart. That made me feel that life is so dramatically short, and that made me wonder why I’m spending so much of it across the country.

{So much food was prepared and consumed over the last 10 days. We are 1/4 Italian, after all.}

So, today, I feel both restored–as though something has been put back in place–and homesick. Sister-sick, really.

But, Monday marches on. Mini needs feeding, Tilly needs walking, and dinner needs cooking.

On an entirely separate note, I have a few upcoming trips and visitors I’m looking forward to and have begun to strategically plan outfits for them. I thought I’d share a few of my favorite spring dress finds, all under $200, and most under $100.