The first day of school is now 6 days away. Which means we have exactly 6 days left to do ALL THE SUMMER THINGS.

(Mini golf, check.)

I love the fall - perhaps slightly so less out here in California, where fall isn’t all gorgeous foliage and strolls through quaint villages, and is rather “that time when I can’t use the pool anymore” - but this summer has been especially epic, and I’m going to be bummed to see it go. It’s not just the change in weather that’ll be a shift for me, though: my daughter is going into preschool, and my son is going into kindergarten, and so from 9AM to 2PM every day it’ll just be…me.

That rug? Is from Costco. (I KNOW).

I was thirty one years old before I ever set foot in a Costco. (I understand that this is tragic, believe me.) I'd heard that fellow citydwellers occasionally made the exodus to the warehouses located in the 'burbs to stock up on toilet paper and such, but that sounded like a whole lot of hassle, not to mention a hassle that would have resulted in me needing to use stacks of Charmin' as a coffee table (storage space in our apartment was, as they say, "at a premium").

Then I moved to the Hudson Valley, and Kendrick and I made our first voyage to the land of a thousand cheese-dip options, thereby kicking off an obsession bordering on the religious. The snacks! The fancy cheeses! The steaks! THE FURNITURE. That last one is a fairly recent discovery of mine - I'd always just skirted around the edges of the store, picking up paper towels and coffee pods, but a few weeks ago a Costco recently opened up about five minutes away from me, and for whatever reason it's virtually empty during the weekday hours...and so I've spent a lot of time there over the past couple of weeks wandering into the previously-undiscovered lands of rugs and such.

Over the past couple of years, my son and I have been in a bit of a war about clothing - and it is a war that I have very slowly been losing, as the items that I pick out slowly get moved towards the back of his dresser, replaced by piles of gym shorts and t-shirts with pictures of pizza on them.

I would have better luck getting him to be nice to his sister for an entire week (IMAGINE?!?) than I would getting him to put a pair of jeans on his body. Collared shirts? Forget it. Anything that does not, to his mind, qualify as “soft” (which is a very specific term that does not include items that I myself consider soft, like a technically extremely soft shirt that also has a button located somewhere on it) is a no-go.

Now he’s going into kindergarten, which means he’s officially starting his journey through the insanity that is elementary school. I know from vast personal experience how tricky it can be to find your footing in this crazy new world where kids mock you for having the wrong backpack/friends/taste in food/hobbies/everything. I know how it feels to want to - and then fail to - fit in, so my plan is to teach him that nobody gets to tell him what’s cool except for himself. And one little way I can start is by letting him explore the idea of personal style - which may sound silly; superficial even…but I’ve always believed that when we get dressed in the morning we paint a picture of how we want others to see us, and, more importantly, paint a picture of how we see ourselves. That’s a decision that I think he should start making for himself.

Business in the front...

I own a skort. (I know this may be painful for you to hear. I'm sorry.)

It's not my fault, exactly - it's just that I love the idea of a skirt, but almost never actually wear one because a) it's hard for me to find one that flatters my swizzle sticks, and b) Although my underwear is actually pretty cute nowadays (thank you Gap Breathe), let's skip having the neighborhood see it, shall we? (Related: I trip a lot.)

This picture has so many things I love in it. First, my still-cuddle-aged son (always cuddle with meeeeeeee). Second, my Crocs sandals that still - yes, STILL - are my go-tos, like fifty thousand years after I first announced that they were perfect. Third, that completely glamorous Shop Strands beach towel, which was a gift from my completely glamorous friend Audrey. And finally, that bathing suit: it's by Summersalt (hee), and has little mesh cutout panels and a low back, and is suuuuuper flattering (it also comes in black if white suits aren't your thing).

On my lips every day this summer: Eos lip balm in Fresh Grapefruit (with SPF 30).

They probably have toddlers at home. (Female Dragonflies Fake Death To Avoid Males Harassing Them For Sex, via Newsweek.)