Good morning! I was reflecting on the concept of “honoring the season of life you’re in,” and it made me think about all of the different Magpies at different phases of life right now: newborn years, career-building, empty nesting, pregnancy, diagnosis or recovery, the busy middle of motherhood…! I thought it might be interesting to kick off a series of posts in which we solicit advice from our sister figures who are navigating or have just navigated some of these meaty phases of life. In general, I’m wondering how we can approach these transitions with curiosity and grace.
Today, I want to invite the empty nesters among us to share their experiences. I’ve been thinking about these ladies because one of my girlfriends is two years out from sending her youngest off to college and told me that she is planning to sell her suburban home and move into a townhome downtown so she can and her husband can walk to dinner, take in cultural events, live a more pedestrian lifestyle. I thought that was fascinating, and so exciting for her. I also admired her forethought; she is clearly preparing to embrace the next set of years as a different phase of life. I’ve had other mom friends talk about dreading the quiet after their children are out of the home, and I know one former neighbor who moved out of state to follow her daughter to college — so many emotions, approaches, perspectives bubbling behind these decisions. I’m curious to hear from Magpies who no longer have children at home:
What advice do you have for mothers preparing for this transition?
What do you wish you had known?
What do you wish you could tell yourself about this phase as your younger self were heading into it?
Taking an even longer view, what would you tell those of us in the younger years of matrescence, knowing what you know about preparing children for the real world and sending them out into it?
Post-Scripts.
+What we inherited from our grandmothers.
Shopping Break.
+I’m obsessed with these new active/casual shorts from Faherty. The piping! The colors! So cute!
+A restock on the azure blue tee that sold out almost immediately when it launched earlier this season! I own and LOVE this. Perfect with white jeans.
+This skirt is at the top of my summer shopping list. LOVE the pattern. This should have be included in my New England packing list!
+This very popular and very chic denim jacket from Ulla J. was just restocked. SO GOOD. A perfect finishing touch to any sundress.
+A must-have for sandal season. IT’S SO GOOD and effective.
+Gorgeous and easy to wear dress for FOJ and other peak summer activities. My other top rec for the holiday here.
+Fine jewelry designer Dana Rebecca is offering a rare 19% off (to celebrate the business’s 19-year anniversary) — wow. I wear these crossover huggies all the time — low profile, elegant, go with everything, a tiny bit of bling! Also a good time to buy one of their beautiful letter pendants or initial charms to celebrate the birth of a child, a graduation…or just yourself!
+My kids’ favorite summer sandals. Just ordered for the season ahead. Love that you can just hose them down. (But I miss the Footmates years — I loveeee how Emory’s chubby little feet looked in these.)
+Two very different mats that I love: this cushioned standing mat for washing dishes (the surface is waterproof/wipeable, which is essential with all the dripping when I’m moving plates onto a drying rack!, and the cushion really helps with that fatigue of standing there and cleaning for long stretches!) and this fitness mat, which is twice as thick as (and far more cushioned than) most normal yoga mats, and also folds up to double as a block. I absolutely love this thing. I use it every other morning for strength training / core work and I notice such a big difference on my wrists and knees while doing planks, bear crawls, push-ups, kneeling reps, etc. Can’t rec either of these more. LOVE.
+SERIOUSLY cute Americana-themed Minnow launch to buy now and pull out in July: this strawberry print one piece! This scoopneck for us! This knit set! OMG, I added about fifteen items to my wishlist cart! The summer we went to Aspen, CO, that was honestly my packing plan — I bought them each a shorts set, a striped sweater, and a fun new swimsuit from Minnow, and it was exactly right, and they always looked sort of coordinated. And check out this adorable white dress / cover-up for us…the details!
+I want to layer that dress over my new swimsuit!
+Another great pair of pull-on shorts. I love them in the Weston wash and the gingham!
+Hotel Lobby’s very popular hand wash was just restocked. I love it in the signature and Hamptons scents.
+I mentioned those Hart charms as a great gift for grads / friends / etc navigating moments of transition — I also found this cool NYC-based charm company called Jet Set Candy that does really clever ones like engravable boarding passes for a honeymoon / trip of a lifetime / new chapter in a new city / etc.
SHOP ALL OF THESE ITEMS AND MORE IN THIS VEIN HERE
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