Talk to Me Thursday: The Week That Reminded Me What Matters Most
We're back.
Back to the routine, back to the schedule, back to the lunches packed and the alarms set and the normal rhythm of a week that actually looks like a week. And honestly? After the rollercoaster we just had, I am so grateful for ordinary.
Let me catch you up.
The recital
Lennon had her spring dance recitals last weekend — Friday and Saturday — and I don't even know where to begin when it comes to describing them because beautiful and perfect don't feel like enough.
But I'll start with Friday, because Friday was something special that I didn't expect.
I had the honor of working backstage.
I was with the little girls — the youngest dancers in the studio — and they were just the sweetest, most precious human beings. Tiny buns, nervous energy, costumes they kept wanting to adjust, whispered questions about whether their mamas were out there. I was tying ribbons and giving pep talks and watching these little ones work themselves up to the moment they'd been practicing for all year.
And then getting to watch pieces of the show from the wings — standing just offstage while the music played and the lights moved and the dancers did what they'd been working toward — I felt something I can only describe as being exactly where I was supposed to be. In my element. Present in a way that's hard to manufacture.
Saturday I was in the audience, and watching Lennon from out front — really watching her, seeing the full picture — was breathtaking. She was so confident. So herself. And the studio, the community, the level of care that goes into every single performance? It reminded me why we made the decision to move to this studio. We are exactly where we're supposed to be. She is exactly where she's supposed to be.
And then Saturday night happened
We were walking out of the recital — still riding the high, Lennon looking like a mini teenager all grown up, flowers in hand — when it became clear very quickly that something wasn't right.
She got sick.
And just like that, the weekend shifted.
The plans we had quietly started to dissolve — the things I'd imagined doing for Mother's Day, the way I thought the week would go. Instead we moved into sick day mode. Slow mornings. Movies on the couch. Snuggles that lasted longer than usual because she needed them and honestly so did I.
Mother's Day looked different than I'd planned. Canceled brunch plans. Canceled dinner plans.
But here's what I keep coming back to: I was right where I needed to be.
There is something about being the person your child reaches for when they don't feel well that cuts right to the heart of what motherhood is. Not the highlight reel version — not the flowers and the brunches and the perfectly captioned photos — but the 2 AM temperature checks and the keeping it together when they're scared and the being a soft place to land when the world feels hard.
That's the job. And I wouldn't trade it.
What this week reminded me
I think sometimes we build up the big moments — the recitals, the holidays, the milestone days — and then life has its own plans and we have to decide how we're going to hold that.
This week I got magic I didn't expect backstage on Friday. I got beauty I couldn't have predicted watching Lennon on that stage Saturday. And I got something quieter and just as important in the sick day snuggles that followed — a reminder that showing up for the unplanned moments is just as much a part of this as showing up for the ones you've had on the calendar for months.
We're back in our routine now. Lennon is feeling better. The recital is already something we're talking about like it was a long time ago even though it was just days.
And I'm sitting here grateful — for backstage moments and front-row seats and sick day snuggles and the messy, beautiful, completely unpredictable gift of getting to be her mom.
Real life. Real magic. Real dreams. ✨
If this resonated with you, I'd love to hear about your week in the comments. What was your unexpected moment this week?
xoxo,
Katie