Home sweet home.
And definitely sad about it.
Typically, I’m excited to come home following vacation. I love traveling, but there is nothing like being home. Except when we leave 30A. I never want to come home from 30A. Alas, we are home from 30A, sun-kissed and content after a beautiful week.
This was the kind of family vacation that just worked. It was just us and Riley, who has been part of our family for over three years now, so he doesn’t count. The weather showed off. Cool mornings and evenings, and warm days boasting uninterrupted blue skies. The water along 30A is flawless. The kind that you can see right through to the bottom, no matter how far out you are. The kind that’s always the most stunning emerald.
The only decisions we had to make were which of our favorite restaurants to go to for lunch and which to go to for dinner, who was sitting where, and whether a glass or a bottle would suffice.
Oh my goodness, I’m just kidding. We NEVER have to decide between glass and bottle. It’s always the bottle. Sancerre season has arrived, friends. We put together a puzzle, we painted one another with themes, and we had the absolute best time. Everyone was in a wonderful mood, and we laughed constantly.
And then, just like that, the week ended, and we were thrust back into real life. Home in time to make Carter’s football game on Saturday and send the kids back to school on Monday. But don’t worry…we did spend several hours at the nursery on Sunday doing my favorite thing: Plant shopping.
And now the backpacks and lunchboxes are out again. The calendar is filled with one million things to do. And today is officially the first day of April, so I have to say things like ‘when the kids get out of school next month,’ and ‘when Addy graduates next month,’ and try not to cry.
When I tell you we had the most magical week, I mean it. Just as much as I mean it when I tell you, reality bitch slapped us the moment we arrived home. The kids went back to school, and we immediately had a 4-hour track meet for one child, the senior cheer banquet for another, a Botox appointment, a flag football game, flag football practice, and a long list of AVID Island supplies to pick up and turn in. And that’s just the first two days of the week.
Senior events are popping up left and right. We have three sporting events this week, four sporting events next week, the senior prom, an appointment with the allergist, an appointment with the orthodontist, hair and nail appointments, and so much more next week…and did I forget this weekend is Easter weekend? I absolutely did forget that.
So, as I sit here welcoming a new month that officially ushers in the eight busiest weeks of our lives, I remind myself that it’s just a moment. This chaos is just a chapter in the story of 2026, and no amount of exhaustion can take away from the fact that I do get to live this beautiful life with the people that I love the most.
Even though I’ll definitely be muttering, ‘one day I’ll miss this,’ under my breath as my stadium chair and I make our way up the bleachers alone to watch another flag football game my husband can’t attend because he’s got flag football practice for another of our children.
Welcome to what I like to call what the fuck is happening and was this on the calendar season. One day I’ll miss this.
But I do have some seriously good content coming this week in April, so…you’re welcome.
Tiffany Raiford 