Pull Up a Chair: May 22, 2026

Well friends, another Friday has rolled around and honestly, I am not entirely sure how we got here so quickly. May always seems to move at two completely different speeds. Some days drag on forever while others disappear before I have even figured out what day it actually is. One minute you are talking about Easter leftovers and pollen season, and the next thing you know everyone is discussing Memorial Day cookouts and whether or not it is too early to put the patio cushions outside for good.

Around here, the answer is always “probably,” but we do it anyway.

This week has been one of those weeks where life felt busy without necessarily feeling productive. Do you know the kind I mean? You are constantly doing something, constantly moving, constantly answering questions or handling little things, but somehow at the end of the day you still wonder what exactly got accomplished. I think adulthood is mostly just discovering there are endless invisible tasks nobody warned us about.

Life at Shady Pines

The free-range seniors here at Shady Pines have continued keeping life interesting, which is honestly not surprising at this point. I am fairly certain quiet and peaceful living simply is not part of the family business model.

At some point this week, a conversation started about reorganizing something in the kitchen, which somehow turned into three people standing around debating containers from 1997 that nobody wants to throw away “just in case.” I would love to tell you this was resolved quickly and rationally, but that would not be accurate. There are probably families out there calmly decluttering together, but ours appears to approach it like a courtroom trial.

Meanwhile, someone decided it was already hot enough outside to complain continuously about summer humidity, despite the fact that actual summer has not even officially started yet. In Georgia, though, once temperatures cross a certain line, everyone begins speaking exclusively in weather complaints until at least October.

Honestly, I respect the consistency.

This Week in the Wilderness

I have reached that point in May where my planner looks optimistic but my energy level absolutely does not. There are blog posts to write, projects to finish, things to organize, and approximately forty-seven tabs open in my brain at all times.

I keep telling myself I am going to get ahead this week. Then somehow it becomes Thursday and I am standing in the kitchen wondering why I walked in there in the first place while also mentally planning dinner, remembering an email I forgot to answer, and trying to decide if I realistically have enough social energy left to interact with another human being that day.

The answer is often “questionable.”

At least coffee continues to hold this entire operation together.

Things I’m Loving This Week

One thing about late May is that the produce starts getting better, and honestly that improves my mood immediately. Fresh strawberries, watermelon showing up in stores again, tomatoes beginning to taste like actual tomatoes instead of disappointment… this is the season where food starts feeling lighter and fresher again.

I have also fully entered my “sit outside for absolutely no reason” phase of the year. Not because it is comfortable yet, because by afternoon it feels approximately seventeen degrees from the surface of the sun, but because there is something about late spring evenings that makes the whole world feel softer.

Even if the mosquitoes are already acting like unpaid vampires.

A Moment of Peace and Quiet

One of my favorite moments this week happened completely by accident. Early one morning, before the house fully woke up, everything was quiet except for the birds outside and the sound of coffee brewing in the kitchen. The sunlight was coming through the window just enough to make everything feel calm for a few minutes.

No phones ringing. No questions. No rushing around.

Just quiet.

Those moments never last long around here, but I appreciate them more these days when they do happen. Life gets noisy very quickly, and sometimes peace shows up in the smallest possible ways. A quiet kitchen. A slower morning. A few minutes where nobody needs anything from you.

Honestly, that counts as luxury at this point.

Before You Go

As May starts winding down and summer inches closer, I am trying to remind myself not to rush through this season too quickly. It is easy to get caught up in what needs to happen next, what still needs to get done, and all the things waiting for our attention. But there is also something nice about letting life be a little ordinary sometimes.

Not every week has to be groundbreaking to still matter.

Sometimes surviving the week, laughing where you can, keeping everybody fed, and finding a few quiet moments in between is more than enough.

So wherever this Friday finds you, I hope you manage to carve out at least a little time for yourself this weekend. Sit outside for a while. Drink something cold. Ignore the laundry for an extra hour if necessary. The world will survive.

And if all else fails, pull up a chair and stay awhile. There is always room for you here.