When I was a brand new mom I was pretty much afraid to leave the house on my own. It was so daunting. What if my baby cried, was hungry, or needed a diaper change? How would I handle this?

As I plan the logistics of Thanksgiving, opening up our table, making the grocery list, figuring out who is bringing what, I am also thinking about the emotional and spiritual dimension to our time together.

When I pictured the life of an empty-nester, I pictured freedom, relief, possibility. And while I have definitely had moments of that, it has not been the defining feature of my year.

I love the feeling of abundance and feel sad that we are often encouraged to limit, to have less, to need less.

Now that my kids are off to college and out of the house, Gideon and I are rethinking how we spend our time, energy and money.

Making time to eat a proper lunch daily has been challenging for me. I met with Glenys Oysten, an amazing Intuitive Eating/Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned nutritionist recently and one of my goals she and I came up with is to put lunch back on the table (pun intended).