Senior year has started! And with it, all the senior year things, like Friday night football games, college applications, crew practice before dawn, Homecoming, Halloween, the Turkey Trot, Spirit Days, and a surprising lack of homework. Life is busy, but in all the best ways. It seems to be exhausting the cat.

Gus is not busy. In fact, I think he’s a little bit lazy. He likes to look at birds at eat yogurt.

He tries to help with the laundry, but he always falls asleep.

Mike and I go to our jobs, cook dinner, buy groceries, wash dirty socks, and try to stay on top of all the school emails and checklists reminding us we’re inadequate parents. Why is high school so intense here? The Schoolbucks are always low, we’ve missed all the Saturday college “help sessions,” we forgot the Job Fair, although I did volunteer to be a judge for the science fair. And yet every day there are more messages and texts, and I’m confused, how does anyone keep up with all of this? Our kids seem okay with us just muddling through, aren’t they okay?

On Saturdays we walk to Brooklyn Bagels or drive to Heidelberg for doughnuts, and occasionally, we splurge on a coffee at the gas station or get a cappuccino from Simona. Even better is splurging on new amaros and vermouths at The Italian Store. Cocchi di Torino is our recent discovery after a dinner at The Red Hen, and Carpano Antica is exquisite, mixed into a Boulvardier. I don’t have a picture of a Bouldvardier, but man, it is good.

Most of this happens in our North Arlington neighborhood, within a two mile radius of our home, that includes the boys’ high school. I love Washington Liberty High School! Surrounded by trees, parks, and pretty houses with front porches, it’s a few blocks from the metro and the Arlington Public Library. As a city campus with 100 years of history, it feels more like a small college than just a high school. Students are proud, the faculty is engaged, and being there feels like being part of something.

High school is not easy, mostly for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual school part, yet Washington Liberty emanates hope and positive energy. Even with the world being as shaky and uncertain as it is right now, the administrators and teachers show these students that’s it’s important to work hard and engage with life. Even the Yondr Pouch, which the kids hate, shows that the adults in the room actually care. What a blessing, to be surrounded by adults who care!

Living in DC creates a backdrop for unique memories, of things our kids would never do if we didn’t live here. They row on the Potomac past the Kennedy Center, take Homecoming pictures in front of Lincoln, drive nice cars to the football games (because we have a friend with nice cars), and scooter over the Key Bridge to Georgetown. Jake plays basketball at Rocky Run Park, and Eli discovered the Georgetown Barnes and Noble one day, when a lost English book needed to be replaced. We ride bikes to the national mall and take walks through Arlington Cemetery, and hear the trumpet at Fort Myer play Taps every night before we go to bed. People here use public transportation, and people here are nice.

The amazing part is that the kids have friends from as many different countries and cultures as we ever encountered in our International schools overseas. The annual Holiday Bazaar at Washington Liberty is unbelievable, with thousands of vendors and families contributing to sell homemade arepas, crepes, baklava, egg rolls, red beans, samosas, soba noodles, boba tea… it’s really incredible what happens there!

Senior year feels busy, too busy sometimes, but we manage okay as long as we keep the refrigerator full of milk and noodles. We are that family now, that buys five gallons of milk a week.

Jake and I had our annual pumpkin spice afternoon at Starbucks, and I showed him the secret to homework, that it’s always more fun to do it in a coffee shop. Or maybe with a cat nearby. It’s nice to know, that even though my kids are not readers or writers or nerdy students like me, at least one of them likes to sit in coffee shops ❤️

Fall was late this year with warm evenings until the end of November, which meant nice weather for Homecoming weekend. On Saturday night, teenagers from all over gathered at the Reflecting Pool for pictures, and I loved seeing everyone dressed up in their high heels and suits. It’s exciting to put on nice clothes and buy flowers and look forward to an evening with friends!

We are so blessed and lucky to have this place, this time, these moments, this life.

We are not on the outside looking in, but rather writing the lines of our story, and surrounded by angels on all sides.