Release Season
By Melanie Dale | February 2026 Newsletter
I’m staring out my office window at the water rushing in the creek behind my house. Much of the year my backyard is wetlands, a Shrek-worthy swamp filled with deer and armadillos, but when it rains—the real Georgia-style, biblical, build-an-ark rains we get here worthy of the gigantic storm drains we have big enough for the largest Pennywise you ever saw—my swamp water rises and a creek forms. The more rain, the faster the muddy water rushes past my window. It feels like life these days.
The storm is here, a good storm, a needed and anticipated deluge, and out of the swamp of my responsibilities, a creek is rising, picking up speed, racing by me. I can’t stop the creek, first a trickle, then a rushing river, so I build a raft and hop on, let it plunge me through the rapids and take me wherever it’s heading. To book launches, to college orientation, to a brand new chapter called empty nesting.
This spring is release season for me. In March, we release You’re In Good Company, in April, I release my first novel, Girl of Lore, and in May, I release my son as he graduates from high school and heads to college to pursue writing.
I’m in the process of peeling my fingers one by one off the death grip I have on my books and kids. It’s time to release the things I’ve made into the world, let it all go into the river of life. It’s scary. The creek behind my house has copperheads, but it also has the promise of adventure.
Are you releasing anyone or anything in the next few months? How’s your death grip? It’s hard to let go, to release control of the things we’ve tended for so long, isn’t it?
Alex and I have been married for a quarter of a century and recently became Grammy and Poppy when our oldest had a baby. If you don’t learn to release things when you become a grandparent, you’ll wrench your shoulders out of socket.
Life comes at you fast. We’ve been binging Veronica Mars and feeling deep nostalgia about our early years together.
As newlyweds living in our little townhouse where we sprang for new carpet and painted every room a different color, we’d make a run to the corner 7-Eleven for slushies and candy, then settle in to watch an entire season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. We had few responsibilities, one bank account, and a whole weekend to enjoy Sunnydale together.
Today we started the morning with our weekly breakfast date, followed by a trip to the bank to get some accounts squared away, and for an hour and a half the weight of adulthood bore down on our shoulders. With small businesses and large children, that one bank account has branched into many. Our love has expanded our life into a full-blown middle-aged set of responsibilities and our minds fill with leaving a legacy.
I release books and kids and whisper, “Make good choices,” as they float away from me, a smile playing at the corner of my mouth. This is the fun part. Happy release season.
I’ve been sharing snapshots of my life with Coffee + Crumbs since the beginning, since my kids were nine, six, and four. You’ve read my preschool stories and elementary shenanigans and what’s fit to print about the teen years. Now they’re mostly grown and things are changing, and I just want to stop for a moment to tell you how grateful I am for this connection we’ve had through stories on the internet. While our kids wandered and bolted and crawled through the stages of childhood, you and I set down virtual camp chairs on the sidelines, sipping coffee and chatting about our lives, and it’s meant the world to me to be here with you. So thanks for raising our kids together. Mine are just about done, at least with the stories I’m allowed to tell. They have their whole lives to tell their own.
With gratitude,
Melanie
Hospitality without the hype. Friendship without the filter.
We wrote another book! You’re in Good Company: The Gift of Friendship, Motherhood, and Showing Up mixes personal stories, reflections, and helpful ideas, all based on the belief that hospitality doesn’t need to be perfect to matter. In this heartfelt collection of essays and recipes, we’re inviting you to rediscover—and even redefine—what hospitality can look like in a busy, lonely world. Hint: it looks less like glamorous dinner parties, and more like ordinary grace around the backyard fire pit. Pre-order today to get this book delivered to your doorstep on March 17, 2026, and don’t forget to snag your pre-order gifts!
C+C Faves
“I keep a note in my phone with the people who live around us: the ones I’ve met, and the ones I hope to. Maybe this is how it begins, not in grand gestures, but just enough openness for someone to meet you halfway.” // How to Meet a Neighbor in Seven Easy Steps by Lauren Chapman
Books on our (collective) nightstands: Spectacular Things, Kristin Lavransdatter, Husbands & Lovers, Why Everything That Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much; The Great Sex Rescue, Heart the Lover, Holy Hygge, Humble Pie, The Frozen River, Anatomy of an Alibi, and our Exhale book club pick, Quickening.
File this under: women of a certain age.
“When the political divide has kept families from talking to one another and people make rash judgements, I want to show my kids another way. I want to be a model for seeing the people before me as God’s beloved.” // Looking up, Bread, Coffee, Neighbor, and what I’m Learning from MVP Words by Kimberly Knowle - Zeller
Don’t we try to love love? Cue all the bows, hearts, and pink/red everything like: these high-rise bow track pants, this heart frame craft, this embossed bow candle, sweetheart candle, and this heart garland.
Related: this post on how to be a low-effort, high-reward holiday mom by Caroline Chambers.
“Friendships formed as I put myself out there—with all my insecurities and fears. Not every invitation led to a best friend, but I learned I would never know unless I took the first step to say hello.” // Crying Into Chili by Bethany Broderick
The C+C podcast is back with new episodes to listen to and share with friends: You’re In Good Company, We’ll Be Your Family, Expect the Mess, The Hospitable Power of Words, our latest bonus episode: Unscripted: Taking Care of Each Other.
What if we just hosted more dinners?
“‘That girl over there couldn’t pay for her dinner, so the man standing next to her did. And then he was walking away, and she ran up to him and gave him a hug. Seeing things like that gives me hope, you know? Like there are still good people out there?’” // Hope Core and Joy Bait by Joy Nicholas
We love this mother/daughter journal as both a keepsake and a connection point.
“But we don’t stay there—that’s what friendship does. How else do you explain the mystery of showing up at a park lost and leaving feeling found? When we are seen for who we are at our worst and still loved, woah. That’s friendship.” // An Unscheduled Connection by Ashley Elizabeth.
A few of our favorite things: mongolian cashmere slouch socks, a pretty electric lighter, Same (a book of poetry that would make a great Galentine’s gift!), these jeans, and this skincare duo.
Reading skills, but make them tactile.
“To have children is to consider the act of time travel very seriously. It is to send your actions forever into the future. It is to dare to believe that a piece of you belongs there.” // I Hope You’ll Want to Have Kids by Kathryn Watson
Veronica Mars just got added to Netflix, and we’re in early 2000s nostalgia heaven.
We’re all for simple. Like this Super Bowl party in a box. And instant bone broth (find it at Costco!). And three-ingredient Trader Joe’s lentil dip.
“There will be other losses. Other hard seasons. Big ones, in fact. And like an old friend, grief will come back—not to ruin me, but to sit beside me. To remind me what I care about.” // What I Know: Grief is a Friend by Claire Trost
In our earbuds: this episode of Raising Boys & Girls on Helpful Habits for the New Year, the Ezra Klein Show’s Is Your Social Life Missing Something? and this episode on Faith, Food, and the Power of the Table.
Don’t sleep on Creative Speed Dating hosted by two of our fave gals.
“If God made us emotional beings, and some of us have bigger, more incendiary emotions than others, What do we do? God, tell us, what do we do with our anger?” // To the Angry Ones by Sonya Spillmann
A little luxury: this collagen overnight mask.
"Recently deleted all social media and being a paid subscriber is now my reward. 🖤"
— Danica P.
Serve Sarah’s Strawberry, Basil + Goat Cheese Panini at your Galentine’s brunch or day date lunch. 🍓
Know someone who would love Coffee + Crumbs? Feel free to share our work with a friend (you can even earn free months in the process)! ❤️
Love this Melanie! ❤️
Thank you for writing this, Melanie. And thank you for writing in general. Your words have always helped me with my own.