"Since meeting Alex in 2009, our own living space has always been pushed to the bottom of our list of priorities. In the 10 years we’ve been together, we’ve built several workshops, a barn, a timber-framed kiln shed, two stores, a 15,000 square foot ceramics manufacturing facility and office space, and had a couple of kids—but at the expense of tending our own garden, so to speak. When I was pregnant with our youngest daughter, Lucia, we bought a 'project' and thought about putting ourselves in debt for decades to make it a dream home. Praise be, we got it off our hands before we dove in. We’re renting now, and it feels really good. This house was the family home for a power couple of the craft community here—Hoss Haley and Leslie Noell. Leslie’s the Director of Programs at the Penland School of Crafts and Hoss is a sculptor. They lived here for 18 years or so before moving to Penland full-time. We got so lucky—the home is so perfect for our kids, with swings in the front and back, a tree house, a great porch, and an outdoor stove. There were even gates on the staircase when we moved in!"

Connie and Vita wear matching Tango Pajamas by Suku.

"Colorful, playful, and sometimes serious, with art, craft, and objects made by friends, co-workers, parents, and grandparents—a hodgepodge collection of capital 'A' Art, junk we call 'art', kid 'art', and useful everyday stuff that brings us joy or nostalgia or both."

“Henri Matisse is my husband Alex's great-grandfather. Alex's father, Paul Matisse, is an artist-inventor. His grandfather, Pierre Matisse, was a gallerist in New York, responsible for launching the artistic careers of artists like Miro, Giacometti, Chagall, and Dubuffet, to name a few. Pierre was married to Alexina Sattler, my husband's grandmother, who everyone referred to as ‘Teeny.’ They later divorced and Teeny married Marcel Duchamp, who was a very involved, loving member of the family. Alex's father, Paul, spent most of his life grappling with how to shrug off the shadow of his family name and taking efforts to stay quiet, outside the public eye—despite being a true artistic genius! Growing up, Alex felt a lot of shame around his family's history. We could write a book about it, but to get to the point, as we raise our own girls, we're trying to both celebrate their rich family history (there are so many great kids' books about Matisse!) while trying to model how to live our own lives in a way that's honest to ourselves. When Alex moved from the Northeast to Madison County, North Carolina, he was kind of running away.  As he puts it, he needed to set out on his own and set up shop at the end of an old tobacco field in a dark corner of the mountains to figure out how he was going to contribute to the world in a way that gave a grateful nod to his great-grandfather's legacy but was very much his own thing."

"Only in so much as I started embracing the art of throwing everything into (beautiful) baskets. I’m never ever gonna be one of those moms that has a place for everything. Just thinking about that Instagram feed @thehomeedit gives me anxiety. But baskets! That’s a mom-hack I can get behind."

"I like to let the chips fall where they may—is that how that saying goes? I don’t think I’ve ever gone online or into a store looking for objects for my home specifically—except when Alex and I, at 24, spent a good year hunting down a dresser big enough for the both of us. We gather things slowly and as they’re needed, always leaving space for happy accidents."

A beautiful pottery moment, courtesy of East Fork.

"In my fantasy world I have an office with a clear desk, tons of light streaming through the window, a comfortable chair to read in, and breakable art on the floor, with not a Calico Critter in sight. That fantasy is very, very far from my reality, but a girl can dream."

"Oh, how I wish! I’ve ended up with two very 'special' sleepers. Vita didn’t take a nap that wasn’t on my body or in the car until she was 18 months old. Trying to get her in a crib looked like sick, twisted tragicomedy (our brief foray into CIO brought about a lot of smashing her head against the wall and projectile vomiting. I didn’t fare much better). We’ve had slightly better luck with getting Lui to sleep in a crib—she’ll start out in there and make it maybe 2 hours before getting in bed with me. Alex doesn’t even bother trying to sleep in our room anymore. He and Vita sleep in the full size bed in the 'kid' room, while Lui and I nurse-wrestle-sleep all night."

A family favorite, Rosie Revere, Engineer.

"Photos of Vita with my mom and Alex’s mom hang above her bed. It’s so hard living so far away from her grandmas—we say goodnight to both of them every night."

"The dining room. When Alex and I go out to eat, even when we’re with the kids, we’re always the first to arrive, last to leave. We like to take a long time at the table—even if we’re just eating takeout or a snack. It’s where we catch up, reconnect, teach rules and manners, nourish—drink a lot of wine."

"I love our upstairs bathroom, with its big claw foot tub and weird, slanted ceiling, window that looks onto our pretty backyard, and a tile ledge to put my wine/phone/book that I carry around but never actually read. These days I do pretty much zero relaxing in my own home, but I try to sneak at least one scalding hot bubble bath into my week."

"Absolutely possible that this was just due to some strange reconfiguring of my hormonal cocktail, but immediately on becoming pregnant I became drastically more emotionally stable. When Alex and I got together I was 24, deep in existential crisis, and a total fucking trainwreck. I judged everyone and everything, including myself. I threw some unforgettable drunk tantrums in public places. I cried every single day. I felt really trapped in Asheville—like Alex had captured me and locked me into a tower in the beautiful castle he’d built for himself, though staying here was 100% my choice. My guess is that my oral contraceptive had something to do with my mood shift, because immediately after coming off of it I felt in control of my emotional well-being more than I had in a decade. I am not recommending anyone coming off their birth control and I am not suggesting that motherhood makes you more emotionally stable, but that’s how it was for me. Getting pregnant was the kick in the pants I needed to stop wasting my potential. It put the world in sharper view. It made me so much less selfish."

"It’s such a pleasure to know two humans so intimately, to have kissed every corner of their small bodies, to know their smell and their expressions and their voices so well, but still to be surprised by them every day. Watching my girls discover themselves and their world is the most tender, personal joy I’ve ever known."

Another modern kiddo classic, Counting on Community.

"That I don’t spend enough time with them, that they’ll resent me for working too much, that their bodies will continue to be politicized and policed, that there won’t be clean water or breathable air or food on our planet by the time they’re having children of their own, that they’ll be bullied, that they’ll be bullies, that they’ll develop a terminal illness, the imminent threat of nuclear or biological war. You know, the usual."

"Vita cut her own hair the other day (she snuck scissors into her jacket pocket and did the deed in her car seat). 'Mama, don’t I look so beautiful? I love my new haircut. Don’t you love it?' It was pretty bad, but why would I tell her that? So instead I said, 'Of course you do, baby. You’re so beautiful. And next time you want a haircut, let me know and we’ll go somewhere you can sit in a cool seat and they’ll give you a lollipop.' I guess that’s my parenting style. I lose my temper more than I thought I would. I’m distracted. I don’t do the arts and crafts projects I always imagined myself doing. I don’t even get to pick them up for school or daycare. But I’m determined to give them the space to be their own people and support them in whatever choices they make for themselves, so long as those choices aren’t harmful to others. And I guess other’s might call me a 'relaxed' mom, even though I don’t always feel that way. I’l post a video of Lui feeding herself or Vita dancing in a self-styled get up, and then get a lot of DMs from sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes just plain judgey mom-strangers saying things like, 'I love how you’re raising your children so wild' or 'You seem like such a relaxed mom' or 'Wow, it seems like you drink a lot of wine.' I get the impression that my parenting style is maybe looser or less structured than others. I wouldn’t have thought that unless the comparison existed—our house has plenty of rules!"

"We had a lot of fun in my house—we went on road trips, swam all summer, threw parties, played sports. My own mom is a literal superwoman, but selfless to a fault. She was a criminal defense attorney, but that didn’t stop her from dropping and picking all four of us up from four different schools, being my Girl Scouts leader, leaving love notes in our elaborate school lunches, making dinner every night, decorating the house from top to bottom every holiday, showing up with painted signs to every softball game. She never slept, never took any time for herself. Now that all her children are grown, she’s at the height of her career, but her body is exhausted and starting to give out on her. My parents were my biggest cheerleaders, but they were protective and overly strict in ways that were well-intentioned but harmful. (This strictness only applied to me, the oldest. My younger siblings didn’t experience this.) I wasn’t allowed to see The Babysitter’s Club (too much attitude), wasn’t allowed to shave my legs (too promiscuous), couldn’t date (duh), and didn’t know what a condom was until 10th grade (cuz why would I need to?). They scared me out of drinking or smoking pot by telling me horrifying stories about their clients getting in car accidents and then getting locked up for life. 'Triple homicide on that corner last week,' they’d say on the way to school. The fear factor worked—I avoided the 'wrong crowd', got straight A's, all of that—but when I made mistakes I was made to feel like a real disappointment. I carried a lot of shame around for a long time and I think I still do. Combined with a Catholic school upbringing and an obnoxious hyper-self-awareness of all the ways in which being a human on this planet is harmful to said planet gives me this guilty-conscious that I can’t seem to shake."

"Open your heart wide open to the wild, wild world. Throw all your expectations out the window. Take the opportunity to stop giving a shit about what other people think of you or the choices you make for your body and your baby and your family (so long as none of your choices are hurting others, of course!). If you’re nursing or pumping, get yourself some Happy Ducts and take it the second you start feeling any signs of mastitis (that shit works) and if you plan on giving birth vaginally, 'sphincter law' and 'horse lips'—Google it."

"No matter how sweet and empathetic and loving kid #1 is, you’re going to run into the whole what-the-heck-is-this-thing-sucking-my-mother’s-attention-away-from-me thing. Taking Vita on one-on-one excursions has been a lifesaver. Start the habit as early as possible (I wish I’d started sooner). Ice cream dates, an hour in the park, whatever makes sense for you and your big kid. Vita loves to get our fanciest outfits on and go out to dinner. I let her choose my whole look—she always picks my wedding dress or rehearsal dinner dress and usually I oblige (I have no shame in this small town). We put on lipstick and wear fancy purses—the whole nine yards—and go out for a meal, just the two of us."

Some of Connie's beauty essentials. More on this later...

"We didn’t give Vita her name until she was 3 days old. We had a bunch of contenders, but with just a few days knowing her we knew Vita was right. She’s a spunky one—full of life. Rose is my middle name and I always knew if I had a daughter, she’d be a Rose, too. Alex grew up reading this book called Louhi, Witch of North Farm. We loved the idea of calling our baby girl Louhi. I labored by myself in the bathtub in the middle of the night while Alex and Vita slept. Day began to break. With Lui I hardly thought about being pregnant or the baby growing inside me, but when morning came and I knew I’d meet her soon, it felt like I’d known her my whole life. 'Lucia, Lucia, Lucia.' Lui’s middle name, Marcel, comes from her other great grandfather, Marcel Duchamp."

"Vita loves to dance. She takes it maybe too seriously. I try to dance with her but she tells me to 'Please get off the stage.' She likes Cardi B’s 'I Like It', Rihanna’s 'Needed Me', Flamenco classics, and the 'Logo Te Pate' track from the Moana soundtrack, in that order. She also loves wearing princess clothes and putting on a full-face of makeup, even though I did everything I possibly could to keep the gender binary out of her worldview. Kids, man. They do what they want. Lui loves making friends, hugging and kissing babies, her big sister, sitting on tiny seats, and nursing all night long."

"Vita’s deeply observant. Nothing gets by this kid. She knows when Alex and I are stressed or overwhelmed, even when we do our best to mask it. She remembers everything that happens to her and every story people tell her. She’ll bring up stuff that happened before she was verbal—it’s wild! And she has a bizarrely acute sense of smell. Lui puts off this air of pure sweetness, but she’s a feisty little thing. She’s fiercely independent—she already wants to do everything on her own. And she won’t stand to be pushed around by big kids. Few things make me prouder than watching her stick up for herself."

"I’ll forever be learning from my own flawed but ferociously loving mother and grandmother. I try not to make role models of strangers—it’s like trying to learn from a book by only reading the introduction."

Zuma, 14. Or, as Connie calls him, "our depressed and often looked-over old dog."

"Like so many of us, I feel myself becoming more and more like my mother every day—even in ways I swore I wouldn’t. Like my mother, I say yes to everything, I never cut corners when throwing a party, I can be quick to judge, I’m not scared of calling people out and in in the face of injustice, and I always call people by their name if they’re wearing a name tag, even though, growing up, this embarrassed me to no end. My mom walked into any room of strangers or down any new street with an air of knowing exactly what she was doing and where she was going, even when she didn’t. I’ve learned this from her, and I’m so glad I did—though I try to admit when I’m wrong and be more open to learning. Unlike my mother, I’m trying to remember to put my own mask on before helping others."

"One time, before I was a parent, I was hanging out with a kid I nannied for in his parent’s office: 'Those are my mom’s books about being a good parent. She reads a lot of them, but I don’t think they work.'"

"I think that no matter how many books we read or motherhood groups we sit in, we’re all gonna end up doing what comes naturally to us. If you read a book and you vibe with it on a philosophical level, but when it comes around to putting it into practice it just doesn’t feel right, you’re gonna feel like a phony. There are a million good ways to be a parent, but none of them involve doing something that doesn’t come naturally to you. If you feel like you’re faking it, chances are your kid’s gonna notice. Don’t try to be another mother. Mother your children the best way you know how."

Kids being kids.

"No matter how hard you try, sometimes you’re going to let yourself down, your partner down, your kids down, your mom down. Your partner is going to let you down. Your friends are going to let you down. Forgive yourself. Forgive your partner. Forgive your friends. Forgive your kids. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself."

"When Vita, my oldest, was a baby, I was hyped up on new mama adrenaline, only working about 10 hours a week for East Fork and dabbling in some grad school classes. I was a freaking force in the kitchen. Alex would come home from work to 5-course meals. I’d cook elaborate Thai feasts, Lebanese feasts, Italian feasts, Mexican feasts. From the Momofuku cookbook, I’d make my own alkaline noodles for ramen and my own steamed buns for pork buns, never cutting a corner. That was then. These days my favorite word is takeout. I am not ashamed. Takeout is great. I still love to cook, but keep it simpler. I’ve got a knack for opening an empty cupboard and turning it into dinner—it’s my secret skill. This week we had pasta with chopped artichoke hearts, half a red onion, olives, (very old) sundried tomatoes that I reconstituted in some red wine vinegar, pine nuts from the back of the freezer (a quick trip in a hot pan woke them up), very wilty but still flavorful parsley, and a lot of garlic and olive oil. When it gets cold out we cook pretty exclusively in our Donabe. It’s a Japanese clay pot that you put on the stove—it seems intimidating, but it’s an easy way to make really delicious, soul-warming meals that feel fancy but come together quickly. Everything in this book is fabulous."

"Both of our kids were unplanned—and Alex and I weren’t married when I had Vita. When I told him I was pregnant he supported me 100% in whatever choice I made but also made it pretty clear that fatherhood scared the hell out of him and that he hadn’t planned on having kids until much later in his life. He told me he couldn’t imagine talking in a 'baby appropriate voice' or 'being silly' or emotive. He worried about being distant and stoic. He worried about making all the same mistakes his dad made. I had a feeling he’d be wrong, but I couldn’t guess how wrong. My doula took a great video of me pushing Vita into the world. Alex’s voice in the background is my favorite part. 'Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,' he says, equal parts laughing and crying. Since that moment he’s been present and at ease and totally in love with and in awe of his daughters—and always very, very silly."

"It makes me sad to know that I’ll never go through childbirth again, but I think we’re done. A five day vacation alone with my husband and a night or two of 8 consecutive hours of sleep just sounds too good to prolong."

"There’s so much to love—from our house we can walk to three excellent coffee shops, the ice cream parlor, our family doctor, my optometrist, three parks, good tacos, and good chicken wings. It’s so easy to get outside and feel away from it all. The big downside is that Asheville has a long way to go toward being more racially and socially equitable. It’s a town that gives itself a lot of pats on the back for being progressive but is still incredibly segregated. Lots of work to do!"

"Yes, absolutely! Alex and I are both desperate to live closer to the ocean. Our business is keeping us here for the foreseeable future."

Connie wears a sleeveless turtleneck by Giu Giu, vintage Levi's 505s, heels by Creatures of Comfort, and Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick in Provocation. Vita wears a top and pants by Red Creek Kids.

"If we’re just kicking around town on a weekend we’ll take our time getting out of the house and walk to Liberty House Cafe—Vita loves swinging in the hammocks there. We'll walk to City Market and eat our weight in fruit and pastries. We’ll check in at our store on Lexington. If we make the mistake of walking South on Lexington, Vita will inevitably pout until we cave and get her a Rooibos Bubble Tea from Dobra Tea House. Around 1pm we try to wrangle the kids down for a nap so we can have an hour and a half or so to respond to email. In the summer we’ll sneak in a dip at the JCC pool down the block and end the day with having friends over for dinner, while we let the kids run wild. If we've slept more than 4 hours the night before, we'll go to the flea market (it's called Smiley's and it's awesome) and eat carnitas and ride the carousel, or drive up the parkway and jump in the river."

"So many favorites! I love going out to eat with our kids—Bull & Beggar, Cucina 24, Chai Pani, Buxton Hall, Bim Beri Bon, Taco Billy, All Soul’s Pizza, and Gan Shan are some of our go-tos. If it were up to Vita we’d start every day with donuts from Hole. Liberty House Cafe has great food and an even better garden. We also love the Arboretum, the Nature Center, and the Botanical Gardens."

"Hanging out sans kids doesn’t happen much right now, but luckily there aren’t a whole lot of places in Asheville that I’m not comfortable taking my children, but maybe twice a year Alex and I cut out of work early and get a day pass to the Grove Park Inn Spa. If you really wanna do it right, book a pedicure, pack some reading material, get there right when they open and stay all damn day."

"#funkymom."

"When I got pregnant with Vita I felt almost obligated to start wearing nothing but linen sacks in shades of taupe, flax, oatmeal—you all know what I’m talking about. I felt dressing more mom-ly was part of mom-code. It didn’t help that I lived in Asheville, where the fashion section of our weekly magazine literally gives advice about taking yoga pants from class to cocktails. I love the pared down, super minimal, earthy look on other women, but that had never been my vibe before. I’ve never really cared what other people thought of me, but motherhood amplified that in a serious way. My mom (a self-proclaimed 'prude') has been telling me since I was 18 to show off my body more, and I’m finally starting to listen to her. I use clothes like a costume, stepping into a new character every day. When I wake up and feel weak or tired, I dress more ferociously. I often get told that I intimidate people; it used to bum me out, because I think I’m actually really kind once you get to know me, but now I kinda love it and play it up with my style—bold lipstick, high heels, what have you. I love being the most dressed up person in a room."

"Lipstick, long nails, vintage 505s."

"Rachel Comey, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Creatures of Comfort, GiuGiu, No.6, Suzanne Rae, Ilana Kohn, and Priscavera to name a few!"

"I love the 'anything goes' attitude in fashion right now. It’s all about dressing for yourself and putting pieces together in a way that makes you happy. Hallelujah! I really peaked in awkwardness around ‘97—like tube socks and those platform foam Sketchers and a head full of butterfly clips to distract from my brace face. Now’s my chance to rock the Spice Girl look, but with more confidence and less acne. I love the bright greens and fire engine reds and cobalt blues and rich browns of F/W 18 and just the general 'fuck you' to fashion rules and body shaming. It’s a really fun and freeing time to get dressed. I hope it’s not just a trend."

"Asheville’s a little lacking in the apparel shopping department. I save my piggy bank for my twice yearly trips to L.A. (to see family) and New York (for work). My favorite shop in L.A. is LCD and my favorite in New York is No.6. I’m a sucker for end of season sales (Creatures of Comfort has really good ones), so a couple of times a year I’ll do some damage online, usually from my phone and in the bathtub after a few too many glasses of wine."

"If someone handed me $5,000 and said I had to spend it immediately and only on 1 thing (we’re talking a fantasy, here!) I might buy this ring from Scosha. She made our wedding rings and everything she makes is magical. This Mijeong Park trench coat is calling my name. I keep waiting for those Martiniano booties in a fun color to go on sale. And one of these days I’m going to bite the bullet and invest in a pair of Kamm Pants in Natural, but it’d be cool if you just so happened to be selling a pair of gently worn ones, size 6 (lmk!)."

"For the girls, I lucked out on trading a bunch of pottery for kids' clothes from my very favorite, Red Creek Handmade. Katie’s clothes are so beautiful and durable—they hold up so well. My mom had four of us and great taste, so I have a pretty decent arsenal of hand-me-downs from the 80's and 90's. I buy consignment and I admit to succumbing to fast fashion for my kids every once in a while (just a little—I’m sorry!). After my first year in MomDom I decided that spending money on myself/my partner/my friends made a lot more sense than spending a bunch of money on clothes for my kids. My kids do not care if their outfits are trending on Instagram. That said, Vita might have a tutu dress from Tutu Du Monde under the tree this Christmas (but literally nothing else)."

"I love the burn that comes from dry brushing—I’ll do that a couple times a week before getting in a very hot bath with eucalyptus oil and epsom salts. After a bath or shower, I douse myself in Everyday Oil (it’s made here in Asheville by our friend Emma!) from the neck down. On my face I only use Sparrow Oil—it smells so good. I recently started using this Cleansing Oil Shampoo from Shu Uemera after reading about it on JVN’s Into the Gloss. I lied to Alex about how much I spent on it because I was so embarrassed, but oh my god, it makes me feel so glamorous and makes my hair so silky. For makeup, I try to throw a little lipstick and mascara on every morning. Sometimes some Boy Brow. I don’t really mess with makeup outside that. This stain by NOTO in Ono Ono makes me feel done up with zero effort, and the company is just really fabulous. My other go-tos are Schiap by Nars (you can seriously eat a Double Double and Animal Fries without smearing this stuff) and On Point Extreme Matte Lipstick by Laura Mercier."

"Lol. My optometrist recommends that every 20 minutes I look away from my computer and blink 5 hard blinks. I’m starting there."

"Before having kids I practiced Ashtanga 6 days a week, I went on long walks, I read a ton of fiction, I wrote. I don’t do any of that right now. For a while I was beating myself up about all the stuff I wasn’t doing, but I’m trying to focus on celebrating all the things I am doing right now, knowing that the rest will be there waiting for me when I have a little more space for it. I didn’t take any time off after having Lui. Alex snapped a photo of me responding to customer emails between contractions, pantless on an exercise ball at the birth center. That’s bad. It set me on a rough course—working on my phone while I nursed, reading email when the babies woke me up in the middle of the night, sneaking in a few more hours on the computer after getting them to bed. By January 2018 I’d developed a pretty nasty case of nighttime anxiety and insomnia. My body wouldn't go to sleep, no matter how tired I was. Most nights I’d fall asleep around 3 or 4 and then be up by 6:30 or 7, or some nights I’d just never fall asleep at all. By May I was on the brink of something bad. I was still showing up for work 50 hours a week, but every little thing felt hard. I had no energy to play with my kids. I’m making changes slowly. I haven’t figured out how to make time for exercise or reflective time alone or anything like that, but I’m setting some basic ground rules. No working after 10pm. Take at least 1 weekend day off. Take a lunch break once a week. Don’t drink on weeknights. I succeed about 50% of the time. Last night after the kids went to bed I watched 3 episodes of Jane the Virgin and then made out with my husband. That felt good."

Snow White costume, in full effect.

"I’m the Chief Creative Officer at East Fork. My husband started the business back in 2009, just after I moved in with him. Back then he made traditional North Carolina craft pottery and we sold it at craft shows and 'Kiln Sales.' Over the years we’ve pivoted into a 'lifestyle brand,' as they call it, and make a line of contemporary ceramic dinnerware. There are thirty of us now and we’ll be sixty by next year. I oversee our Creative-Marketing team and our Customer Care Team. I choose our seasonal glaze colors and work with our Production Manager to develop new forms for the line. I style our photoshoots, run our social media, write our newsletters, merchandize our website, strategize brand partnerships, and do a whole lot of managing of (excellent) humans. I had no idea how much time that would take before getting myself into this!"

The East Fork shop, at 82 N Lexington Avenue in Asheville.

Connie wears a top by Stolen Boyfriends Club, harem pants by Henrik Vibskov, leather slides by Rachel Comey, and lipstick by Nars. Vita wears a Snow White costume from the 90’s.

"I grew up in Los Angeles, went to Catholic school, was a jock/president of my Girl Scouts troop/general goodie-goodie. I majored in English Literature and Peace and Conflict Studies at UC Berkeley. I thought for sure I’d end up working in publishing in New York, or go to graduate school for investigative journalism or something like that. Prior to moving to Asheville I worked as a legal assistant, a personal assistant, and a baker in a Belgian patisserie. I spent a year making cheese and tending sheep in France and goats in Madison County, North Carolina. I worked in a lot of restaurants, tended a lot of bars, and started a grad program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling before just giving in and joining the family business full-time in 2015."

A bunch of the East Fork beauties.

"My job activates every single corner of my brain. Now if only I can get it to activate my body!"

"I don't think it has."

"Right now the simple answer is, I don’t. The whole concept of balance sets us up for failure. Growing a business and raising kids at the same time—you can’t do both perfectly. They each have to just take their turn getting more or less of your attention. Or at least that’s how it seems right now. The real work for me is in learning to give myself permission to do less, to make compromises, and to extend forgiveness to myself."

"Yes, geez, I’m so lucky. Our nanny, Frankie, is incredible—she’s so loving with the girls, but runs a tight ship. My sister, Calla, lives in Asheville, and though I never get to see her, she always pulls through in a pinch when I need someone to watch the kids. Vita’s obsessed with her. We have an amazing daycare with a care provider, Amy, who is a true baby whisperer. Vita just started at public preschool and she wakes up excited to go every morning. I have a small crew of mom friends with kids all the same age. When our babies were young we hung out five days a week—taking turns turning on the sprinkler and pouring the wine. We don’t get together as much as we want to now, but when we do it fills my glass right back up."

"My whole crew is going to be full-time East Forking it for the foreseeable future. We just went through the visioning process with a facilitator—in our 10 year plan, Alex and I are still pretty heavily involved with the day-to-days of our business. But in the 15 year plan—if we’re all still on this planet—I’ll be working as a consultant helping brands and non-profits find their voice and Alex and I will own a French restaurant called Les Fauves."

For more on Connie, her family, and her family biz, check out the East Fork site and Instagram feed.