Re: board game instructions, I went to a get-together at a friend's house once that she later revealed to be partly an attempt to set me up with a friend of her cousin's, and then she said "but y'all never even talked to each other!" At which point I had to correct the record and remind her that a) no one tried to stop us from sitting at opposite ends of the table, and b) I was tasked with administrating a very complicated board game and could not possibly have been expected to carry on further conversation.
I apparently have not been paying enough attention at truck stops, because I have completely missed double-decker oatmeal cream pies.
After several days of trying to pin my boss down for a conversation, we finally talked on the phone and I should be full-time at my main job by the end of the year. Benefits, baby!
There has been Dog Drama with my neighbors this week (long story short, we share the backyard, I have a reactive dog, which I have made them aware of and am as cautious about as I can be, they also have a reactive dog and are dogsitting currently, one of them has been a real doofus about the whole thing resulting in some easily avoidable close calls) which should be resolved, BUT both neighbors were out for awhile this evening which meant I could sit outside with my dog without having to worry about random dogs magically appearing. Sometimes a dog just needs a few minutes to smell the city air and eat her grass in peace.
Last week I mentioned we are GOING THROUGH IT. We moved in June to help my parents bc my mom was diagnosed with dementia earlier this year. She is still mostly herself with a side of belligerence that is causing all sorts of havoc. My daughter has been diagnosed with anxiety, possible OCD, and we are seeing a child dev specialist to find out if she's on the Autism spectrum. I'm not scared of whatever they tell us as long as it helps me parent her better (because I am at a complete loss sometimes). Then we found out my MIL has a failing liver and we don't know how long she has left. I got my husband on a plane to see her - but we are just devastated.
It's just a lot.
However! Yesterday, on the occasion of my 42nd birthday, my students surprised me with cupcakes and cards with notes that ranged from "thank you for feeding us and making sure we're good" to "get turnt and get lit okuurrr" - truly the greatest treasure.
Greetings, friends! It’s so lovely to participate in this gathering during the earlier hours when everyone is still checking in and engaging before the weekend. 😊 I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’ve attempted to do “check-ins” several times over these past 6 months but made the mistake of typing my comments (a) on my phone and (b) within the Substack app, and every👏single👏time👏 I’ve been tossed out just as I was finishing up the looooong paragraphs I can’t seem to shorten. I’ve learned now that I need to type up my personal shares •outside• the app, on a laptop, and then paste it over intact. You’d think I’d learn that after the first couple of bounce-outs, but no, it takes me *ages* to see a pattern and correct it. Maybe I’ve finally learned that lesson today. 🙄
TL:DR — treasures of crock pot roast and a very specific answered prayer; trash of a reading slump and continued middle age sleep problems, as per usual. Read on for *very* detailed explanations, or skip to the end to give me some non-fiction book suggestions. Love you guys!
This week’s Treasures are, in reverse order, a delicious crock pot roast and a new Dream (capital D) in my heart. ☺️
👩🏻🍳 Several months ago I read 200+ comments on a Cup of Jo post where people shared their favorite quick meals for nights when you don’t feel like cooking. [The Lazy Genius Kendra has done a similar post.] Because I *never* want to cook but know I shouldn’t exist on takeout alone (and also I need to feed my mom food that won’t kill her), I made screenshots of a handful of ideas from those posts and actually remembered one of them this week. Pot Roast in a slow cooker! My back story for pot roast – don’t we all have back stories for certain meals in our lives? – is that my mom put on a roast with potatoes and carrots to cook in an electric skillet while we were at church on Sundays. It was a regular Sunday meal, at least twice a month or more. And then we ate that roast for leftovers later in the week. As a single, I’ve never made pot roast just for myself, so I attempted it this week for the two of us. Mom’s roast was always just salt/pepper to season on a long, slow cook in her Saladmaster skillet, but I hate that skillet because it’s stainless steel and hard to clean up stuck-on foods. Slow cookers and Instant Pots 4eva! I loved the Cup of Jo commenter’s idea of throwing in a packet of dry onion soup mix + au jus gravy mix, so that’s the “recipe” I went with this week. The key? An entire stick of butter in the mix. 🤢 By the time that roast cooked down to a tender mass, the butter and dry mixes had made a thick, delicious gravy and every potato, carrot, and onion was equally flavored. Who knew it could be so easy?! I did learn that my little baby roast of 1.5 pounds needs *much* less than a full stick of butter, but it was so yummy all the same. And we’ve had that roast for 4 meals so far this week. WIN! My favorite way to eat the leftovers is over a bowl of sticky rice with a few shakes of soy sauce. I can’t seem to get enough of that roast after not eating it for years. // If you have some time, take a deep dive into the comments on this post and be inspired! https://cupofjo.com/2022/04/13/what-to-cook-when-you-are-tired
💭 These past couple weeks I’ve been gifted an answer to a prayer I’ve prayed for at least 10 years but have been pondering more fully for about 3 years. I’m not ready to share the specifics but it’s related to my personal desires to write creatively again and to perhaps create a bit of a “side hustle”, if you will. I’ve long prayed for an Idea (capital I) but have never had a viable direction on my own no matter how much thought and reading and webinar-attending I’ve done over the years. But then, last week, out of the clear blue sky, God put a thought into my mind and He’s been burrowing it deep into my heart, and I think it just be something worth pursuing in the new year. It’s not fully formed, but the seeds are there, and I think it’s got a lot of potential. Y’all will be the first to know if something comes of it! Prayers for motivation, momentum, and inspiration are welcome and thankfully appreciated! When I tell you it’s been a LONG dry spell since my days of personal blogging… I’m excited for the possibilities of this idea!
💩 This week’s turd is much the same as usual: Middle-Age Sleep Disorder (is that a ™️? Someone definitely needs to trademark that phrase). It’s never-ending, as you know, but I might just be learning to ride the waves. There were 2 all-nighters this week, and 2 all-dayers with good sleep in the vampire hours 🎉. But there was also a 24-hour period where I could do nothing *but* sleep, and that’s suuuuuper rough on the mind and body. Fortunately, I felt better a day later, my mom was able to fend for herself with no issues, and all is good going into the weekend. Middle age ain’t no joke, y’all. Its main purpose is to kill you before you can enter the golden years. ::sigh::
📚 Also Trash: I’ve hit a reading slump. Strangely, I’ve just realized this happens every.single.year. How did I not notice that? I just celebrated a great summer reading season with many completed books and mostly 4- or 5-star personal reviews, but since the beginning of September I’ve just not been able to enjoy *anything.* I’ve DNF-ed five books this year(!) and 3 of them came just last month! This is gonna hurt a few of you, but last week I quit “Carrie Soto is Back” at the 55% mark and just read a super-summary to confirm the ending – an ending I saw coming from chapter 1, mind you. Y’all… I was BORED with Carrie Soto, book and character. And it’s now taken me 4 books to realize that I don’t trust Taylor Jenkins Reid to deliver on a story idea. I *thought* I did; I *adored* my first foray into her world with “Daisy Jones and the Six”, but since then I’ve been less and less pleased with her other novels. “Malibu Rising” hooked me with the siblings, but aggravated me with all the side vignettes from the party (like it was little germs of plot and character that she might want to develop into something later but felt it necessary to intersperse throughout the main Riva story 😖). I tried “Evelyn Hugo” and only got 5 chapters into that one before giving up and, again, reading a summary to learn how it all ended. And now “Carrie Soto”, which was good only for the tennis scenes but uninteresting to me on the whole. Even on audio, it just didn’t hold my attention and I was eye-rolling a LOT before finally giving up. So… I’ve decided I can’t trust this author like I hoped and will take each new novel with cautious optimism. Though that really does sadden me. [I’ve got high hopes for the Daisy Jones tv project, though!]
📰 My reading slump kept me from starting *any* of the 8 books I’d been renewing at the library for the past 5 months, until finally I realized this week that I just don’t have the patience for fiction right now. It’s usually my go-to, but apparently the summer’s terrific reads have satiated me to the point that I’m now reaching for non-fiction the most. I’d just completed Charles Finch’s “What Just Happened”, which is a collection of his funny/snarky journal entries from Pandemic: Year One™, and I’ve been consuming a full slate of email newsletters all year, which made me realize that I currently want non-fiction and commentary and personal narratives in my brain. My inbox is full of subscriptions about news, politics, books, faith-building, pop culture, as well as memory-keeping, card making, and creativity in general. These are the topics I’m reaching for this month; they’re short (hello, attention-deficit season!) and they bring inspiration and information into my life, equally important to this 4w5 ennea-girl. I’m also in the midst of “Liturgy of the Ordinary” by Tish Harrison Warren, and I’ve got Chuck Klosterman’s book “The Nineties” on loan. These seem to be my speed right now.
SUGGESTIONS? Any ideas for good non-fiction narrative or general topics reading? I don’t like true crime, but recent faves have been River of the Gods (Millard), Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 (Zuckoff), Crying in H Mart (Zauner), Try Softer (Kolber) and, of course, The Anthropocene Reviewed (beloved John Green). Thoughts?
hi, hi, hello friends. it's been a few hot minutes since I've jumped in to the comments here and I've definitely missed y'all.
It has been a weird month or so. I transitioned out of my preschool/nanny jobs and started my actual dream job this week - I'm official back in the children's department at a library. While I wasn't planning on going back full time in the library world until next spring, I was offered a position I couldn't pass up! There's enough staff that I'm doing actual children's stuff 90% of the time and I have a great budget for supplies and books. I'm allowed to do whatever programming I want! It's a dream. I'm still holding my breath for the other shoe to drop but I'm taking the good where I can! I'm halfway through my last semester of grad school - I'll officially be a librarian by the end of December.
We've had a rough go of it with cars lately - both mine and my husbands cars were in wrecks and totaled out. We didn't get much for mine but were able to get a used car from a local mechanic and I'm just happy to have a car again. We're super tight on money until I get paid from my new job at the end of the month - the taxes/tag for the car took half my paycheck, but again - just counting my blessings that I've got a car at all.
Things have started to look up after several really, really hard months and I'm so grateful.
I would like to thank so many of you for the way you responded to my comments a few weeks ago about my young son's cancer battle. So many heartfelt words and prayers. He is still facing mounting obstacles, and we are headed to Boston Children's Hospital next week for a new-to-us treatment. It is next-level intense, involving isolation for him, radioactive treatments, no snuggling with parents allowed, and other frightening requirements. He's putting on his brave face and so are we, but he's only 8. If you feel compelled to pray for him, his name is Henry. He is amazing. #HelpHankTankCancer
We have 3 older kids who are in the throes of school, p-sats, rehearsals, and all the regular complications of life. My head feels like mush. Or more accurately: 🤯
My treasure is that I get to live in Maine in the fall. The trees are positively bursting with saturated reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens, and I feel like I'm driving through a New England jigsaw puzzle every minute of the day. It fills my ❤.
I submit Simon and Garfunkel as a musical companion to my Mamas & Papas fall playlist shout out a while back.
☕️ This morning I didn’t wake up early enough to do my morning devotional, so I decided to just sit outside with a cup of coffee and soak up the quietness of the morning. I wondered if I was “doing this right” and if I was actually accomplishing anything. Then later, I came across Stephanie Duncan Smith’s poem in today’s The Swipe Up. Definitely a God moment and a treasure!
⛪️ Another treasure: reading Swipe Up+ “Church Re-entry.” First, let me say I love the audio feature. More importantly, it helped guide me through a lot of questions I have re: re-entry. I feel more confident now in that journey.
👩🏻🤝👩🏽 The treasure I’m really grateful this week is Erin and you guys! On my deconstructing journey (or whatever we’re calling it), I’ve lost people who I thought were friends, so I guess my questioning couldn’t withhold the relationship. Unity was not wanted but rather uniformity. Anyway, in my quiet moment this morning, I realized I do have community here. It doesn’t look like what I expected and am used to, but it is a place where I feel I can speak freely and it will still be ok. I will still be accepted and encouraged. Thanks you all! 💗
Hey gang! Hope you're well. I'm not getting notifications from Substack anymore, is this happening to anyone else or have I managed to mess up my settings somehow?
🤒 Most of the week has been spent in bed with a sore throat and a cough so I haven't done much besides watching movies and knitting. I've also tried to finish Pachinko but I'm a slow reader and that is one thick book! 😂
😱 I don't know what they were making in the Bake Off tent last week but whatever it was has almost made me afraid to tell people where I'm from. 😉 Just to clear up any confusion; we do not, I repeat, do not put fish and chips in our cakes here in Sweden.
I celebrated a year with the library this week and had a good performance review!
I've officially finished all the academic components of my degree! This was surprisingly emotional and I found myself tearing up a bit whenever I thought about it Monday and Tuesday. I did my first masters right out of college and going back at 28 while teaching during a pandemic has been an entirely different experience. I've had so much fun and I'm so proud of the work that I've done.
My dad unexpectedly reached out midweek letting me know he'll be in town in a few weeks. I haven't seen him in almost a year and we really haven't talked in that year either, so I'm not super looking forward to a visit. But I put my new skills from therapy to work to care for myself and think about what I need for this to be a positive visit.
Aside from that I've just been tired all week, so I'm looking forward to some rest this weekend. I hope you all have the best weekend available to you! 💖
This week has felt sooooo loooooong. I over scheduled this week, and had to bow out of a last minute meeting to give myself some breathing room. As a recovering people-pleaser, this was very hard, but my friend I was going to meet with was so gracious, so that helped.
Treasures:
1. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I think Lucy Foley is becoming a season pass author for me. Holy moly. This is the perfect spooky season read for me. I keep going back and forth between the audio and physical book because I love love love the voice actors, but then get antsy about getting answers to the mystery and want to read faster than they talk (no, I cannot listen at a faster speed. It always makes me picture Alvin and the Chipmunks and ruins the book for me).
2. The gym. Since my husband works from home, I've been able to start getting away to the gym more often for some needed alone and workout time. I forget how much better I feel after moving my body, even in the tiniest of ways.
It is a mess down here in SW Florida. Most people still don't have power/water, half the traffic lights are still out (if they even still exist), and it basically looks like an apocalyptic wasteland out here. We are obscenely fortunate to have both power and water, and the guilt of being relatively comfortable while so many people around me lost everything is a lot.
The shelter I was working in last week has been taken over by the Red Cross, so I've just been home since Monday. We have no idea when the libraries (or the schools, where my sister works) will reopen, because the county is still trying to figure out which buildings are even still standing.
On top of all this, my parents are coming down on Monday to go on a cruise. I haven't seen them in over a year, and our relationship is pretty fraught.
Weirdly I do have one huge treasure, which is that I got to see Fredrik Backman in Tampa on his book tour! He was thoughtful and funny and everything I hoped he'd be from reading his books.
Hope you all have the best weekend available to you.
🌟My oldest 2 kids are on field trips with grandparents today - I was soundly rejected as a chaperone by both kids and it hurt a little but I’m good now 😆
🌟It’s Halloween costume time! I actually hate all the spookiness of Halloween but I LOVE making costumes for my kids (and sometimes me). I got all my supplies and hopefully I’ll get some time this weekend to get cracking.
🌟I’m going out with friends tonight! I’ve been struggling a lot with feeling lonely and this feels like a miracle.
There are turds, of course, but thankfully they’re minor right now. See y’all in the comments!
Just subscribed recently and I just had to say that I love having you pop up in my inbox! I knew I needed to follow you when you started quoting a mutual friend, Jenna DeWitt, on the Bible Binge. I secretly (though not so secret now) want to be your friend. Just really appreciate your biblical study and your humor mix. Just what this awkward queer pastor needs. So thanks!
So sorry to hear about the migraines. I get them too and they're THE WORST. I'm grateful for a combo of meds and tricks I've learned along the way and have been able to get them more under control. It's a rough journey! Hopefully you've found some things that help... hit me up to talk more. Hope you have some migraine free times ahead!
Hi everyone! I haven’t commented in a bit but I’ve been reading the newsletter and comments when I can.
I’ve been on a reading kick lately, going back and forth between Rom Com-like books like The No Show by Beth Leary, Nora Goes Off Script, the Abby Jimenez books and thrillers like Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Daisy Darker, One of the Girls, The Younger Wife with a few others thrown in like Sea of Tranquility (5*) and Carrie Soto (5* - I started playing tennis the last couple of years and have always loved watching!) I am currently reading Upgrade and I picked up several thrillers at the library yesterday but if anyone has any good recs for spooky season, let me know!
I had an ablation done on Monday and I have had very minimal side effects (cramping mainly just that day) and am hoping and praying it does what it’s supposed to do and makes my periods calm the heck down. 🤞🏻
I finally got into Abbott Elementary and it is a delight. I also watched the movie Do Revenge and it was fun!
Ready for a fairly chill weekend of listening to some live music tonight at an outdoor venue here in my town, watching football and Cardinals baseball and teaching at youth on Sunday - I keep forgetting I’m on. I should probably work on it! 😆 Oh and I’m playing Pickleball this morning where it’s going to be a little chilly at first. 🥶
My husband and I have been following the New York Dog Mayor race. And let me tell you, nothing brings me joy like voting for a basset hound to be the next dog mayor of NYC. We’ve made it to the semifinals and our candidate, Sally along Dog, has advanced. 3 more weeks of voting and hopefully, she will be the new mayor! 😂
SWIPES I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY IT IS TOO GOOOOOOOD
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjgZoGMvHZb/?igshid=Y2ZmNzg0YzQ=
Re: board game instructions, I went to a get-together at a friend's house once that she later revealed to be partly an attempt to set me up with a friend of her cousin's, and then she said "but y'all never even talked to each other!" At which point I had to correct the record and remind her that a) no one tried to stop us from sitting at opposite ends of the table, and b) I was tasked with administrating a very complicated board game and could not possibly have been expected to carry on further conversation.
I apparently have not been paying enough attention at truck stops, because I have completely missed double-decker oatmeal cream pies.
After several days of trying to pin my boss down for a conversation, we finally talked on the phone and I should be full-time at my main job by the end of the year. Benefits, baby!
There has been Dog Drama with my neighbors this week (long story short, we share the backyard, I have a reactive dog, which I have made them aware of and am as cautious about as I can be, they also have a reactive dog and are dogsitting currently, one of them has been a real doofus about the whole thing resulting in some easily avoidable close calls) which should be resolved, BUT both neighbors were out for awhile this evening which meant I could sit outside with my dog without having to worry about random dogs magically appearing. Sometimes a dog just needs a few minutes to smell the city air and eat her grass in peace.
Last week I mentioned we are GOING THROUGH IT. We moved in June to help my parents bc my mom was diagnosed with dementia earlier this year. She is still mostly herself with a side of belligerence that is causing all sorts of havoc. My daughter has been diagnosed with anxiety, possible OCD, and we are seeing a child dev specialist to find out if she's on the Autism spectrum. I'm not scared of whatever they tell us as long as it helps me parent her better (because I am at a complete loss sometimes). Then we found out my MIL has a failing liver and we don't know how long she has left. I got my husband on a plane to see her - but we are just devastated.
It's just a lot.
However! Yesterday, on the occasion of my 42nd birthday, my students surprised me with cupcakes and cards with notes that ranged from "thank you for feeding us and making sure we're good" to "get turnt and get lit okuurrr" - truly the greatest treasure.
Greetings, friends! It’s so lovely to participate in this gathering during the earlier hours when everyone is still checking in and engaging before the weekend. 😊 I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’ve attempted to do “check-ins” several times over these past 6 months but made the mistake of typing my comments (a) on my phone and (b) within the Substack app, and every👏single👏time👏 I’ve been tossed out just as I was finishing up the looooong paragraphs I can’t seem to shorten. I’ve learned now that I need to type up my personal shares •outside• the app, on a laptop, and then paste it over intact. You’d think I’d learn that after the first couple of bounce-outs, but no, it takes me *ages* to see a pattern and correct it. Maybe I’ve finally learned that lesson today. 🙄
TL:DR — treasures of crock pot roast and a very specific answered prayer; trash of a reading slump and continued middle age sleep problems, as per usual. Read on for *very* detailed explanations, or skip to the end to give me some non-fiction book suggestions. Love you guys!
This week’s Treasures are, in reverse order, a delicious crock pot roast and a new Dream (capital D) in my heart. ☺️
👩🏻🍳 Several months ago I read 200+ comments on a Cup of Jo post where people shared their favorite quick meals for nights when you don’t feel like cooking. [The Lazy Genius Kendra has done a similar post.] Because I *never* want to cook but know I shouldn’t exist on takeout alone (and also I need to feed my mom food that won’t kill her), I made screenshots of a handful of ideas from those posts and actually remembered one of them this week. Pot Roast in a slow cooker! My back story for pot roast – don’t we all have back stories for certain meals in our lives? – is that my mom put on a roast with potatoes and carrots to cook in an electric skillet while we were at church on Sundays. It was a regular Sunday meal, at least twice a month or more. And then we ate that roast for leftovers later in the week. As a single, I’ve never made pot roast just for myself, so I attempted it this week for the two of us. Mom’s roast was always just salt/pepper to season on a long, slow cook in her Saladmaster skillet, but I hate that skillet because it’s stainless steel and hard to clean up stuck-on foods. Slow cookers and Instant Pots 4eva! I loved the Cup of Jo commenter’s idea of throwing in a packet of dry onion soup mix + au jus gravy mix, so that’s the “recipe” I went with this week. The key? An entire stick of butter in the mix. 🤢 By the time that roast cooked down to a tender mass, the butter and dry mixes had made a thick, delicious gravy and every potato, carrot, and onion was equally flavored. Who knew it could be so easy?! I did learn that my little baby roast of 1.5 pounds needs *much* less than a full stick of butter, but it was so yummy all the same. And we’ve had that roast for 4 meals so far this week. WIN! My favorite way to eat the leftovers is over a bowl of sticky rice with a few shakes of soy sauce. I can’t seem to get enough of that roast after not eating it for years. // If you have some time, take a deep dive into the comments on this post and be inspired! https://cupofjo.com/2022/04/13/what-to-cook-when-you-are-tired
💭 These past couple weeks I’ve been gifted an answer to a prayer I’ve prayed for at least 10 years but have been pondering more fully for about 3 years. I’m not ready to share the specifics but it’s related to my personal desires to write creatively again and to perhaps create a bit of a “side hustle”, if you will. I’ve long prayed for an Idea (capital I) but have never had a viable direction on my own no matter how much thought and reading and webinar-attending I’ve done over the years. But then, last week, out of the clear blue sky, God put a thought into my mind and He’s been burrowing it deep into my heart, and I think it just be something worth pursuing in the new year. It’s not fully formed, but the seeds are there, and I think it’s got a lot of potential. Y’all will be the first to know if something comes of it! Prayers for motivation, momentum, and inspiration are welcome and thankfully appreciated! When I tell you it’s been a LONG dry spell since my days of personal blogging… I’m excited for the possibilities of this idea!
💩 This week’s turd is much the same as usual: Middle-Age Sleep Disorder (is that a ™️? Someone definitely needs to trademark that phrase). It’s never-ending, as you know, but I might just be learning to ride the waves. There were 2 all-nighters this week, and 2 all-dayers with good sleep in the vampire hours 🎉. But there was also a 24-hour period where I could do nothing *but* sleep, and that’s suuuuuper rough on the mind and body. Fortunately, I felt better a day later, my mom was able to fend for herself with no issues, and all is good going into the weekend. Middle age ain’t no joke, y’all. Its main purpose is to kill you before you can enter the golden years. ::sigh::
📚 Also Trash: I’ve hit a reading slump. Strangely, I’ve just realized this happens every.single.year. How did I not notice that? I just celebrated a great summer reading season with many completed books and mostly 4- or 5-star personal reviews, but since the beginning of September I’ve just not been able to enjoy *anything.* I’ve DNF-ed five books this year(!) and 3 of them came just last month! This is gonna hurt a few of you, but last week I quit “Carrie Soto is Back” at the 55% mark and just read a super-summary to confirm the ending – an ending I saw coming from chapter 1, mind you. Y’all… I was BORED with Carrie Soto, book and character. And it’s now taken me 4 books to realize that I don’t trust Taylor Jenkins Reid to deliver on a story idea. I *thought* I did; I *adored* my first foray into her world with “Daisy Jones and the Six”, but since then I’ve been less and less pleased with her other novels. “Malibu Rising” hooked me with the siblings, but aggravated me with all the side vignettes from the party (like it was little germs of plot and character that she might want to develop into something later but felt it necessary to intersperse throughout the main Riva story 😖). I tried “Evelyn Hugo” and only got 5 chapters into that one before giving up and, again, reading a summary to learn how it all ended. And now “Carrie Soto”, which was good only for the tennis scenes but uninteresting to me on the whole. Even on audio, it just didn’t hold my attention and I was eye-rolling a LOT before finally giving up. So… I’ve decided I can’t trust this author like I hoped and will take each new novel with cautious optimism. Though that really does sadden me. [I’ve got high hopes for the Daisy Jones tv project, though!]
📰 My reading slump kept me from starting *any* of the 8 books I’d been renewing at the library for the past 5 months, until finally I realized this week that I just don’t have the patience for fiction right now. It’s usually my go-to, but apparently the summer’s terrific reads have satiated me to the point that I’m now reaching for non-fiction the most. I’d just completed Charles Finch’s “What Just Happened”, which is a collection of his funny/snarky journal entries from Pandemic: Year One™, and I’ve been consuming a full slate of email newsletters all year, which made me realize that I currently want non-fiction and commentary and personal narratives in my brain. My inbox is full of subscriptions about news, politics, books, faith-building, pop culture, as well as memory-keeping, card making, and creativity in general. These are the topics I’m reaching for this month; they’re short (hello, attention-deficit season!) and they bring inspiration and information into my life, equally important to this 4w5 ennea-girl. I’m also in the midst of “Liturgy of the Ordinary” by Tish Harrison Warren, and I’ve got Chuck Klosterman’s book “The Nineties” on loan. These seem to be my speed right now.
SUGGESTIONS? Any ideas for good non-fiction narrative or general topics reading? I don’t like true crime, but recent faves have been River of the Gods (Millard), Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 (Zuckoff), Crying in H Mart (Zauner), Try Softer (Kolber) and, of course, The Anthropocene Reviewed (beloved John Green). Thoughts?
Wishing you a weekend as you need it to be. 💖
hi, hi, hello friends. it's been a few hot minutes since I've jumped in to the comments here and I've definitely missed y'all.
It has been a weird month or so. I transitioned out of my preschool/nanny jobs and started my actual dream job this week - I'm official back in the children's department at a library. While I wasn't planning on going back full time in the library world until next spring, I was offered a position I couldn't pass up! There's enough staff that I'm doing actual children's stuff 90% of the time and I have a great budget for supplies and books. I'm allowed to do whatever programming I want! It's a dream. I'm still holding my breath for the other shoe to drop but I'm taking the good where I can! I'm halfway through my last semester of grad school - I'll officially be a librarian by the end of December.
We've had a rough go of it with cars lately - both mine and my husbands cars were in wrecks and totaled out. We didn't get much for mine but were able to get a used car from a local mechanic and I'm just happy to have a car again. We're super tight on money until I get paid from my new job at the end of the month - the taxes/tag for the car took half my paycheck, but again - just counting my blessings that I've got a car at all.
Things have started to look up after several really, really hard months and I'm so grateful.
I would like to thank so many of you for the way you responded to my comments a few weeks ago about my young son's cancer battle. So many heartfelt words and prayers. He is still facing mounting obstacles, and we are headed to Boston Children's Hospital next week for a new-to-us treatment. It is next-level intense, involving isolation for him, radioactive treatments, no snuggling with parents allowed, and other frightening requirements. He's putting on his brave face and so are we, but he's only 8. If you feel compelled to pray for him, his name is Henry. He is amazing. #HelpHankTankCancer
We have 3 older kids who are in the throes of school, p-sats, rehearsals, and all the regular complications of life. My head feels like mush. Or more accurately: 🤯
My treasure is that I get to live in Maine in the fall. The trees are positively bursting with saturated reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens, and I feel like I'm driving through a New England jigsaw puzzle every minute of the day. It fills my ❤.
I submit Simon and Garfunkel as a musical companion to my Mamas & Papas fall playlist shout out a while back.
Yay! It’s Friday!
☕️ This morning I didn’t wake up early enough to do my morning devotional, so I decided to just sit outside with a cup of coffee and soak up the quietness of the morning. I wondered if I was “doing this right” and if I was actually accomplishing anything. Then later, I came across Stephanie Duncan Smith’s poem in today’s The Swipe Up. Definitely a God moment and a treasure!
⛪️ Another treasure: reading Swipe Up+ “Church Re-entry.” First, let me say I love the audio feature. More importantly, it helped guide me through a lot of questions I have re: re-entry. I feel more confident now in that journey.
👩🏻🤝👩🏽 The treasure I’m really grateful this week is Erin and you guys! On my deconstructing journey (or whatever we’re calling it), I’ve lost people who I thought were friends, so I guess my questioning couldn’t withhold the relationship. Unity was not wanted but rather uniformity. Anyway, in my quiet moment this morning, I realized I do have community here. It doesn’t look like what I expected and am used to, but it is a place where I feel I can speak freely and it will still be ok. I will still be accepted and encouraged. Thanks you all! 💗
Hope you all have a good weekend! 😊
Wow, that prayer!
Hey gang! Hope you're well. I'm not getting notifications from Substack anymore, is this happening to anyone else or have I managed to mess up my settings somehow?
🤒 Most of the week has been spent in bed with a sore throat and a cough so I haven't done much besides watching movies and knitting. I've also tried to finish Pachinko but I'm a slow reader and that is one thick book! 😂
😱 I don't know what they were making in the Bake Off tent last week but whatever it was has almost made me afraid to tell people where I'm from. 😉 Just to clear up any confusion; we do not, I repeat, do not put fish and chips in our cakes here in Sweden.
🤯 This Biblical translation tidbit blew my mind: https://twitter.com/RevRichardColes/status/1577628851752124418
😂 Laughter is contagious: https://twitter.com/AFC_GLEN/status/1575942075287158785
Take care, friends!
Happy Friday!
I celebrated a year with the library this week and had a good performance review!
I've officially finished all the academic components of my degree! This was surprisingly emotional and I found myself tearing up a bit whenever I thought about it Monday and Tuesday. I did my first masters right out of college and going back at 28 while teaching during a pandemic has been an entirely different experience. I've had so much fun and I'm so proud of the work that I've done.
My dad unexpectedly reached out midweek letting me know he'll be in town in a few weeks. I haven't seen him in almost a year and we really haven't talked in that year either, so I'm not super looking forward to a visit. But I put my new skills from therapy to work to care for myself and think about what I need for this to be a positive visit.
Aside from that I've just been tired all week, so I'm looking forward to some rest this weekend. I hope you all have the best weekend available to you! 💖
This week has felt sooooo loooooong. I over scheduled this week, and had to bow out of a last minute meeting to give myself some breathing room. As a recovering people-pleaser, this was very hard, but my friend I was going to meet with was so gracious, so that helped.
Treasures:
1. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I think Lucy Foley is becoming a season pass author for me. Holy moly. This is the perfect spooky season read for me. I keep going back and forth between the audio and physical book because I love love love the voice actors, but then get antsy about getting answers to the mystery and want to read faster than they talk (no, I cannot listen at a faster speed. It always makes me picture Alvin and the Chipmunks and ruins the book for me).
2. The gym. Since my husband works from home, I've been able to start getting away to the gym more often for some needed alone and workout time. I forget how much better I feel after moving my body, even in the tiniest of ways.
3. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. We are reading this aloud in homeschool and it is such a fun, lovely book. We are using this read aloud poster to go with it https://rubyreadsbooks.com/collections/printed-read-aloud-posters/products/the-wild-robot-read-aloud-poster and my kids love filling it in.
4. Soup season! Soup season! Some of my faves:
https://www.skinnytaste.com/potato-leek-soup/ (classic)
https://www.skinnytaste.com/lasagna-soup/ (it's all the best parts of lasagna)
https://www.skinnytaste.com/crock-pot-creamy-tomato-soup/ (my kids LOVE this soup)
https://www.skinnytaste.com/beef-tomato-and-acini-di-pepe-soup/ (my 5 year old asks for this one)
https://www.skinnytaste.com/turkey-chili-taco-soup/ (Taco Tuesday but in soup)
https://www.skinnytaste.com/navy-bean-bacon-and-spinach-soup-pressure-cooker-slow-cooker-or-stove-top/ (feels fancy, but isn't hard)
As the ladies at Pantsuit Politics say, hope you all have the best weekend available to you!
Hey friends,
It is a mess down here in SW Florida. Most people still don't have power/water, half the traffic lights are still out (if they even still exist), and it basically looks like an apocalyptic wasteland out here. We are obscenely fortunate to have both power and water, and the guilt of being relatively comfortable while so many people around me lost everything is a lot.
The shelter I was working in last week has been taken over by the Red Cross, so I've just been home since Monday. We have no idea when the libraries (or the schools, where my sister works) will reopen, because the county is still trying to figure out which buildings are even still standing.
On top of all this, my parents are coming down on Monday to go on a cruise. I haven't seen them in over a year, and our relationship is pretty fraught.
Weirdly I do have one huge treasure, which is that I got to see Fredrik Backman in Tampa on his book tour! He was thoughtful and funny and everything I hoped he'd be from reading his books.
Hope you all have the best weekend available to you.
Happy Friday, Swipes!
🌟My oldest 2 kids are on field trips with grandparents today - I was soundly rejected as a chaperone by both kids and it hurt a little but I’m good now 😆
🌟It’s Halloween costume time! I actually hate all the spookiness of Halloween but I LOVE making costumes for my kids (and sometimes me). I got all my supplies and hopefully I’ll get some time this weekend to get cracking.
🌟I’m going out with friends tonight! I’ve been struggling a lot with feeling lonely and this feels like a miracle.
There are turds, of course, but thankfully they’re minor right now. See y’all in the comments!
Erin,
Just subscribed recently and I just had to say that I love having you pop up in my inbox! I knew I needed to follow you when you started quoting a mutual friend, Jenna DeWitt, on the Bible Binge. I secretly (though not so secret now) want to be your friend. Just really appreciate your biblical study and your humor mix. Just what this awkward queer pastor needs. So thanks!
So sorry to hear about the migraines. I get them too and they're THE WORST. I'm grateful for a combo of meds and tricks I've learned along the way and have been able to get them more under control. It's a rough journey! Hopefully you've found some things that help... hit me up to talk more. Hope you have some migraine free times ahead!
Great start to the weekend!
Does anyone have the actual garlic bread recipe. After a (minimal) search on YouTube and Twitter feed I can’t find it written down.
I NEED that bread this fall with Bri McCoy’s pumpkin chili.
Thanks ahead of time!
🙃
Hi everyone! I haven’t commented in a bit but I’ve been reading the newsletter and comments when I can.
I’ve been on a reading kick lately, going back and forth between Rom Com-like books like The No Show by Beth Leary, Nora Goes Off Script, the Abby Jimenez books and thrillers like Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Daisy Darker, One of the Girls, The Younger Wife with a few others thrown in like Sea of Tranquility (5*) and Carrie Soto (5* - I started playing tennis the last couple of years and have always loved watching!) I am currently reading Upgrade and I picked up several thrillers at the library yesterday but if anyone has any good recs for spooky season, let me know!
I had an ablation done on Monday and I have had very minimal side effects (cramping mainly just that day) and am hoping and praying it does what it’s supposed to do and makes my periods calm the heck down. 🤞🏻
I finally got into Abbott Elementary and it is a delight. I also watched the movie Do Revenge and it was fun!
Ready for a fairly chill weekend of listening to some live music tonight at an outdoor venue here in my town, watching football and Cardinals baseball and teaching at youth on Sunday - I keep forgetting I’m on. I should probably work on it! 😆 Oh and I’m playing Pickleball this morning where it’s going to be a little chilly at first. 🥶
Have a great weekend everyone!
Chonky Bear voting sounds right up my alley!
My husband and I have been following the New York Dog Mayor race. And let me tell you, nothing brings me joy like voting for a basset hound to be the next dog mayor of NYC. We’ve made it to the semifinals and our candidate, Sally along Dog, has advanced. 3 more weeks of voting and hopefully, she will be the new mayor! 😂