I started listening to the Bible Binge recaps classics in one of those dark nights of the soul nights in Spring 2020 (you know late night anxiety early pandemic ones!) Searching for something to listen to that had the word Bible in the title at 3 am. I don't think I am exaggerating in saying y'all were the bridge helped me transition between churches and kept me stitched into my relationship with God. Thank you!
And oh boy those kid emotions! Lots of raggedy edges in my house as well.
I have been crying too. These teens 😫😫😫. Honestly some days lately I’m just tired. I am going to get lots of small naps in over the next 5 days. Have a great thanksgiving ❤️
oh! Demons and spiritual warfare. The unknowns about that weighed on me for a long time. The nights & stress lost to this question and possibility in my teens...that I cannot get back. Like, are there really demons roaming among us, and I can get taken over or even possessed by just saying this 'demonic' phrase?? shivers. It really gave me a terrible lense that I saw all goth people through as well. :/ Not glad for that. Ever since I've moved away from the church a few years ago, I've had so much less intrusive & fearful thoughts about the spiritual world. Thank goodness!
Also add to that list, the snakes under the bed at night...
I love the easy, cheerful tone of the Lil Treasures.
Holidays can heighten anxieties and even bring them on. So I’m clinging to Philippians 4:6 (NASB 1995) “Be anxious for nothing …”. Max Lucado wrote a book with that title, which has also substantially lowered my blood pressure.
I'm going to miss the classic episodes - I am an OG listener and those are truly my favorites. But excited to see what is next for Faith Adjacent! And thank you for your transparency about the mental/emotional breakdowns of your family members this week. My seven year old (usually a dreamy chill little dude) has morphed into the Incredible Hulk this week and it just sucks. Then my fourth grader stayed up way too late last night downloading all of his social anxieties (glad he is sharing) and I felt so overwhelmed and underquipped. I was processing with my husband about how we are supposed to work/parent/run a house and then train/teach the kids about their emotions and hard stuff, plus have family time and fun holiday stuff...and it just feels like A LOT right now. (And that's just within these 4 walls!).
Okay onto treasures: my husband and I are doing a walking wine trail at one of our favorite estates tomorrow and then catching a movie (Ballad of S&S!) with my sis and BIL and I couldn't be more excited. I am also (FINALLY) opening my private practice after spending the past 5 months setting up all the behind the scenes office/billing/insurance stuff, which made me resonate with the "executive function theft" meme on a spiritual level.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends. Here's to hoping there's a crunchy leaf to step on (are we ever too old for that little delight?) and a cozy something awaiting you.
Erin, your "so what who cares" on the final Faith Adjacent classics episode this week hit me straight in my feelings. Those episodes have changed me and how I think about scripture so deeply. I discovered the podcast/you in like May 2020 and immediately enrolled myself in seminary to listen to the full content catalog. I've listened to most of the classics more than once. They've opened up so many interesting and thoughtful conversations between myself and my significant other as well as with my family. Please know the work you all did on those episodes is some of the most meaningful, holy work I've come across.
Life has felt really heavy lately, but I'm finding bright spots where I can. Last weekend my friend let me just sit on her couch and hold her 10-day old sleeping baby for over an hour, which was pure delight.
I told my sister I would return her copy of Lessons in Chemistry by Thanksgiving, so I've been powering through that for the last two weeks. I don't like it, but I've never DNF'd a book so here we are. I'm all for an emotional/sad book, but this one just makes me mad. It's like every chapter another shoe drops, there's no joy in it. The main character is miserable, and nearly everyone around her is awful. The only parts I like are when we slip into the dog's perspective, and I don't even like animals. Fortunately I'm also reading Iron Flame at the same time, so that's a bit more fun.
Looking forward to reading The First Advent in Palestine with those of you doing the same!
Gosh, people hating the books I also hate really gives me that Steel Magnolias “come sit next to me” feeling. Especially when it’s a book that’s really popular. 😆 I DNF all the time, but I too pushed through that one. Godspeed. I am also reading Iron Flame!
I finished it today and I’m so glad to be done 😂 I’m confident that if there was an epilogue, it would just say, “Avery Parker never came back to Commons, California.”
I finished it today! The worst part of this is I knew it wasn’t going to get better because I had it in my bag at the dentist a few weeks ago and my dentist saw it and was like oh I read that what do you think? And I said I wasn’t into it, and she was like stop now girl it will not get better 😂😂 should have listened!!
I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews so far but I’m liking it! I’m about a third of the way in and it’s been clear to me from the beginning it would have benefitted from a LOT more editing, but I’m still having fun! It’s not like I was expecting the prose of Toni Morrison, you know? 😂 So far Fourth Wing was better, but Iron Flame is still good!
“I just feel sad and I do not know where it goes.” Exactly. I stopped my husband the other day who tried to advise me while I was sobbing “I just need someplace for my pain to go. I'm not a millennial, but that was funny! I also love Mary Oliver's Drunk Cousin. Felt that poem for sure. I dont have the bandwidth to read a Thinking Book until 12/22, but I am 100% making a dried orange garland.
🍸 Dogsitting our little buddy Mochi this week who is a pint-sized pain in the ass. (He was up from 12:30-3 am scratching, lacking, and fidgeting.) His parents pick him up sometime on Thanksgiving. And after my in-laws leave (we're hosting), I'm having one of these (did i share this already? The guy has a Substack (https://open.substack.com/pub/spatchcock?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1vmrh ). Anyway it's delicious and the recipe is hilarious.
📺 Guys I think I may need to be done with Glee. Too cringe. Besides it's cozy time so I gotta get my Little Women, Norah Ephron, etc on. My other cozy thing is PBS documentaries. What can i say they have soft music and gentle narration. I watched a great PBS Independent Lens on the housing/real estate mess:
✈️ My husband chuckles at my Kevin McAllister-esque security measures when we travel, so he got me this. 😄 I dunno. I may add it to my light timers and radios etc. https://a.co/d/ckY1qan
👢 We do have a work trip coming up to a place that has snow, so I needed something I could wear with biz casual work clothes and not fall on my pantothenic. Out of carichter for me, I got these. I feel like these say preppy but my other shoes are Chucks. Anyway they look cute with my trousers and jeans and are super stable:
Erin, step away from the dried orange garlands!!! I tried to make some one year and they are a disaster. It is holiday lore in my family. I intended to make them for all my favorite people and actually completed only two.
It’s been a hard couple of weeks with people needing extra help. I had to remind myself that being a soft place to land in others’ lives is a core value of mine, when I would rather they all just leave me alone.
After at least a month of telling NC friends my thanksgiving dates and asking their plans they have confirmed travel plans and organized a meet up. It would have been so sad not to see them, but also trying to recognize that they have family to see and it might not all work out.
The library is at a more peaceful level of chaos which has been really nice. The dep head was applying for a new job and that really stressed the already stressed assistant dep head and tensions btwn the two were running high. Dep head didn't get the job and now we are back at peace. As much as I want success for my coworkers, our program schedule goes to print months in advance, so having someone leave is just chaotic and a lot of work for leadership trying to fill in the gaps.
My kitchen has wallpaper and it is the cutest! It looks completely different than when I closed and I'm so happy about it. I also have several new windows. There was some sticker shock, but I could immediately tell how much better the house was holding heat. If you wanna see a few pics of my house here's a little album https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZdzEMRCd8QpbpV4j7
I wanted to let you know how grateful I have been for the classic episodes. My faith has been a bit *tender* for the past several years, so it was my love for you, Knox, and Jamie that led me to tiptoe into The Bible Binge this past spring, starting with the Favored of Forsaken episodes. The curiosity, compassion, and humor (not to mention the light roasting of theo bros) displayed in these classic episodes have been such a gift and have revitalized my faith in a way I could not have imagined was possible a year ago.
Those internet treasures are hitting me in ally my feels this morning. I've been thinking quite a bit about all my girlfriends that I haven't spoken to in many years. I haven't talked to my college roommate (who shared so many going out tops with me) in a decade, and I can't bear the thought of it. And I complain so much about not having many friends, but I'm never the first one to pick up the phone.......
ANYWAY.... I can't believe this time next week my Christmas tree will be up! Time has gone by so fast this year, maybe because Thanksgiving is early and it's still quite warm here.
We are hosting Thanksgiving for the third year in a row and there is just so much to do. Now I understand why my mom would have a complete meltdown on Thanksgiving morning right before all of our family arrived. This weekend we have to focus on getting our flower beds in order, so please send your T's and P's our way for that.
Wishing y'all a stress free T'giving week! May your food be delicious and your conversations around the dinner table be filled with love and understanding for one another!
“WE HAD THE NINETIES FIRST!” 🤣 That was weirdly cathartic. I was born in 1980 and have always wondered if I am gen x or millennial but after this and other “research” I am going with geriatric millennial.
Treasures:
🥧 Our holidays kick off with our traditional Pie Night, held before Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the dessert first. I absolutely cheat on the pie crusts, but enjoy the pie making and community this event brings. We have had a house full of people (around 100 one year) and pies (record is 50) and it is always a little glimpse of heaven to me.
📚 So many books, so little time:
- Late to the Addie LaRue game but dang, this book is way better than expected. I always give hyped books side-eye for years, sometimes never ever reading them, but this one deserves the hype.
- My oldest and I finished the Harry Potter series this week. Watching his mind get blown at some of the reveals in book 7 was a delight. However, I forgot about the HP hangover...
- My pastor wrote a book about deconstruction and I am working my way through it. There is a teeny, tiny part of my head praying “please don’t become one of THOSE pastors” but also, the book is well done. I don’t agree with 100% of it, but I’m sitting at around 92%.
As a younger millennial I also felt it. Barely remember the 90s, but definitely don’t identify with gen Z. My sister is only FOUR years younger than me and disses me as a millennial ALL THE TIME. Like SHUT UP IM ONLY 4 YEARS OLDER THAN YOU 😂 love that that big was relatable to the whole spectrum of millennials 🥰🙌🏼
I started listening to the Bible Binge recaps classics in one of those dark nights of the soul nights in Spring 2020 (you know late night anxiety early pandemic ones!) Searching for something to listen to that had the word Bible in the title at 3 am. I don't think I am exaggerating in saying y'all were the bridge helped me transition between churches and kept me stitched into my relationship with God. Thank you!
And oh boy those kid emotions! Lots of raggedy edges in my house as well.
I have been crying too. These teens 😫😫😫. Honestly some days lately I’m just tired. I am going to get lots of small naps in over the next 5 days. Have a great thanksgiving ❤️
Do you have a Bookshop affiliate link? Or your Amazon so that we can support you when we buy the book for Advent??
Disregard! The first time I used the link it did not go to your storefront for some reason but it is now 🫠
oh! Demons and spiritual warfare. The unknowns about that weighed on me for a long time. The nights & stress lost to this question and possibility in my teens...that I cannot get back. Like, are there really demons roaming among us, and I can get taken over or even possessed by just saying this 'demonic' phrase?? shivers. It really gave me a terrible lense that I saw all goth people through as well. :/ Not glad for that. Ever since I've moved away from the church a few years ago, I've had so much less intrusive & fearful thoughts about the spiritual world. Thank goodness!
Also add to that list, the snakes under the bed at night...
Snakes are the tormentors in my dreams, and I *always* get freaked at getting out of bed in the dark. 🤦🏻♀️
My students were asking me about the iPod this week, as if it was the most ancient piece of technology. So I felt both the millennial posts 🙌🏼
Also totally feeling ALL the swift/Kelce things rn. My inner Swiftie was ignited after seeing the eras tour movie at just the right time. 🙌🏼💕
I love the easy, cheerful tone of the Lil Treasures.
Holidays can heighten anxieties and even bring them on. So I’m clinging to Philippians 4:6 (NASB 1995) “Be anxious for nothing …”. Max Lucado wrote a book with that title, which has also substantially lowered my blood pressure.
I'm going to miss the classic episodes - I am an OG listener and those are truly my favorites. But excited to see what is next for Faith Adjacent! And thank you for your transparency about the mental/emotional breakdowns of your family members this week. My seven year old (usually a dreamy chill little dude) has morphed into the Incredible Hulk this week and it just sucks. Then my fourth grader stayed up way too late last night downloading all of his social anxieties (glad he is sharing) and I felt so overwhelmed and underquipped. I was processing with my husband about how we are supposed to work/parent/run a house and then train/teach the kids about their emotions and hard stuff, plus have family time and fun holiday stuff...and it just feels like A LOT right now. (And that's just within these 4 walls!).
Okay onto treasures: my husband and I are doing a walking wine trail at one of our favorite estates tomorrow and then catching a movie (Ballad of S&S!) with my sis and BIL and I couldn't be more excited. I am also (FINALLY) opening my private practice after spending the past 5 months setting up all the behind the scenes office/billing/insurance stuff, which made me resonate with the "executive function theft" meme on a spiritual level.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends. Here's to hoping there's a crunchy leaf to step on (are we ever too old for that little delight?) and a cozy something awaiting you.
Whoa! A walkable wine tour sounds like an amazing way to celebrate that accomplishment!
Honestly Erin the maple cookie pie is the easiest thing and DELISH I made it for last thanksgiving and highly recommend. Strong pick
I am winning in the pie department and continuing to lose in the craft department
I just bookmarked that - thanks for validating the ease of the recipe!
Erin, your "so what who cares" on the final Faith Adjacent classics episode this week hit me straight in my feelings. Those episodes have changed me and how I think about scripture so deeply. I discovered the podcast/you in like May 2020 and immediately enrolled myself in seminary to listen to the full content catalog. I've listened to most of the classics more than once. They've opened up so many interesting and thoughtful conversations between myself and my significant other as well as with my family. Please know the work you all did on those episodes is some of the most meaningful, holy work I've come across.
Life has felt really heavy lately, but I'm finding bright spots where I can. Last weekend my friend let me just sit on her couch and hold her 10-day old sleeping baby for over an hour, which was pure delight.
I told my sister I would return her copy of Lessons in Chemistry by Thanksgiving, so I've been powering through that for the last two weeks. I don't like it, but I've never DNF'd a book so here we are. I'm all for an emotional/sad book, but this one just makes me mad. It's like every chapter another shoe drops, there's no joy in it. The main character is miserable, and nearly everyone around her is awful. The only parts I like are when we slip into the dog's perspective, and I don't even like animals. Fortunately I'm also reading Iron Flame at the same time, so that's a bit more fun.
Looking forward to reading The First Advent in Palestine with those of you doing the same!
Gosh, people hating the books I also hate really gives me that Steel Magnolias “come sit next to me” feeling. Especially when it’s a book that’s really popular. 😆 I DNF all the time, but I too pushed through that one. Godspeed. I am also reading Iron Flame!
I finished it today and I’m so glad to be done 😂 I’m confident that if there was an epilogue, it would just say, “Avery Parker never came back to Commons, California.”
I, a random internet stranger, hereby give you permission to pause, stop, cease, desist, or otherwise not finish any book you are not enjoying.
I quit Lessons in Chemistry in chapter two, I think. You can do it!
I felt the exact same way about Lessons in Chemistry! I finished it because I kept hoping I would like it more by the end, but alas!
I finished it today! The worst part of this is I knew it wasn’t going to get better because I had it in my bag at the dentist a few weeks ago and my dentist saw it and was like oh I read that what do you think? And I said I wasn’t into it, and she was like stop now girl it will not get better 😂😂 should have listened!!
oh noooo! She tried to warn you!
This is just beyond kind, Grace. Means the whole world. ❤️
I want all of your Iron Flame thoughts!!!!! I was all over the place with that book.
I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews so far but I’m liking it! I’m about a third of the way in and it’s been clear to me from the beginning it would have benefitted from a LOT more editing, but I’m still having fun! It’s not like I was expecting the prose of Toni Morrison, you know? 😂 So far Fourth Wing was better, but Iron Flame is still good!
“I just feel sad and I do not know where it goes.” Exactly. I stopped my husband the other day who tried to advise me while I was sobbing “I just need someplace for my pain to go. I'm not a millennial, but that was funny! I also love Mary Oliver's Drunk Cousin. Felt that poem for sure. I dont have the bandwidth to read a Thinking Book until 12/22, but I am 100% making a dried orange garland.
🍸 Dogsitting our little buddy Mochi this week who is a pint-sized pain in the ass. (He was up from 12:30-3 am scratching, lacking, and fidgeting.) His parents pick him up sometime on Thanksgiving. And after my in-laws leave (we're hosting), I'm having one of these (did i share this already? The guy has a Substack (https://open.substack.com/pub/spatchcock?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1vmrh ). Anyway it's delicious and the recipe is hilarious.
https://ediblesanfrancisco.com/fall-2023/the-coping-mechanism/
📺 Guys I think I may need to be done with Glee. Too cringe. Besides it's cozy time so I gotta get my Little Women, Norah Ephron, etc on. My other cozy thing is PBS documentaries. What can i say they have soft music and gentle narration. I watched a great PBS Independent Lens on the housing/real estate mess:
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/owned-a-tale-of-two-americas/
📻 Another work in progress autumn playlist. This one is mellow vibes. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4vHOyP28nSRb7C7KrcrX9W?si=pyebGUpkQzuKsDB6ZxYMtw
And this one, which is not really in the right order. So im still “tweaking”. Jazzy. Norah Ephrony:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ffuUDJlnVNMaY2eQzerDO?si=p857mX8KRQKvOMm5j1Jd2Q
✈️ My husband chuckles at my Kevin McAllister-esque security measures when we travel, so he got me this. 😄 I dunno. I may add it to my light timers and radios etc. https://a.co/d/ckY1qan
👢 We do have a work trip coming up to a place that has snow, so I needed something I could wear with biz casual work clothes and not fall on my pantothenic. Out of carichter for me, I got these. I feel like these say preppy but my other shoes are Chucks. Anyway they look cute with my trousers and jeans and are super stable:
https://www.dsw.com/en/us/product/Steve%20Madden-Lando%20Loafer/550674
That's all I got. Hope you have the best Friday available and I will see you in the comments.
Definitely just added your playlists! Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to listen!
Oh cool! I'm still adding songs, so sorry if they jump around a bit. 😊
Erin, step away from the dried orange garlands!!! I tried to make some one year and they are a disaster. It is holiday lore in my family. I intended to make them for all my favorite people and actually completed only two.
What?! Nooooooooo!
Oh no, I was thinking of making one too! Is it just super time consuming?
They just don’t go together like you think they would. I wasted so many oranges!
We made some a few years ago and..it was not successful. They seem so simple too!
It’s been a hard couple of weeks with people needing extra help. I had to remind myself that being a soft place to land in others’ lives is a core value of mine, when I would rather they all just leave me alone.
Whew. Good core value there.
Oof. I am going to sit with that sentence. What a good reflection!
After at least a month of telling NC friends my thanksgiving dates and asking their plans they have confirmed travel plans and organized a meet up. It would have been so sad not to see them, but also trying to recognize that they have family to see and it might not all work out.
The library is at a more peaceful level of chaos which has been really nice. The dep head was applying for a new job and that really stressed the already stressed assistant dep head and tensions btwn the two were running high. Dep head didn't get the job and now we are back at peace. As much as I want success for my coworkers, our program schedule goes to print months in advance, so having someone leave is just chaotic and a lot of work for leadership trying to fill in the gaps.
My kitchen has wallpaper and it is the cutest! It looks completely different than when I closed and I'm so happy about it. I also have several new windows. There was some sticker shock, but I could immediately tell how much better the house was holding heat. If you wanna see a few pics of my house here's a little album https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZdzEMRCd8QpbpV4j7
That wallpaper is beautiful!!
Windows are so freaking expensive!
These pictures look amazing! Well done! It's so wonderful to have a space that you can transform into your own little oasis!
I wanted to let you know how grateful I have been for the classic episodes. My faith has been a bit *tender* for the past several years, so it was my love for you, Knox, and Jamie that led me to tiptoe into The Bible Binge this past spring, starting with the Favored of Forsaken episodes. The curiosity, compassion, and humor (not to mention the light roasting of theo bros) displayed in these classic episodes have been such a gift and have revitalized my faith in a way I could not have imagined was possible a year ago.
Jane. This made me teary. Thank you! ❤️
Those internet treasures are hitting me in ally my feels this morning. I've been thinking quite a bit about all my girlfriends that I haven't spoken to in many years. I haven't talked to my college roommate (who shared so many going out tops with me) in a decade, and I can't bear the thought of it. And I complain so much about not having many friends, but I'm never the first one to pick up the phone.......
ANYWAY.... I can't believe this time next week my Christmas tree will be up! Time has gone by so fast this year, maybe because Thanksgiving is early and it's still quite warm here.
We are hosting Thanksgiving for the third year in a row and there is just so much to do. Now I understand why my mom would have a complete meltdown on Thanksgiving morning right before all of our family arrived. This weekend we have to focus on getting our flower beds in order, so please send your T's and P's our way for that.
Wishing y'all a stress free T'giving week! May your food be delicious and your conversations around the dinner table be filled with love and understanding for one another!
We're hosting as well (technically we're hosting two T-givings, which is starting to feel like a dumb October choice). All the Ts and Ps!
“WE HAD THE NINETIES FIRST!” 🤣 That was weirdly cathartic. I was born in 1980 and have always wondered if I am gen x or millennial but after this and other “research” I am going with geriatric millennial.
Treasures:
🥧 Our holidays kick off with our traditional Pie Night, held before Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the dessert first. I absolutely cheat on the pie crusts, but enjoy the pie making and community this event brings. We have had a house full of people (around 100 one year) and pies (record is 50) and it is always a little glimpse of heaven to me.
📚 So many books, so little time:
- Late to the Addie LaRue game but dang, this book is way better than expected. I always give hyped books side-eye for years, sometimes never ever reading them, but this one deserves the hype.
- My oldest and I finished the Harry Potter series this week. Watching his mind get blown at some of the reveals in book 7 was a delight. However, I forgot about the HP hangover...
- My pastor wrote a book about deconstruction and I am working my way through it. There is a teeny, tiny part of my head praying “please don’t become one of THOSE pastors” but also, the book is well done. I don’t agree with 100% of it, but I’m sitting at around 92%.
🍗 If you need a quick, easy, delicious weeknight meal, this one is a winner: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/lemon-pepper-yogurt-chicken/ I recommend serving it with hummus and naan.
🫖 Winter = tea season for me. I hoard different kinds from now until April. If you have any favorites, please send them my way.
🧴It is also dry skin season, so I pull out my container of Trader Joe’s Brazil Nut Body Butter. That stuff is gold.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. 🦃
As a younger millennial I also felt it. Barely remember the 90s, but definitely don’t identify with gen Z. My sister is only FOUR years younger than me and disses me as a millennial ALL THE TIME. Like SHUT UP IM ONLY 4 YEARS OLDER THAN YOU 😂 love that that big was relatable to the whole spectrum of millennials 🥰🙌🏼
That BIT gosh, autocorrect.
VE Schwab is rad, definitely recommend her Shades of Magic series.
I feel the same way about hyped books, I almost always am disappointed, but I loved Addie LaRue!
Being an elder millenial makes me feel like a fancy statesman or something, so that's what I go with. 😆 That first Harry Potter read! So tender!
Elder millennial! Much better. I need that screen printed on a shirt.