🥗 Lil Treasures #96: The Swipe Up+ and a Tower of Cobb Salad
Plus James Van Der Beek and Sunday Planning.
Alert! Alert! Very exciting announcement happening here on The Swipe Up today!
Please imagine I am David Rose-ing in sweater perfection with an almost empty third glass of champagne to tell you that today we are opening up the doors to a fancy membership option, The Swipe Up+.
First, a story.
I started The Swipe Up as an outlet for writing and with great annoyance that Instagram would not allow me to share links on my personal account, fully assuming my mother would be the only one to sign up (and she did - thank you, Mom). Over these past few years, I have fallen madly in love with the internet, with YOU BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL MUSK OXEN, who managed to find your way to this corner of the world wide web. What I love more than my luggage is this magical connection point: internet frangers just being delightful to each other. We have ups, we have downs, you are MEETING each other in real life over steak and salads, it’s just the best.
I don’t say this in a braggy1 way, but while I’ve had very kind (possibly misguided) offers to maybe explore writing a book or doing more speaking gigs (and I’m not ruling those out one day), what I really enjoy is when I get to connect with you guys. And I have adored doing that in the margins, as The Swipe Up was just…something in the margins, like an archery hobby or my eighth attempt to become a quilter. Something else that selfishly gives me a lot of life is walking through my scripture guides with you in private community. And I want to do that forever until Jesus comes back with what I assume is a trumpet, but would also love to see a saxophone or something wacky.
Anyway.2
Let’s talk a little about what’s included in The Swipe Up+:
Guides in community: Together we will walk through several studies throughout the year, starting with dis/entangle, which is the “weird project” so many of you helped me formulate and work through a few months ago. We will also do guided Advent, Lent, and maybe one more depending on how we feel. We will do these guides and studies in private community with one another, and you can pop in and pop out as you see fit in your own life. We will begin this round of dis/entangle on October 11th!
Bonus mini-guides: On our non-study/guide weeks, I’ll be offering shorter, weekly scripture guides around topics or passages suggested by you, as the Spirit leads (kind of joking, kind of not).
Office Hours: I’m really jazzed about this. I get THE BEST emails and DMs asking about some of my favorite things to talk about: church, scripture, kids, conundrums, why I should go back to being Baptist, how I became affirming, and so much more. Listen to me when I say I adore these deep questions, and if I could I would clone the heck out of myself to be able to answer all of them in a timely and thoughtful fashion. But alas. Cloning is okay for sheep but not for me THANKS SCIENCE. Enter Office Hours, 100% stolen from the brilliant Design Mom, and a chance for us to have that good conversation over a Google Hangout together. The basic premise is that I’ll make my calendar available every month, and you can sign up for a slot to chat with me. That way, we can really connect (totally private and one-on-one, but not in a shady way) and hang out as opposed to your email sitting in my inbox, pulling down my stress visor because you have taken the time to compose a lovely and nuanced question and I don’t have the bandwidth to answer it well, so I just let it languish. And then 9 months later, I email you and you’re like, darling, we already figured it out, but thanks. This will hopefully prevent that entire distressing scenario.
Prima Nocta: Bad name, but basically you would get firsties on everything (Lil Swipe Camp when it happens - and it’s happening, discounts on shop merch that maybe I’ll get around to making, ETC).
Lil Swipes Lending Library: Saddling up to the membership option means you also get access to the lending library, where we can share our books with each other once we’ve finished them and want to pass on the love.
Some important facts and bullet points:
If you want to join, but you can’t, PLEASE let me know. As in, email me at hello@erinhmoon.com and we will hook you up. To borrow Sarah Bessey’s excellent phrasing, the paid portion is not meant to be a barrier, but rather just a way to support my work. Every year, generous, lovely people pay for bonus studies to give away to those who can’t afford them, and we will have the option for that. But no matter what, if money is an issue, it’s not one here.
Lil Treasures is always free. If you don’t join us behind Le Paywall, you will still get the same Friday banger you’ve come to love and enjoy.
Some studies will still be available a la cart, but some (like dis/entangle) will only be available in the membership option. BUT it’s cheaper and you get the bonus of a community to walk through it with you.
Like I mentioned, dis/entangle will begin October 11th and it’s all about disentangling your faith from culture and expectations, and coming back to the heart of why you believe what you believe.
The membership option is $6/month, or you can purchase the entire year upfront for a reduced rate of $5/month.
If you have other questions, I would love to answer them in the comments today, but if you’re in, you can click this button right now to join:
Okay so that is there. But let’s get to what everyone is here for: TREASURES.
📅 My brilliant friend Retha Nicole just launched her stationery brand at SP Circle and it is now officially available as of today! Items included in the brand are notebooks, notepads, a weekly calendar notepad, and of course the beloved Sunday Planning Journal. Sunday Planning has been INSTRUMENTAL in my mental health over the past year: a tiny tweak that makes a huge difference. I especially love the weekly calendar notepad: every week I fill one out with everything we’ve got going on and all the kids (and Ben) know where to look for the schedule. It includes space for meal planning and grocery lists: she thought of everything.
🌈 I really enjoyed this poem about hope by David Gate.
✉️ This (see Tweet below) is a great opportunity to meet a need and help spread some love to those in prison! If you’d like to gain a new friend and pen-pal, you can either DM the account below or fill out an interest form here.
🏈 For my fellow Texans - James Van Der Beek starred in this H-E-B commercial about football and living in Texas and it’s perfect.
🎧 The most recent Bible Binge episode was a very special Faith Adjacent interview with Dr. Jodi Magness, an actual archaeologist who is brilliant and engaging and has a rat tail because she “loves it and someday it will come back in style.” Give it a listen and have your mind blown about bathrooms in the first century.
🎀 If you’re looking for a solid claw clip (‘cause those are back, baby), I really like these.
This week’s good tweets:
This gentle reminder:
Okay friends, that’s it. It was a lot. Thanks for sticking with me. I cannot wait to read your treasures and hear about your week. I hope you can join us on The Swipe Up+!
It’s hard to brag when you know most of the people who follow you got there because you accidentally peed on $300 worth of Spanx, you know?
FOCUS, MOON.
🙌🏼 I’ve never clicked so fast to sign up for something in my life. I’ve wanted to be part of the dis/entangle study since Erin announced the beta, but I’m even more excited for some community.
I read every week and I’m a silent lurker in the comments mostly, but I’m trying to branch out more in my life, especially spiritually. I’ve been in a “dry spell” with God the past two years. I think a combination of COVID, political unrest, a dramatic and very public firing of my pastor due to a cheating scandal (that resulted in half the staff also being fired 😵💫), and then my ongoing battle with infertility. I’m just on shaky ground right now, but looking forward to finding more stability.
My treasure this week are these tiny ice packs from Amazon. I started Follistim injections for my 4th treatment cycle and these ice packs have solved all of my woes, and more. Plus, they are cute because they are tiny. And they allowed me to discreetly stick one in my waistband at work haha.
ICEWRAPS 4” Round Reusable Gel... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XM1JI48?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
So. Freaking. Excited. For this!! I made a pact with myself years ago that I would be buying and reading ANYTHING that Erin writes, so here we are rearranging the budget for those $6, because I am here for this!!
I may possibly be the lease participatory (is that a real word…. Well it is now) lol swipe around. But I’ve just got to say, I am so grateful for what this community has meant to me as the last 3 years I have fought tooth and nail against depression, and getting out of an abusive relationship. You all and your words have been a bright spot every week when my mind just couldn’t hand all of *that* that is social media. I can’t wait to see what kind of beauty springs out of this!