The February Edit

Making the most of the shortest month of the year.

If you’re a new reader, the Monthly Edit is a brain dump of everything I consumed (or consumed me) during the month. This newsletter is filled with recommendations that I hope will add value to your life.

January seemed to drag on for ages but February came and went in a flash. Amazingly, having a month just three days shorter can make you feel like you’ve lost a whole week. Our weekends were filled to the brim this month with fun activities and I had another few days away at a conference around Valentine’s Day that kept me busy.

Reflecting back on this month, it felt like a good balance of activities and downtime. I took care of myself by keeping up with my daily meditations and journaling and had plenty of opportunities to connect with friends and family. My husband and I had multiple date nights which is something I’m grateful for and hope to continue to prioritize in the years to come.

I continue to prioritize reading over watching TV and movies but I was still able to cross a few things off of my watch list this month.

• XO, Kitty Season 2 was a cute follow-up to Season 1. I enjoyed Kitty’s character growth as she makes connections with her estranged family in Korea with the help of a few school friends.

• We Live in Time was such a tear-jerker but it’s a must-watch. It’s quite possibly the best film I’ve ever seen.

• This Time Next Year was a flop book-to-screen adaptation in my humble opinion. I’m annoyed I waited a year for it to come out in the U.S. just to feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life watching it!

• A Haunting in Venice was a much darker Agatha Christie adaptation than the previous film adaptations I’ve seen (Death on the Nile and Muder on the Orient Express). As someone who gets spooked fairly easily, I didn’t think there were too many unpredictable jump scares. I tried to focus on how expertly it was filmed to add to the uneasiness of the story.

Despite being back on TikTok, I read a TON this month. Some standouts include:

• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

• Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley

• Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

• Quicksilver by Callie Hart

• Hardly Strangers by A. C. Robinson

• The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Hate Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman

Full reading recap with short reviews to come soon! You can shop all the books I’ve read this year through my Bookshop.org affiliate link here. I love Bookshop.org because they support indie bookstores.

My kids are currently obsessed with asking Alexa to play this song. I’m guessing they play it in gym class!

My kids are bad about complaining about what I cooked for dinner the second a plate is set in front of them at the dinner table. I always count it as a win when they actually eat what I cook. Here are few winners from February:

• tater tot casserole

• pigs in a blanket

• corn and rice casserole

• lasagna

• prime rib and twice baked potatoes

• beef stroganoff

As I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, February was booked and busy with things like:

• Girl Scout cookie booth sales

• delivering Girl Scout cookie orders

• Scout Sunday at a local church

• birthday party at a trampoline park

• rock climbing at the local gym

• fancy Valentine’s Day dinner

• chili cook-off for Super Bowl Sunday

• Daddy/Daughter dance

• Valentine’s Day gift exchanges

• day off at the play cafe

• Donuts with Dad at preschool

• play date with cousins and neighbors

I always enjoy Brittany’s A Simple Thing feature but issue no. 17 stuck out to me this month.

A Simple Thing ✨ no. 17

🧹With Girl Scout cookie orders piling up in our bedroom, my husband and I took the opportunity to do some early Spring cleaning. I tackled the top of my dresser and the first drawer (the junk drawer), threw out expired toiletries, vacuumed, replaced our bathroom linens, bought King sized pillows that actually fill out our pillowcases, and did some dusting and vacuuming in our bedroom. They were little tasks that didn’t take a ton of time but made a huge difference in cleaning up some visual clutter. The practice was a great reminder to incorporate just one extra thing each day to keep the mess under control. It did wonders for my mental health.

💄We said a really hard goodbye this month to our local indie beauty retailer. The pandemic changed the way that people shop and brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling. On top of a challenging economy, this particular neighboring town has been undergoing infrastructure improvements that have inconvenienced shoppers to the point that they’re tired of even attempting to park downtown in all the construction while navigating daily, unannounced changes in detours. It’s exhausting as a consumer and I know that our small business owners have had enough. After six years in business, I’m happy that the owner has a chance to retire with her husband. We first connected through our day jobs in planning/historic preservation but through frequent visits to her shop, she’s seen my family grow up and will continue to be a huge part of our lives. Take this as a reminder to shop small as much as you can.

Here are some articles from around the internet I saved this month:

Swoonworthy 2025 Romance Book Releases You Need from The Need Daily

13 Book Podcasts for When No One in Your Life Wants To Talk About Reading Anymore from The EveryGirl

The Super Bowl Ads, Ranked from The NY Times

3 Harry Potter fan fiction authors are coming to a bookstore near you from NPR

Harris Dickinson's 'Chicken Shop Date' has to be one of the best so far from Mashable. Agreed. Swooning.

…and my favorite link shared by my husband this month:

'Faerie smut' is having a moment — just like it did in 1500 from NatGeo

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Hope you’re having a great month!

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