The September Edit

Get wordy with me.

It’s been a really busy season for me professionally and realistically, it’s only going to pick up as we round out this last quarter of 2023. Most days it’s hard to balance the demands of being a wife, mother, and employee. I’m always dropping a ball, hoping it’s not a glass one. Because I find myself feeling a bit more scattered, I’m leaning into creating better rhythms and routines for our family. I’ve added a dry-erase calendar to our refrigerator, make sure to add details and invite “attendees” in my iCal, and have started utilizing my iPhone’s built-in reminders app along with the Clear Todos app and my trusted Notion notes for my never-ending brain dumps. I also ordered my 2024 planner and after crowd-sourcing some recommendations, I settled on a design that felt more like me, the colorful Callie Danielle planner. It has coloring pages! It felt like a no-brainer and I’m anxious to set it up for January. Since it’s larger in size there is plenty of space to create sections for personal and work schedules and add extra to-do lists in the form of sticky notes. I have a feeling I’ll be browsing JetPens a lot between now and the end of the year.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about our finances. With the current state of the economy and inflation causing almost all of our monthly bills and expenses to go up, it’s hard not to assess how and if we can cut back. It feels somewhat taboo to talk about, but I know budgeting is something on a lot of our minds as parents right now. It’s tough. I’d love to have any tips you might be willing to share in the comments. Maybe this newsletter can be a place to crowdsource some resources others might find helpful too.

Since we are very much in our “we have food at home” era, I’m making it a point to cook out of our freezer and pantry this week. I’ll only have to pick up 10 or so items from the store to round out a full meal. I’d love to be focusing more on healing my gut and providing well-balanced meals, but I’m doing what I can for now. I’m not going to allow myself to feel guilty about getting food on the table. Here is our weekly menu. If this is helpful, I’m happy to share more, perhaps in a monthly roundup, as I work through my meal-planning process!

Sunday - spaghetti and meatballs with salad and garlic bread
Monday - butter chicken with basmati rice, naan, and samosas
Tuesday - grilled cheese and tomato soup
Wednesday - red beans and rice with andouille sausage
Thursday - Momofuku ramen with soft-boiled eggs
Friday - pizza and popcorn movie night

One thing I have been doing is shopping sales circulars for our local stores (Kroger, Aldi, Publix, Walmart, Sprouts, and Food Lion) and trying to buy BOGO deals to create simple meals during the week. I’ve been able to freeze some meat for our meals this month that way to add to pantry staples like rice and pasta.

Loving Lately

Here are a few things I’ve been loving lately.

Read:

I have really started out on a strong foot in September. Thanks to Libro.fm, I read a short story and a poem collection.

I finished The Good Part by Sophie Cousens this week and it made me cry which in my mind is an instant 5-star read. I’m so grateful for an eARC from NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for one of my most anticipated books of the season. It’s expected to be published in November if you want to pre-order it!

The author took her inspiration from some iconic 90s/00’s movies like Freaky Friday and 13 Going on 30 and came up with the best time travel novel I’ve read this year. Lucy Young is an aspiring TV exec who wishes on a wishing machine to skip to the good part of her life after a fight with her BFF/roommates, a drunken night out, and a failed dating app encounter. Fast forward 16 years and Lucy’s not sure she made the right decision to skip to the part of her life where she’s got everything together. If you like heartwarming stories filled with self-discovery and kids as supporting characters, this one’s for you. I could not put it down. (Some content warnings for the death of a friend, memory loss, and loss of an infant.)

If you missed it, I read a lot in August, but it wasn’t my all-time favorite month.

What I Read in August 2023

Watch:

I highly recommend The Flatshare, based on Beth O’Leary’s novel. It’s one of those rare TV shows that might have actually been better than the book. I enjoyed Good Omens Season 2, but like The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, the cliffhanger was brutal! I really hope the next season doesn’t take another four years to release. From last month’s to-watch list, I flew through Heartstopper Season 2 on Netflix and Red, White, & Royal Blue on Amazon Prime. Typing all this makes me realize that it’s been a great summer for book-to-screen adaptations!

My husband and I had an impromptu at-home date night and watched Wes Anderson’s newest movie Asteroid City. It was decidedly not my favorite. I think some of the back-and-forth timeline between the production company and the film within a film was lost on me. (Honestly, It was all very meta… especially given the timing with the premiere of Oppenheimer.)

Last weekend we watched You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. While it was definitely more of a teen/young adult coming-of-age movie, I really enjoyed some of the humor. I’d highly recommend it to any parents with a middle or high school student. I love Adam Sandler movies and I thought his family did a great job with the acting in this one. Sarah Sherman as Rabbi Rebecca was the real star IMO. Hilarious.

I’m currently caught up on Only Murders in the Building Season 3 on Hulu. I’ve heard a lot of people aren’t as invested in this season but I’m hooked. I can never seem to figure out who the killer is. I’d be a terrible detective!

Somehow I’m managing to squeeze in lots more TV than usual while still keeping up with my reading! I’m pleased. This week’s family movie night pick was the new live-action Little Mermaid movie. My husband took my daughter to see it in theaters and I finally got my turn to see it! There were a few scenes I could have done without but I did enjoy seeing Eric show Ariel his collections. It showed they had some true common interests.

Play:

My daughter likes to play the game Toca Life World on her tablet. It’s a cute world-building app that my husband and I have also recently turned to for a bit of an escape. Some people are really into it. There are whole IG accounts dedicated to different builds. I’ve been gathering a lot of inspiration from cozy gaming accounts on Lemon8 and feeling the itch to get a Nintendo Switch. One of my goals for the fall is to resist the urge to climb in bed and spend more time in our living room with my husband as the nights get longer. He can do his thing and I can do mine. It’s something we used to do a lot but have fallen out of the habit of doing as I prefer to read in bed for comfort.

Wear:

My Amazon cart is filled with basics for Fall but I’m not quite ready to purchase anything. It’s still 90 degrees here during the day so I think it will be a while before I *need* a sweater. My priority is really finding some pants that feel like PJs but are still work-appropriate. Yes, I’m still on the hunt. I’m leaning towards ordering a few pairs from Athleta to try out.

Listen:

I pre-ordered one of Taylor Swift’s special edition vinyl album rereleases of 1989 and I can’t wait for it to get here! I didn’t realize she was going to come out with new colors so I think we ended up with the blue.

I’ve also been into this Home Sweet Home playlist on Spotify. It has a really great mix of music. I don’t feel the need to skip through the songs!

Decor Bits:

Here is a little update on our kitchen. I finally picked a color I liked from our numerous paint swatches! We are going to go with Whirlpool from Sherwin-Williams. I think it matches best with the rug in the adjacent dining room and some of our existing blue decor. My goal for this month is to at least cover over the wall that is currently plastered with various splotches of greens and blues.

After 6.5 years at my current job, I finally decided to bring a little life to the institutional beige walls and decorate my office. It’s been a breath of fresh air having some color surrounding me after so many years of being a minimalist.

September is a strange month for me. Other than it being our “dating anniversary”, there aren’t many milestones or big events we celebrate. Even though it’s the beginning of the “-ber” months, it won’t be cold here for a couple of months so it feels like less of a transition to Fall than it does for others. I’m looking forward to a few things in October and also really feeling the creative itch to start writing again. Sometimes self-doubt creeps in and I have to push those thoughts out of my brain. There are so many great writers on Substack with captivating and expertly worded vignettes about their lives to share. I think my newsletter still holds some value in the form of entertainment and recommendations to make your life easier, even if it’s not overfilling with prose and grand reflections on life. And with that, I appreciate you reading what was a much longer monthly edit than I intended!

If you enjoyed this post and want to see more, consider buying me a coffee and keeping me caffeinated during my writing sessions!