Let It Be Sunday, 303!

Hello friends! Welcome to the the last Let It Be Sunday in the year of our Lord 2020. 

This year I flailed. This year I stayed steady. I think I’m tired from both.  

I spent this Christmas alone in New Orleans, thinking of all the big and small ways 2020 has changed us.  I mean… we change every year, but a Zoom family Christmas is real whiplash.  In some way, 2020 brought us the usual amending of habits, searching different things serve us. I, for one, got in and out my own way constantly and that story stayed the same. This year we were called to action – to save lives, teach our children, figure out Zoom. We were called to sit with ourselves, like it or not. We were called to fog up our own glasses and live with our own coffee breath.  

I was thinking I should have kept some sort of daily diary, but these Sunday posts are a diary of sorts. Here’s a glimpse of who we were this very spring. 

What are your bright spots for the year? I bought a piano and spent a lot of time not on Instagram, but instead learning how to play. I kept my cat, several plants and friendships alive and thriving. I fell in love. I wrote a magazine. I taught baking classes virtually and learned how to talk nonstop for just about three hours straight. I cooked outside. I cooked more than I wanted to. I resigned to washing dishes constantly. I got dressed, dangit. 

I gifted my friend Suzonne a travel case and cashmere scarf for the holiday – something I pictured her wearing on travels to a new city, to see new sites, in new times.  She thanked me in a text by saying “Thank you for making a deposit on my dreams”.  Amen to that!

Instead of resolutions this coming year, let’s make deposits on our dreams.  Let’s take time this week and figure out what that means for us. I’m invested. 

The offering this week is below.  You know the drill. Take only what you need. 

•  Let’s take this straight to the bank. Bake = our weary souls.  32 Hopeful Images From 2020. (The Atlantic) 

•  Categorize this as Other People’s Juicy Business: The Journalist and the Pharma Bro and the update. I can’t. I shan’t. I am screaming inside. (Elle and The Cut). 

•  The AI Girlfriend Seducing China’s Lonely Men. Ok but would it be reasonable to ask men to like, shoulder some of their own lives instead of asking a woman to mold themselves to be their perfect companion? We really can’t do that which is why they need a literal robot to do it for them? I’m waving the white flag.   (Sixth Tone) 

•  26 of the best new apps of 2020. Honestly, it’s a wild and very technological world. (Fast Company) 

•  Let us not forget Jon’s No-Yeast No-Boil Bagels for those dark days when everyone was a new baker and there was no yeast to speak of.  (The Candid Appetite) 

•  Everyone rediscovered banana bread this year. Remember that? (Joy the Baker)

•  Currently listening to: Morning Sun by Melody Garot. (Spotify) 

•  Watching (and completely obsessed with) a new show: Your Honor. Friends have been seeing Brian Cranston around town and this show is one reason why. It takes place in New Orleans and is suoer weighty and beautiful. (Showtime)

•  What I’m craving: only potatoes, hello winter.  I think I’ve linked to this before but I pulled it up again, just for my dinner needs.  Maybe you need it to: 20 Ways to Turn a Baked Potato Into Dinner. (The Kitchn) 

•  I wonder if 2021 is the year I finally treat myself to a set of linen sheets I’ve wanted for years. The suspense is killing me. (Land’s End) 

•  New year, new calendar.  I’m not going to fool myself and start a new day planner this year. I know I only have the discipline to get to mid-February with a daily calendar.  I’m splurging on this wall calendar from New Orleans artist Kiernan Dunn.  I’ve been gifted a few of her calendars from year’s past and they’re so beautiful they’re worth saving and framing.  (Etsy) 

•  A sweetie lemon tea towel that sparks joy. (Overseasoned)  

•  I think this is such a sweet gift for a new couple on Valentine’s Day or a family: scratch off travel map.  It’s the kind of thing that says – we love each other and we love this life. Ya know? (Etsy)  

That’s it for today. That’s it for this year. I hope you know I’m so thankful you’re here. 

Happy New Year! 

My love to you! 

xo Joy