Hi, friends, and good Sunday to you.
Can I be honest with y’all? Struggling is not the word I would use to describe life at the moment. I know everyone is feeling it but my goodness – it feels like I’m already on the ground, and can you please stop kicking me?? If you read poetry, Kate J. Baer describes the chaotic throes of life pretty well, in case you need a literary outlet. I currently have 5 jobs (1 full time, 4 part time) and none of them fully cover rent/bills. While I believe this will not be life forever, living in the midst of it is beyond stressful.
There are some good things happening though! Lately, I have started walking home from work (about a 20 minute walk) to a) decompress and b) move my body with no expectation other than meandering home. It is not a hot girl walk by any means – it’s more of a slightly depressed girl shuffle – but it’s been helpful. Also, my girlfriend and I just booked a trip to Europe in February for our 3 year anniversary and I am beyond excited. Trust that closer to the date (let’s be real, next month) I will be asking for all your recommendations!
What outlets do you turn to when life piles on? And what’s been good in your life?
Today’s Sunday deserves coffee in the largest mug you own, and the coziest pajamas you stay in all day. For good measure, change the sheets on your bed, too. Future you will thank present you. Let’s get into it.
• Amy, fellow Joy the Baker team member, fellow Taurus, and honestly my bestie (I promise she’s aware), is also going through the hard trudge of life right now. She wrote the most beautiful words about herself, her partner, and her mother-in-law, who is nearing the end of her life. It will squeeze every part of your heart. (Substack)
• Kiese Laymon is a writer whose style I describe as beautifully written with the potential to wreck you emotionally. His work “Heavy” is one of those emotional gut punches you cannot put down. Kiese was recently diagnosed with cancer and this incredibly written letter is the result of learning that. The opening line, “I do not want to disappoint God, Mississippi, or home, but I have to…” made me sit all the way down. (Bookshop, Bitter Southerner)
• I feel like I talk to you a lot about TikTok, but there’s such fun stuff there! Keith Lee is one of the best people borne of making TikTok’s about food he likes or dislikes. He has risen to fame for his controversial takes on food, making or breaking businesses, which is wild. He gave a local Chicago restaurant, Cleo’s Southern Cuisine, a 10 out of 10 and they’ve been booming ever since. (TikTok, NYT gift link)
• It’s finally here! Pumpkin Texas Sheet Cake. Joy’s mind, you know? Her mind! This cake is beautiful, it’s southern, and it’s filled with brown butter and pecans. If Ina Garten was here she would say, “What could be bad about that?” (Instagram, Joy the Baker)
• Whenever there are a bunch of birds chirping in a bush, my mom says, “They’re having a meeting!” but it turns out they’re actually having a meeting. I wonder who takes the meeting minutes? Scientists have started to decode birdsong and chatter. What a time! (New Yorker – subscriptions are $1/week right now!)
• I’m unsure if it’s my social feed or just the time we’re in but the subject of religion and parenting have been popping up full force. My OG favorite blogger, DesignMom, just released a parenting book with her husband called “The Kids Are All Right”. Her Mormon-raised family of 8 genuinely gets along, which is a marvel to me. Her philosophy has always been, “Children do not owe their parents anything,” which feels like a hot take, but one I believe in. On the ex-evangelical side of things I am hearing more children going no-contact with their parents for various reasons. I do not have kids of my own, but I do have a complicated parent relationship. I’m curious to get your thoughts on this! (Hachette Book Group, New Yorker)
• What are we wearing this fall/winter? I saw a girl wearing a sparkly prairie skirt and flats. I prayed for her forthcoming athlete’s foot and ran in the opposite direction. I’ve recently joined Amy in the barrel pants trend, and let me tell you. They’re comfy and stupid cute. My favorites are currently from Anthropologie and H&M. And hopefully, leopard print won’t ever go out of style either – it’s my favorite neutral. (NYT gift link)
• Y’all, I have found my perfect fall food. Is it soup, is it pasta? The answer is yes – it’s pastina. A little broth, a metric ton of freshly grated parmesan, cracked black pepper, and olive oil. *kisses fingertips* (A Cozy Kitchen)
• Let’s just all eat Caesar salads forever. Great, so glad that’s settled. And we’re sharing fries, duh. (Instagram)
• If you could take your significant other on a Hometown Date, The Bachelor/Bachelorette style, would you? Maybe introducing them to your hometown takes away the mystery, who knows, but it begs the question: do you have to see where someone is from to know who they really are? (Nashville Scene)
• As a person that suffers from seasonal depression, me and my girlfriend have been thinking of making a winter bucket list. A list we may or may not finish but we’re slowly building it. So far we have the Garfield Park Conservatory at the top of the list. Warm rooms full of desert plants? Absolutely. What else should be on that list? Maybe a bar that has a fireplace! (The Albion Manor)
• Please tell me you know Taryn Delanie, Miss New York and famous for her hilarious videos, namely Heaven’s Receptionist. I want so badly to be her best friend. She’s so funny, so gorgeous how is it legal, and incredibly nice. She’s sharing how she spends her Sundays. She’s literally just a girl, just like us! (Instagram, NYT gift link)
• It’s not too early for Christmas shopping. Have you picked up your copy of the Life-Changing Magic of Baking or Joy the Baker magazine yet? Fun fact, I’m in the magazine! Preaching the good gospel of Boursin cheese in your mashed potatoes. (Amazon, Magazine Shop)
13 Responses
I feel superiorly dumb but where are the measurements for the ingredients for the Brown Butter Texas Sheet cake?
Thank you for the New Yorker subscription info and here’s my tip back to your readers: if you get a library card and use the digital programming they (likely) have, you can often get FREE access to the New Yorker! I use Flipster app to access the NYorker using my library card account.
Oohh, I didn’t know this! Thank you for this info!
Awe, Abby! Thank you for linking to Hannah’s essay about the Hometown Date! I loved editing that piece. xoxo, Kim
Kim you are forever my favorite villain blogger in my heart!!
Maybe set up a regular 1 x month soup and game night with friends? Say from Nov-April, the last Sunday of the month is soupy Sunday. You provide the soup, they bring whatever else they want, potluck-style.
I just yelled SOUPY SUNDAY so loudly. Anna this is wonderful – thank you!
Families are so interesting to me. As both a daughter and a mother, my feelings about it have evolved so much. Sometimes people, even genetically connected people, don’t have a lot in common. It’s sad but it’s not something that needs more diagnosis, either. I love my brother but our parents are all we have in common. We aren’t close as a result and we’re both okay with it. I think the more people can give themselves grace for how they feel about their family, the easier life goes. Especially going into the holidays, I wish everyone a family who supports them, whether that family is by birth, marriage, or choice.
Fellow ex-vangelical here. I went no-contact with my parents about 10-15 years ago because of their extreme views on religion and the expectation that I would follow and respect them because I’m their kid. A lot of things changed and eventually, they grew enough to allow a relationship I could tolerate, although they are still very religious and we’re never going to be close. I’m grateful for the openness of the “no-contact” movement because it was really lonely to go through that by myself at a young age and then additionally, when I told people about it, be met with “but they’re your parents, they love you, you should do x,y,z.” Although there are parts of me that are sad that my younger self had to do that without greater societal support, I’m glad it’s happening now. And I am not having children, in part because of how I was raised. Maybe if I’d had parents that adopted the Design Mom ideology, I’d feel differently but it’s difficult for me to comprehend of a way to raise children in organized religion, especially high-control ones like evangelism or Mormonism that isn’t harmful.
I’m not a fan of leopard print for myself, but I want to shout out Australian artist Kasey Rainbow, whose prints are sold through Aussie-based retailer Proud Poppy (https://proudpoppyclothing.com.au/) – if you like leopard and you like as much colour as possible, Kasey is your woman! And they’re great with size inclusivity, and almost everything has pockets as well!
Andrea, I just scrolled through the entire Proud Poppy catalog you linked, and there isn’t a single piece of animal print in the entire range. So it was kind of crappy of you to make a deceptive post here like that.
I searched “leopard print” and there were tons of options:
https://proudpoppyclothing.com.au/collections/leopard-print
+1 to Danielle’s comment. I saw lots of leopard print, interpreted though the eyes of Lisa Frank. Fun stuff!