What I’m Into: January 2021

It’s a new year and we have a new President. Let’s go!

Reading

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (4.5 stars) I spent a long time on the library wait list for this one. It’s about twin sisters from a tiny, all-Black Louisiana town. As teenagers, they run away to New Orleans, then become estranged when one decides to build a new life passing as white… and that’s the beginning of the story. Really profound.

Beginner’s Luck and Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn (4 stars each) Kate Clayborn’s Love Lettering was one of my favorite books of 2020, so I’m diving into her debut trilogy about three best friends who win the lottery. Saving the third installment for February!

The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right by Lisa Sharon Harper (4.5 stars) Read this with my church book club. Another challenging but refreshing read about wholeness, justice, and shalom.

Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald (3 stars) A few years ago I took a Hannah Brencher writing course, and she highly recommended this book. The new year seemed like a good time to finally get around to it. There are some helpful nuggets here, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all coming from too much of a narrow, privileged place. Just my sense.

Come and Eat: A Celebration of Love and Grace around the Everyday Table by Bri McKoy (4 stars) I’m a big fan of Bri McKoy, so I wasn’t too disappointed when this turned out to be mostly stories from her life, and not the cookbook I thought it was.

Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy by Amy Peterson (4.5 stars) If you’re one of many American Christians who was disillusioned by your fellow Christians’ embrace of Trumpism, this book is for you. It examines what “Biblical” virtues even mean in our current climate. Side note: Lauren Winner wrote the foreword, which I didn’t know beforehand, but I correctly recognized her writing voice in about two sentences.

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid (3.5 stars) I read this in one sitting on a Friday night when I needed something light. It actually wasn’t so light – it’s about a struggling married couple who decide to take a break for one year, then determine if they want to stay married. But I always enjoy TJR’s storytelling and insightful touch.

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman (4.5 stars) I wasn’t sure what to expect from this – I thought it might be a straight friendship advice book, which I was not in the mood for. But it’s a warm, personal account of these women’s friendship, how it’s changed them, and what they’ve learned from it about how to love and support others well. It’s inspiring.

Listening

Someone posted this song on Inauguration Day and I thought it was perfect.

10 Things to Tell You Episode 99: Searching for a Best Friend gave me a lot of feels.

Watching

I spent A LOT of time in front of the TV in January. Taylor and I watched The Undoing in a few days. The acting, styling, and interiors all deserve awards. Warning, it is triggery if you’ve ever been in a relationship with a sociopath, but aside from that a great thriller and beautiful to look at.

I started WandaVision and have a little catching up to do, but I’m here for the premise and the perfect tone capturing of old sitcoms.

(I must note that Nicole Kidman and Elizabeth Olsen are both off-the-charts luminous in these roles. Are they bathing in Sunday Riley products? IMPRESSED.)

We watched HBO’s limited series documentary about the Heaven’s Gate cult. As much as I’ve watched and read about cults, this one was upsetting. I’m still a little haunted by it.

This Is Us killed me with its episode about Randall’s mother (aka Sterling K. Brown’s Emmy Submission). Man, can these people tell a story.

Almost-Done Alert: We have one more episode of Ted Lasso that we’ll probably watch this weekend, after rationing out Ted cheer since the beginning of my pregnancy. Glad more seasons are on the way! AND: we are now in the home stretch of The Sopranos. I started it with Taylor months ago because it’s his favorite show of all time. Watching a show like this in its entirety feels like an actual achievement for me, one I can carry forward through my pop culture life.

Around Town

We joined a few friends around a distanced fire pit at Loflin Yard for my friend Wes’s birthday! I hadn’t seen any of them in months. Despite the cold, it was great to reconnect and feel a little normal for a few hours.

At Home

We started a massive home renovation this month to knock out some projects in advance of the baby’s arrival. The kinds of things that have had me repeating “Startup costs” to myself since moving in a year ago. We hired contractors, as we lack the time, skill, and patience to become hardcore home DIYers and would rather pay experienced professionals for their services. (Normalize paying experienced professionals for their services!!!) It’s been a circus. Once, we had three different crews here on the same day. I could not survive this chaos either during my sickly first trimester or with a newborn, so I have to give thanks for the timing.

The first completed project was exterior painting! Our house was previously a dried-mud color with slightly lighter dried-mud color trim. The stucco and wood hadn’t been tended to in at least a decade. After talking about it and considering colors all last summer, we signed with a local painting company and got on their schedule last August. They cruised in here mid-January with a crew of 20 people and got our house expertly washed, patched, and painted in three days. It was not cheap, but we couldn’t be happier with the results or the color (Sherwin-Williams Naval). It makes me happy every time I see it! They even painted my greenhouse. I think the black looks so sophisticated – and will help hold even more heat in for plants!

We also got some much-needed electrical work done, including putting up this gorgeous Pottery Barn chandelier that we scored secondhand. It adds so much elegance to the entryway! We also had a ceiling fan and light installed in the living room (this whole area previously had no overhead lighting), brighter lights in the attic, and several more wall outlets upstairs, mostly in the baby’s room. (Apparently people only needed one outlet per room in 1917.) The house still has a lot of knob-and-tube wiring, which is not super safe, so down the road we’ll be looking at a more intense electrical overhaul. *flying money emoji*

Other things still in process: a total remodel of my bathroom (it’s looking amazing), a partial kitchen remodel (new countertops are in, other things are not done), and new paint for the entire downstairs. Stay tuned!

Eating

Other than a few lingering aversions (coffee still sounds bad and I am sad about it daily), my appetite is back and I’ve been happily reuniting with foods I love! Pictured here: Zucchini Chicken (a longtime favorite recipe), Butternut Squash Soup, the California Love pizza from Slim & Husky’s, and some pregnancy-safe sushi. God bless my neighborhood sushi place for clearly dividing their menu into Cooked and Not Cooked.

The best thing I cooked this month was Chorizo & Sweet Potato Enchiladas. Other good stuff: Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash; Spinach Pesto Grilled Cheese; and avocado cucumber salad, which I think I’ve shared before but is so satisfying if you need a quick dose of green veggies, and are currently obsessed with mayonnaise. (My passionate fling with dressings and condiments continues.)

I got this glass pitcher months ago, and have found it so useful that I just got a second one. It’s a great size and fits in the refrigerator door. Now I can have two flavors of Crystal Light going at the same time (heads up: if you can find Strawberry Orange Banana, it is delish).

Wearing

I got these loose joggers for Christmas, which I’m pretty sure I saw on Living Le Reve. They’re not maternity, but extremely stretchy with a classy cut and should continue to work for a while! My expansive 2020 wardrobe of joggers and leggings has kept me clothed up to this point. I only had one pair of maternity jeans, from Old Navy, which are kind of saggy right now – I kept sizing up too far during my awkward “pregnant or just fat?” phase. This month I ordered the Ridley maternity skinny jeans from ASOS in my normal size. They fit exactly how I wanted and are still on sale for $20!! After being at home so long, properly fitting jeans now constitute “well dressed” and “put together” for me. What a time to be alive.

Beauty

Never have I ever had consistently dry skin on my face, but I actually needed moisturizer this month. I’m liking the IT Cosmetics Confident Gel Lotion, which was in one of my Ipsy bags. At night I do the CeraVe night cream I’ve mentioned before. I’m also using this Drunk Elephant cleanser that I got with my Sephora birthday gift in 2019. We’re 10 months into a pandemic. It’s time to stop saving the good stuff for someday.

I was excited to get the Naked Honey palette for Christmas! I’ve dabbled in a few colors but haven’t really done any Looks yet.

Wellness

I participated in Yoga with Adriene’s 30 Days of Yoga. The theme this year is Breathe. I hadn’t moved around much since getting pregnant and thought this would be a good way to start feeling more like myself. The program has been intense in past years, but while I rarely made it through a practice without some modifications, it all felt more gentle this year. I only missed two days of the 30. On one of those days, water started pouring through my kitchen ceiling five minutes into the video (renovation fun!!)… so I call 28 days a win. The yoga has definitely helped me feel better. I want to continue a regular (though not daily) practice, and plan to look for some videos specifically for prenatal.

Up to this point I’ve hung in fairly well, but I had some serious bouts of pandemic blues this month. It’s been too cold for outdoor activities, which was the only way we were seeing anyone. I just want to be able to go over to my parents’ house and watch a football game with them indoors like a normal person. I want to go out to dinner with friends. I want to meet my new 8-week-old niece before she’s walking and talking. I want to go to church at church. I continue to pray that the vaccines will give me a sliver of social interaction and sharing this pregnancy with loved ones before the baby is born in June. But the way the rollout is going, it’s not looking great. I can’t think about that, though – I have to remain a little hopeful, for my mental health. Even when everything feels fraught, hopeless, and tired. I also acknowledge my privilege and know my griefs are small compared to many others’.

I want to save the bulk of pregnancy updates for the end of the second trimester, but we had the 20-week ultrasound this month and baby is looking healthy! I feel him moving around more and more, which is very reassuring. Thankful. <3

Random Happiness

Winter life in the greenhouse seems to be agreeing with the lemon tree! Lots of new buds and leaves! Every other time this has happened, we’ve relocated the tree and it’s freaked out and dropped all the flowers, so I’m excited to see a bloom in a stable environment. We have a big thermometer in the greenhouse that we can see from inside. If it gets too cold for more than a few hours, I move the tree closer to the house and/or wrap something around the trunk. But the temp in there rarely dips below 45 or 50 degrees, which is safe for it short-term. Turns out greenhouses really work. It helps that that area gets the most sun in winter, when our mature trees are leafless.

We got a dusting of snow one day.

Your Monthly Rufus

Rufus has not loved the renovation process. The first few days of the work, he got very anxious and then passed out on Taylor’s lap for hours. But he’s getting used to it. He distracted himself with many activities this month, such as supervising the putting away of Christmas decorations, perching on the headboard, and hunting the second hand on this clock. And of course he gets hugs and attention throughout the day.

On the Blog

I wrote about my word for 2021, Release, and shared one of my favorite soup recipes.

Good Reads

• Among the Insurrectionists
• The paradox of online “body positivity”
• We Had a Bad Boss
• It’s Getting Real For Mandy Moore
• “I don’t wanna hang out post-pandemic.”
• Birth after loss
• Should We Even Be Using BMI Anymore? Here’s Why I Don’t Think So.
• The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship
• Where to put your rage when you live in a Democracy (Or hope you still do)