#10: Exciting Updates, Life Advice, & Open-Minded Reading
Introducing a new format plus what's on my radar.
Happy 1st of the month! How are you? I hope life has been treating you amazing. This past week we hosted a housewarming party in our new (rental) home. Everyone loved it and how we’ve come to make the space our own. Some even described our place as cozy and inviting—best compliment ever! 🥹
Lately, I've been brainstorming a lot these past few weeks on how to enhance this newsletter so I’ve come up with *three* series concepts that I plan to rotate weekly:
Her Second Brain | the heart of this newsletter where I share micro-highlights from the week, as well as interesting links that caught my attention & tidbits from my inbox to yours
Her Two Cents | gentle deep dives into what’s currently on my mind; the “blog” portion of this newsletter
5 Good Things | features my digital gratitude list along with discoveries I think you might find helpful or enjoyable (coming next week!)
As you can see, a lot more is in store for this little passion project of mine, and I truly hope you’ll stick around for the journey. As always, I’m open to suggestions and please do let me know what you think. Enjoy!
ON MY RADAR —
🎧 Song I’m vibing to…
🎙 Podcast I can’t stop thinking about…
📺 Show I’m binge-watching…
📖 Book I just finished…
🍳 Recipe I’m excited to try…
Highlight of the Week // We finally put up our gallery wall! Just the frames at least (no pictures yet). I just love how perfectly imperfect it looks. It brings a smile to my face every time I see it. And talk about a deal: I found 35 frames for just $10 on FB Marketplace. What a steal! Oh, and I also managed to finish two books this week: Britney Spear's memoir, The Woman in Me, and Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. My quick thoughts: Britney's book reignited my interest in biographies, and now I've got a few lined up. Including Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins and Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. As for the CoHo book, let's just say I wasn't a big fan of it at all.
OPEN TABS —
There is so much beauty to be seen in the world. Adding a few of these cities to my travel bucket list.
Would love to spend a summer & go off the grid with my hubby here.
More travel content—my anxiety could never.
A few of my favorites:
When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find better recipes.
Phones have gotten heavier in the last decade and they’re actually pretty hard on your wrists! Use a computer when it’s an alternative or try to at least prop up your phone.
Make accomplishing things as easy as possible. Find the easiest way to start exercising. Find the easiest way to start writing. People make things harder than they have to be and get frustrated when they can’t succeed. Try not to.
When you ask people, “What’s your favorite book / movie / band?” and they stumble, ask them instead what book / movie / band they’re currently enjoying most. They’ll almost always have one and be able to talk about it.
You don’t have to love your job. Jobs can be many things, but they’re also a way to make money. Many people live fine lives in okay jobs by using the money they make on things they care about.
I’m currently looking for a better way to save and organize the recipes I find online. This app was brought to my attention recently.
I love the tips gives here about thinking twice before buying something new.
Takeaways from Lyn Slater’s How To Be Old. 5 lessons on aging and living well. Such a good read!
“Taking control of how you want to live your life and what story you want to tell about yourself is an act that transcends age,” — Lyn Slater
This book is calling my name. Wise, practical, optimistic life advice from Kevin Kelly.
An additional resource to the above: 101 bits of advice, also by Kevin Kelly.
9 soft skills to accelerate your career.
This seems fun! Will probably do this for 2025.
My new favorite subreddit. Give me all the tips!
“Celebrate every win, big or small. Remember this one - you don’t celebrate things nearly as often as you should. This is likely to be one of your biggest regrets in life, that you didn’t celebrate things along the way.”
— Ali Abdaal
What I really want for Mother’s Day.
Love a good favorites list! So many gems in here.
(Saving this for last because it’s probably not for everybody) A great eye-opening article on medicine use in modern parenthood. I think the bottomline is to do whatever works best for you. Whatever helps take the edge off this crazy world of being a parent. At the end of the day, we’re all human and we all have things that help us unwind and relax. I encourage everyone to be open-minded as this is a judgement-free space :)
“That experience helped Danny and I become more compassionate people, more understanding people, for love to flow through us. How could that not affect my stepson in a positive way?”
P.S. I swapped my vision board for a better one.
Excited to see where you take your Substack! I know you will flourish!
Thanks for the mention Millie! And loved the roundup ❤️