Coffee Break #027: Not a lot going on at the moment.
Your weekly roundup of inspiration and ideas to build your dream life.
Dear Friend,
The Swifties among you will have recognized that “not a lot going on at the moment” is code for “quite a lot going on at the moment, actually.”
Namely, my husband and I have made the decision to move back home to Michigan to be closer to friends and family. In the last two weeks, we’ve found our dream house, put an offer on it, had it accepted, gone through inspections, and are now about to list our condo in Chicago this week. It’s been a whirlwind and simultaneously super fun and completely overwhelming.
The new house is absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait until everyone is capital-O official so I can share more. For now, send us luck and well wishes for selling our house. It’s a bittersweet moment for sure. We’ve put so much work, energy, and love into this condo over the past nearly-five years. But we’re so very excited for the next chapter. More soon!
Love always,
In Brief
📚 Reading
The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire by India Holton – so far, a cute, lightly magical historical rom-com about professors in love. Swoony.
📺 Watching
Widow’s Bay on Apple TV. I’m a little late to the party, but once I heard what this show was actually about (creepy, cursed vacation town) I was hooked. It was described to me as Parks and Rec if it were written by Stephen King, so I was immediately sold.
🎶 Listening
I’ve been listening to Six of Crows on audiobook while I work lately. I think it’s my ADHD brain, but I can only listen to books I’ve already read a few times (aka, it’s okay for me to zone out because I know what’s happening already). My love of Six of Crows is well-documented, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the voice acting in the audio version.
✅ To Do List
Tasks to help you reset and re-energize for the week.
Creativity & Curiosity: Find a long article or essay and make yourself actually sit and read the whole thing. No scrolling, no distractions, no skimming.
Personal Style: Experiment with a new style you wouldn’t normally wear.
Home & Environment: Switch up the throw pillows, blankets, or artwork in one of your rooms. You’ll be shocked how much difference it can make.
Connection: Ask someone you love a deep question about themselves. You might be surprised by what you didn’t know about your friends and family.
Joy & Whimsy: Blow some bubbles.
📚 Release Radar
This week’s book releases that are on my radar (and my TBR).
Famous Men by Julie Buntin | A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again.
The Half Life by Rachel Beanland | From the author of Florence Adler Swims Forever and The House Is on Fire, a novel set on a remote Italian island about a navy wife’s reckoning with power, love, and the price of staying silent in the Atomic Age.
Make Nice by Ryan Effgen | Sandwich meets The Wedding People in this irresistible comedy of manners as three generations of a family—a snail scientist, a soon-to-be divorcée, her teenage daughter, a hapless con man, and their feckless patriarch—descend on a ritzy Lake Michigan vacation island. (Mackinac Island baby!!!!)
The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren | New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren returns with an unforgettable romance in which a fateful accident erases a troubled marriage from memory—and a scientific breakthrough gives love one extraordinary do-over.
💌 Reading List
Essays & articles worth reading this week.
Skill Nostalgia | Aeon
“Will our desire for a lost age of skilled work curdle into technophobia, a distrust of social change, and a desire to return to the ‘way things were’? When we fetishise the skills and objects of the past, are we falling into a reactionary form of Luddism that resists all change? What are the politics hidden within our desire for artisanal sourdough bread and hand-thrown pottery?”
An interesting take on how being nostalgic for the “good old days” of handcrafted artisan work is an extremely old pastime.
The Upside of Being an Only Child | Cup of Jo
“As a preteen, though, I sometimes wished for a sibling: specifically, an older sister. Older sisters are, from what I can tell, the meanest human beings on the planet, but they are also the gatekeepers to becoming a woman. They know about tampons and foundation and getting asked to dances and that the cool girls in high school don’t carry backpacks, they wear messenger bags. I lived and died by my stacks of teen magazines, but flipping the stark white pages of Seventeen is not the same as your sister coming into your room, pulling out a lip liner, and showing you how to use it. If you have an older sister, you don’t have to use the metallic gunmetal-gray Lancôme eye shadow your mom gave you from a bonus gift at Nordstrom, apply it alone in your poorly lit bathroom, and then wear it to the Friday-night dance looking like you got a black eye from a robot.”
I am also an only child who once longed for an older sister as I read through the pages of Seventeen magazine. Much like the author of the piece, Alison Leiby, I too mostly loved my weird childhood spent discussing adult topics like the news and weather and befriending school librarians and administrators. As I’ve gotten older, I have felt at times a longing for a sibling or two, someone else who knows exactly where I came from and what I’m going through, but overall I’ve always loved being an only child.
The End of Reading is Here | The Atlantic
“In 2024, in a national test, just 35 percent of high-school seniors were “proficient” at skills such as analyzing complex fictional themes and evaluating the effectiveness of an author’s argument. About the same number scored below “basic,” meaning that they may struggle to draw conclusions from concepts explicitly included in a text, or to use context clues to determine the meaning of an unknown word. Adult-literacy scores have also dropped: Nearly 30 percent of American adults cannot paraphrase or make inferences from a multipage text. In 2017, that number was less than 20 percent.”
This piece has definitely been making the rounds this week, and the stats are certainly alarming. I don’t really know what to say. How do we fix this? I feel like bringing back free personal pan pizzas for reading books is a step in the right direction.
🧥 In My Cart
Things I’m eyeing and buying this week.
1. Smocked Tie-Strap Midi Dress, American Eagle 2. Scallop Shell Hair Clip, Jenny Lemons 3. The New Vegetarian Cookbook, Anthropologie 4. Off-Duty Snoopy Tote Bag, American Eagle 5. Don’t Play It Cool Tee, Vibe2k 6. Leave Pretty Anti-Puff Eye Patches, Pacifica 7. Ruffle Tie-Neck Top, Old Navy 8. Wood Bookshelf Lamp, Target 9. Campus Rugby Sweatshirt, American Eagle
✨ Joy Scrolling
Fun links & recs for your reading pleasure.
This tomato, halloumi, and nectarine salad sounds like pure summer deliciousness.
Love this list of the 40 prettiest main streets in the country. I LOVE a good historic downtown main street with cute little shops. Though I have to say, we’re missing a lot of midwest representation here. Michigan has some GORGEOUS main streets.
Artist Derrick Lin creates these gorgeous miniature dioramas that somehow perfectly encapsulate feelings of nostalgia, loneliness, love, etc. I’m fascinated.
A fantastic list of sleepy, sultry crime movies for hot summer nights. Rear Window is one of my all-time favorites!
Stumbled upon this episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood where he visits Eric Carle’s (of Very Hungry Caterpillar fame) studio. Delightful.
⏰ ICYMI
What I’ve posted recently.
Parenthetical is a publication for women who dog-ear pages, overthink their seasonal wardrobe, and want to make their ordinary days more magical. Paid subscribers get access to the full resource library, plus The Well-Designed Life curriculum.
Congrats on the new home, Lizzie! That's really exciting. I'm sure you're going to make it gorgeous, can't wait to see peeks of it over the next few months as you settle.
Congratulations on making the decision and finding a wonderful home!! Big changes, but I'm excited to come along for the ride!
Widow's Bay is excellent!! I hope you enjoy it!