Just glad to be here
Alright folks we are back in business.
First I would like to recommend you follow my friend Makenzie’s HustonandHome Instagram account. Sometimes there are just fun little updates on there. If you have moved since Christmas, or are not already on the Christmas card list, update your information here.
Big week. Monday morning I walked downstairs to find that I had left my favorite multi-wick white pillar candle burning all night. After blowing it out, I decided to see how much wax had melted, and the answer is enough to cover most of my face, hair, glasses and favorite sleeping t-shirt. After using a blow dryer to get most of the wax off/out, I learned about some neat features on my banking app, and then closed on a house. Then I got lost on a bike ride and ate goat cheese in my very own kitchen.
Much more to say later about how good the Crate and Barrel wine glasses look on the open shelving, but for now, let’s roll. Sign up to be a paid subscriber below.
This sentence now has links to the my instagram, and old issues of the newsletter.
Number One: The absolute certainty that prayers today mattered and the multivitamin version of Scripture
Beth Moore, who I personally would take a bullet for, led a 31 days of prayer in July. Beth had about 80 suggestions of what to pray for, and I took 20 and ran with it. It was really impactful in ways that I don’t yet have words for.
One of her suggestions was to end each day’s time of prayer with the confession, “thank you, Lord, for the absolute certainty that my prayers today mattered.” As a someone who frequently wonders if any of ~this~ matters, this one got me in my bones. I now have it in my phone as a reminder every night at 8pm, and will keep it there.
Tim Keller, who I personally would hold back from oncoming traffic, makes use of the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan. The idea is that each calendar year you read through the Old Testament once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice; and it all adds up to be a lot of reading, and the kind of thing that I would start with gusto and then pitter out after a few weeks.
In swoops the ESV M’Cheyne podcast which is the perfect addition to the New York Times Daily/WSJ What’s News morning podcast line up. Listening to it feels like the equivalent to taking a multivitamin. Would I rather get all my essential nutrients from food? Sure. Does this fill in the gap? It does. Will I pee it all out? No, it’s a podcast, and I am mixing metaphors here.
Number Two: Beads!
I don’t remember what order events exactly led to me buying this set of beads. But the short story is that I bought them, and then I started making little bracelets in the evenings instead of doing productive things like cleaning my room.
Maybe it’s that I’ve started attending an Anglican church, so I am a half step closer to understanding what people are doing with Rosaries, but making bracelets of my prayers has become a tender summer time spiritual practice. When people ask if my bracelet says “Five Things,” I get to say, “Oh no, it says Impossible Things. That’s funny though, people keep asking. I read this book, and the author talked about how God delights to do impossible things, just sort of as an aside to this other point she was making, anyway, I’m praying for that right now.”
Number Three: This Body Scrub that is worth the price
I started using this body scrub before shaving my legs and holy moly it makes my legs SHINE. Just absolutely glow. It’s pricey, and it does not simply rinse off. But it is well worth the splurge.
Number Four: Articles in no particular order…
A raptor themed ride gets taken over by actual raptors. Makes me think of the non-exhibit exhibit of vultures at the Waco Zoo. (Vanity Fair)
Apparently there’s not a lot of THC regulation in pot labs. Is this a problem? (FiveThirtyEight)
Rachael Kincaid writes so thoughtfully, and I loved her blog post on being a recovering “natural mom.” (rachkincaid.com)
Loved LOVED this Tommy Orange profile of Wes Studi. (GQ)
If, like me, you’re always just pretending to know what the deal is with charter schools, I appreciated this primer on the situation in Kansas City. (The Beacon)
There is now an exhibit featuring the skeleton of the Elephant that Rembrandt probably used as a model for the elephants in the background of a few of his painting. Sort of strange, but Rembrandt is a fave, so I’m here for it. (NYTimes)
Y’all already know I loved this Clare Malone profile of the woman who was thisclose to being mayor of New York. (Intelligencer)
Where do I live? she wanted to know. Garcia’s ultimate bureaucrat party trick, it turns out, is letting you know the provenance of your drinking water and the final destination of your waste. My water comes from tunnel No. 2 — “I like tunnel No. 2 the best,” she said; apparently it has a cleaner taste thanks to its use of chlorine gas versus the hypochlorite used in tunnel No. 3 — and my toilet flushes into Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
As someone who once won the Spa at Briarcliff Instagram giveaway, and will never forget it, I found this article on who really wins those big multi-influencer giveaways fascinating. (Vox)
Number Five: Summer Song Round Up
Take Me There - absolute favorite song of the summer. Serendipitously, I downloaded a Delta Rae song from Noisetrade back in 2013 and have been on their e-mail list ever since despite my many attempts to unsubscribe. I want to do a trampoline routine to this song. I want to sprint and never stop to this song. I want to ride my bike down a very long hill to this song. I love it.
The Night We Met - this song is perfect for driving around at night and pretending you’re in a last-six-minutes-of-the-episode montage where the people that are meant to be together aren’t. Instead they’re putting dishes away slowly or smoking cigarettes at the park. Did I rediscover this song after Michael A.’s cryptic post-Men Tell All Instagram story? I did, thank you Michael A.
June, After Dark // everywhere // Know it All // Come Over