Plot Points #50 💌
Screenless summer activities, Scottish accents, socialization, and sleepovers
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Hi friends and happy summer!
This week alone we’ve had a double date night, a softball game, a playdate with my friends and her kiddos, and a two-night sleepover wherein my daughter and her bestie delighted me with all their tween antics. One minute they’re just little kids who need their moms, and the next my daughter is cocking her eyebrow at me and I’m staring in the mirror circa 1997.
Another exciting development is that I finished recording the audio for Good Enough! Production will commence in August sometime, but I’m not yet sure about the release. It was such a fancy experience, sitting on the floor of my daughter’s closet with my butt and legs going numb while I tried not to sob through the last chapters. You’re welcome for that lovely mental image. Think of me while you listen, mmmk?
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for spending some of your time with me here.
Wendi
Point #1: I’m turning 39 this year.
And I loved this beautiful piece from
on what she’s thinking about as she reaches that milestone. The idea that we’ve been built by the people in our lives—the way a favorite show is put together by so many different creative minds—is such a generous way of looking at the people we’ve become at this age.Point #2: Socialization is not the issue.
I’m thrilled to be homeschooling both our kiddos this year and this piece from is a much-needed examination of what we mean when we ask about socialization for young children. As Oliver notes, public school was not created to socialize kids, and the implementation of the school “system” as a whole is a relatively modern idea. I think it’s super important for parents to be mindful of these realities, no matter how we choose to educate our children.
Point #3: Time to make a Slip-N-Slide.
I loved this list from on 60 screen-free activities to try out this summer. Who needs a pool when you have a tarp and a water hose?
Point #4: I could listen to this guy talk all day.
Time to go back to Scotland! 🏴
Word of the Week ✍🏻
Orphic: (adj.) Mysterious and entrancing; beyond ordinary understanding.
Receipts from a No-Buy Year 🧾
Pierce and I splurged a bit last weekend while it was just the two of us and I bought coffee three times this week while we were busy with friends. BUT! We finally got the tote of coffee syrups and other kitchen gadgets from our storage unit this week and now I can make lavender lattes at home with the Nespresso. I’m excited about playing around with different flavor combinations and spending less money on what is honestly my one major cost each week. I will be free of you, Starbucks!
Outside Coffee: $20.46
The only other thing I bought was a knock-off Stanley from Target by the brand Simple Modern. The clear insulated water/coffee cup I had got a crack in it and no matter how I hard I tried I couldn’t get the dirty dish water and mold spots out from between the layers 🤢. This cup was on sale from $35 to twenty bucks and I LOVE it. I’ve had to pee so many times since I bought it, too, so I guess it’s a win-win all around.
Simple Modern Cup: $22.25
Total: $42.71
Reading in The Nook 📚
This was a good reading week. While Pierce and I were out walking on our day date we stumbled across The Reading Attic, a darling bookshop upstairs on the Marietta Square. I refused to buy any books and took a bunch of pictures of them to check out at the library later, but after we left Pierce surprised me with one I had been eyeing in the shop. He knows the way to my heart, that guy 😍.
The Phoenix Bride is the story of an English woman grieving the loss of her young husband to the plague. The doctor who comes to treat her melancholy is a Jewish man living in exile from Portugal who knows something of grief himself, and what ensues is a tortured romance set amidst the backdrop of The Great Fire of London and the immense economic and political upheaval of the late 17th century. A solid read!
I also finished A Burning in My Bones, the biography of brilliant Bible translator, theologian, and pastor Eugene Peterson. I started it last year and then got sidetracked, but I’m so glad I came back to it. Peterson was truly this generation’s C.S. Lewis and I have even more respect for him as a biblical scholar than I did before. His words and his legacy are a gift to the Church.
Finally, I read a sweet inspirational fiction from Sarah Ladd, always a favorite, called A Stranger at Fellsworth. It was a nice little murder mystery and romance set in Regency England, so I devoured it in two days.
This weekend, I’m hoping to finish The It Girl by Ruth Ware. I’ve been wanting to read her work for some time now and it’s really good, so far!
What’s on your reading list today? 👇🏻
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“I’m not funny. What I am is brave.”
—Lucille Ball—
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