Plot Points #61 🎄

Ingredients, Hogwarts letters, why Advent, and a whole bunch of great gift guides

Plot Points is a weekly newsletter where I share my favorite books, links, words, and more. If you enjoy what you find here, please consider subscribing or buying me a coffee.

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Hello friends! Happy Friday to you all!

Yesterday, our sweet girl turned eleven, the Year in Which One Receives Her Hogwarts Letter.

And receive her letter she did.

Every season of parenthood offers equal parts challenge and wonder. Lucy’s pre-teen years are giving all my other favorites (specifically ages two, four, and five) a run for their money. This girl loves her books even more than I do! She often regales us with her favorite plot points and character dramas, and at her birthday sleepover I walked out to the garage where the girls had been watching movies on the pull-out couch only to find all three of them fully engrossed in separate novels. I just sort of backed out of the room slowly, my mom brain trying to compute how my daughter’s party had turned into a book club meeting.

Man, I love being a mom.

I love being Lucy’s mom.

Happy 11th, my wild, wonderful girl. May this year be full of blessings and joy.

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Word of the Week ✍🏻

Brivet: (v.) To wander an area aimlessly or to satisfy idle curiosity.

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Point #1: “Advent, like the rest of the liturgical calendar, is a gift, not a to-do list.”

Tsh Oxenreider

’s words here are a sweet invitation to move into Advent with gentle, curious steps. And while you’re at it, you can download our church’s free adult and family Advent studies to help guide you through this season. We did last year’s together for our first family celebration of Advent and loved them both.

Point #2: It is no small thing to do this work.

Oi, get some tissues ready. I talked a little about this in last week’s email, but I’m more convinced than ever that the small ways we show up in this world and love one another are the most important things we do.

Sarah Bessey

’s latest is a quietly daring invitation for us to keep going, even when the world says to give up.

Point #3: Body literacy for the win!

Back in college, I was dumbfounded to realize how many women in my acquaintance knew little to nothing about ovulation. (Thanks, Ma, for teaching me!) The modern woman has been cheated out of a fundamental understanding of her body—and, therefore, a fundamental appreciation of it—and this brilliant piece from

All Things Fertility

is one all of us need to read.

Point #4: “McKayla doesn’t understand that we can’t do jumping jacks.”

I howled through this hilarious story about a dance class for middle-aged women. Man, the struggle is so real!

Bonus Point: Change is coming for the United States.

No, not that one.

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Gift Guides Galore! 🎁

These gift guides were curated by wonderful creatives, authors, and artists I admire, so I thought you guys would appreciate their thoughtful insight into the holiday shopping experience, non-Amazon style. I’ve already got quite of few of their suggestions on my list this Christmas!

For the Theologians with Style — Phylicia Masonheimer’s collections offer so much beauty and truth.

For the Really Very Crunchy — Honestly, is there anyone better than Emily Morrow?

For the Justice-Minded Book Nerd —

rachel a. dawson

is ya girl!

Bonus: A repost of the simply holiday gift guide I made last year

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Receipts from a No-Buy Year 🧾

I bought coffee for myself this week with points, then once more for me and the kids on Lucy’s birthday. I also purchased a ton of books for Lucy at Goodwill and managed not to buy the dark academia vest of my dreams, though it would have been super easy to justify because I’ve had its twin pinned to my Pinterest board for years. I keep saying to myself, “There will be others.” The scarcity mindset is such a trap!

We also snagged tickets to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in theaters (so sweet!), but that was a birthday outing. A pretty solid spending week all around!

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Reading in The Nook 📚

This book is hilarious and smart, my two favorite things. Like one endorsement stated, it’s as if Stephen Colbert and Bill Nye had a baby and wrote a book. I’ve fallen into the “good food, bad food” mindset more than once, and I love when brilliant people like Zaidan (an actual organic chemist) help lift the veil on what is really in the products we ingest and put on our bodies and show us that, maybe, “chemicals” don’t have to be so scary after all.

(All Bookshop.org links are affiliates. Thanks for supporting The Nook with your purchase!)

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”

—Rudyard Kipling—

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