the sunday edition no. 2: reflections on a week of solo parenting

plus downloadable morning routine templates, and the best things I've seen, read and watched recently.

1. Dreamers in Broad Daylight: 10 Conversations: I was really struck by this essay by Leslie Jamison, touching on different kinds of dreams: daydreams, fantasies about a life with people you meet in passing, possible and impossible things, vivid imagery and running dialog, shame and desire and imagination and escape. Highly recommend with a cup of coffee and the time to contemplate the versions of yourself that might already be out there in the world waiting for you. 

2. 1989 (Taylor’s Version): I’ll be honest y’all. I’m not a Swiftie. And for a long time, not only was I not a Swiftie, I actively didn’t like Taylor’s music. I came around in 2020: Folklore and Evermore really spoke to me musically more than anything else she has done, and I can absolutely respect the hustle with her Eras tour and the rerecords. Consider me a begrudging fan, more than anything. That being said, having listened to 1989 TV, and I will tell you that if Now That We Don’t Talk and Is It Over Now were released in 2014 I would have been *obsessed*. Exactly the kind of emotional turmoil we are looking for.

Part of my promise to myself in rolling out this newsletter was a commitment to just show up and do it. There is something daunting about pressing send to push things out to people that feels a little more serious than positing out into the void of social media. It’s still a void, but it’s one that people have opted into alerts about. It feels a little more high pressure: a little more accountability to actually publish the things you said you will. I’m absolutely floored by the response to announcing this newsletter last week: when all the dust settled, there have been over 500 subscribers to this little pocket of the internet, with almost 100 opting for the paid version. I am stunned, and there are not words for my gratitude. 

views from writing this (belated) newsletter

For those of you who are new here, this is the Sunday edition of early bird. She’s less formal than the Thursday edition, might not show up each week, but tend to be more day-to-day stuff in my life. (That more personal, more intentional stuff I mentioned would be the heart of this newsletter!) This week, I’m sharing: 

• A reflection on my longest stretch of solo parenting this past week (4 + days with Mark out of town),  takeaways for next time and some snapshots from a crazy week! 

• A lot of y’all asked for editable versions of my routine menus - I’ve got canva templates and downloadable PDFs for ya! 

• The Hits List of all the best things I’ve seen, read, etc recently! 

That’s enough of that. Grab your tea, let’s do this. 

Xx, 

Coming to you live from the floor of my living room, eating my current hyperfixation breakfast: honeycrisp apples, a New Orleans cold brew, and a very specific breakfast sandwich with lil mama’s hot peppers, cheddar cheese and seedy mustard. She is beauty, she is grace, she is my ideal weekend breakfast. Mark has taken Little Bear and Minnie on what we think of as the “get out of my hair” weekend walks, to give me time to wrap up this newsletter before we carve a pumpkin this afternoon. I had grand aspirations of having this written, edited and queued up to arrive in your inboxes bright and early this morning.. But with Mark out of town for four and half days we just didn’t make it happen. There is almost nothing more humbling than putting together a whole guide on how to be a morning person, and then spending the next week blatantly ignoring most of your own advice to yourself.