If you love #5SmartReads, would you be open to sharing them? You’ll get perks if you do! Set up your unique share link below and share #5SmartReads with anyone you think would enjoy them! I’m a bit of a superstitious person. I knock on wood when I don’t want to jinx something (and knock the side of my head when there’s no wood in sight). I never share my birthday wishes with anyone. And I’m very paranoid on birthdays. The headspace I’m in on my birthday and how I spend the day sets the tone for the year (at least, that’s how I feel) and as such as I’m super careful about my birthday plans. I don’t want anything crazy or a big party (except for when I turned 34, and honestly that was one of the best parties and years of my life). I like to be home, with my husband and kids, that day. I like to go out for a nice meal. I like to pamper myself a bit with a blowout or a massage, wear a new dress, and blow out the candles with the promise and potential of a new year. 38 definitely did not begin this way. I’ll spare you the details, but I spent most of the day (and the following day) crying in the closet, crying in the parking lot of Taco Bell, crying on a sanity walk that offered very little sanity. A sense of control of my space and my plans and my health is something I’ve learned is key to my mental health, and when you get COVID, control goes right out the door because you can’t go anywhere or do anything. And so I spent the first two days of 38 dousing my Taco Bell in 5 diablo sauce packets (my taste buds are definitely numb), crying constantly, and feeling generally pathetic. And this terrible mood has flowed into a holiday that feels anything but celebratory, I’m wallowing and finding it hard to be positive or upbeat about anything. I’m going to spend today getting my act together - planning meals that hopefully wake up my taste buds, getting my inboxes empty for the coming week, and being a better mother and wife to my family than I have been the past week. Tonight’s plan is to watch Independence Day, because nothing says the Fourth of July to me than Will Smith shooting down evil aliens. I’ve never embraced the idea of a birthday week, but I’m warming up to a birthday redo once I’ve completed our quarantine. And if you have any ideas on how to shake the birthday blues or any kind of emotional funk, please share them in the comments of this post! What I Read This Week
What Everyone Else Read This Week
Top #5SmartReads Of The Week
The rest of the week’s reads + last week’s (and conversations!) are below: Your Questions, Answered Best car chauffeur company in NYC? Need to get from the city to cape May NJ! How are you doing I hope better! Though if I never see Cocomelon, Blippi, and the Paw Patrol Movie again, it will still be too soon. Did Rhaki catch it too? If so, how long does it delay his vaccine? :( Get yourselves/your big kids boosted if eligible! He did, but he bounced back faster than any of us (2 days with a high fever and body aches, mild fever the day after, and back to his normal self after that). Here is Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS’s post about vaccination guidance post-infection, and we’ll get him jabbed as soon as his pediatrician gives him the green light! What did you read after ACOTAR? What will be as good? (almost done) I also started Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn and it’s excellent- not romance, but really phenomenal fantasy. If you want a contemporary romance palate cleanser, here are some of my favorites:
What do you do when you feel like life is just too hard but you need to carry on That sounded more intense than I meant it to but you know what I mean! On the action front, I’m so grateful to my friend Emily who posts daily actions you can take every day to practice engaged citizenship. If I feel like I need to do something more, I donate money to a cause I feel passionate about or to research and learn about a topic I don’t know enough about. I set a timer, give myself that time to be fully focused on what I’m learning, and then follow it up with some care. This is my self-care menu (something I learned from @amandangocnguyen and it’s a really helpful practice so you have something you can do without whatever time you have. Having a small surgery next week. Best copy treats for recovery? Also shared some of my go-to goodies here- the world’s best water bottle, candle, silk pajama top and bottoms, and audiobook. How to come to terms with people traveling within 6 days of testing +? I would not feel comfortable gathering with folks who are traveling so close from their first positive test if I had a choice, but I would require tasing and moving your interaction outdoors and masking if I didn’t have a choice. How to decide cover travel risk now? It seems like all bets are off and no one care but I do! But if you must travel, wear a well-fitting KN95 mask, rest daily, and plan to stay home a few days before and after your trip to minimize your exposure to others. I would also apt for outdoor dining or eating in your hotel/AirBnB room. WFH and lacking motivation recently. Best tips to find your focus and flow?
A fav client is taking time off because his wife is having breast cancer surgery. Any suitable gift/gestures I can do? If they have kids, send some fun activities for them to do (Kiwico is great for this!) I would also send something for him (Caring for the caretaker)- a Yeti mug and his favorite coffee/tea, a Libro.fm gift certificate, a basket of yummy snacks. How do you add structure/grounding to your routine when home with a baby? I also want to assure you that the early days and months are a blur and it’s okay for things to be chaotic, because they are! Your baby is changing so much every day so it’s okay to let structure out the window in your own life as you try and navigate in finding some rituals every day- a walk in the park, meditating for 5 mixtures, even taking a shower- but not holding myself to a specific time to do it every day. You go this. And what a lucky baby. I hope you feel better soon dear <3 May your weekend be better than mine was, and to a better week for us all. xo,
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