April 2, 2024

March ’24 R.E.P.O.R.T

Here’s my March 24 Report! See January Report or February Report for more!

What is REPORT, you might ask? Well it stands for:

What I’m Reading – what books I finished and how I felt about them.

Eating – anywhere noteworthy we dined out or anything noteworthy I cooked, just a recap of the good food from the month.

Playing – current songs on repeat.

Obsessing over – just general recurring thoughts of the month.

Recommending – anything I think you should try!

Treated myself to – cause we all deserve a little treat.

In all likelihood no one actually cares, but I am excited to use this as a little look-back for my own self, hah!

So let’s get to it.

This was a big month: Arden turned TWO!!!! Theron had 2 different out of town trips, one fun and one for work. Arden had to have a heart echo done (everything is good!). The weather has been great and we’ve seen friends a lot and been able to spend so much time outdoors. And some big things are in progress for us Spiegls – more on that in April, hopefully (no I am not pregnant).

What I’m Reading

Most of March was consumed by one very long book:

1. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

I really enjoyed this one. I ranked it a 7.5/10 on instagram but since talking with friends about it and reflecting more, I probably could’ve ranked it higher. I really did not like some of the characters – but I still enjoyed reading them, which says a lot. I think any of us could relate some to all of the characters (even the bad ones). I’m not sure we need MORE stories about families with 4 daughters, but it seems to be an easy subject to write about.

2. How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Julie King

This one was not particularly groundbreaking if you follow any kind of modern day parenting accounts or books/podcasts/media, but it was a nice succinct book about how to effectively parent little kids. I took what I liked and left what I didn’t.

What I’m Eating

Homemade BAGELS! I have tried these in the past and I just never quite succeeded. I also was always trying to make them sourdough and just never had the stamina to continue. Recipes would make too many bagels and take too long.

But then I found Kim @cookim_mama and I followed her recipe for 6 simple bagels (I actually used her black sesame recipe and just left out the sesame powder and they turned out great). It was so easy, it made only 6 perfect bagels, and we’re newly obsessed. She has a bunch of different variations, but I’ve been making mostly just plain. We’ve made breakfast sandwiches or just eaten them toasted with cream cheese. Highly suggest.

What I’m Playing

My friend Ian started our group of friends on this app called “Music League” – once a week there is a new theme and we all have 2 days to choose a song for the theme. Then the app makes a spotify playlist of everyone’s submissions. You listen to them all and vote for your favorites (you get 10 votes to assign however you’d like) and you can comment and even try and guess who submitted what (that part is just for fun). It’s been a fun way to discover new music.

Not to toot my own horn but I did come in second place last week. The theme was, shocking no one, songs involving food. My submission was Whole Damn Thing by Those Darlins.

The first week was “covers” and my friend Carly submitted this song that absolutely has to be my March listen choice. I had never heard the original (it is by Jon Brion) but this cover is so good. Arden calls it the “far away song” and demands it regularly. We love it.

What I’m Obsessing Over

Well the big thing I’m obsessing over will probably come out in the April Report, as it isn’t finalized and I don’t want to talk about it too terribly public yet (sorry)… but in the MEANTIME: my newest obsession is sewing!

Both of my grandmothers, some of my aunts, and my own mother are capital S Seamstresses. My mom’s mom literally owned a children’s clothing company. She sewed (or designed) nearly all of our clothes growing up. She made my graduation gown, much to my 17 year old chagrin (I appreciate it so much as an adult but teenage me just wanted to pick something out from a store and have a lower cut back than she obviously gave me hahaha). My dad’s mom had a sewing room set up in her long skinny laundry room and taught me how to sew pillows for my dolls and embroider cute flowers on them. Both grandma’s would give us coins for finding loose pins in the house.

I’m not sure why other than general childhood rebellion but I fought hard against my genetic predisposition to sewing. I loved the little pillow projects with my grandma when I was young, but at some point I never touched a sewing machine again and swore I’d never go down that path… there were other creative outlets I needed to try first. And then I hit my 30s, had a kid, and started to find I really wanted to make him clothes and costumes. Even more so, I wanted to make MYSELF clothes. So here we are.

I thought I wanted to take a beginners class, but I realized I remembered more than I thought I did. It did NOT come immediately all back, but enough to not justify paying for a class. I’ve been in good ol’ school-of-Youtube and teaching myself the basics and how to use my machine. We’ve got a lot on our plates right now and not really the space to do much sewing at the moment so it is BRIEFLY on hiatus, but coming soon: clothes.

What I’m Recommending

To be honest I have spent less time on Instagram this month than I have in a while and it has been AWESOME. My entire camera roll is pictures of Arden, who I don’t share online, so I haven’t really had anything to share. Not sharing is not really in my nature so I decided to just delete the app for a while and it felt great. I was watching too many reels and getting caught up in the algorithms and I could feel myself getting antsy. Usually a good insta-break fixes that for me, and sure enough it did.

I feel conflicted because I like my online community and I like seeing other people’s lives and finding out about events and stuff. After a week of having had it deleted, I redownloaded and set my daily limit to 35 minutes, just so I could make sure I’m not closed off from the world (isn’t it crazy how it really feels like that when you’re off social media?). I recommend doing the same if you find yourself not feeling great about it.

What I’m Treating Myself To

I went to dinner at Henrietta Red with some girl friends that don’t get together just us 4 much (or maybe we never had?) and it was fun to catch up and eat a whole lot of really good food. We had oysters, shrimp cocktail, smoked fish dip, some pita bread with a dip that was so good we ordered it twice, tuna spaghetti, and we split 2 desserts. Oh and orange wines. It was a dinner experience I feel like I used to care more about having a lot more before Arden was born, and it was fun to get that experience again! I expected it to be a quick dinner and we were there for over 2 hours. It was a treat.