Let's Catch Up!
From inside my frazzled brain / December 2025
Hi friends! This newsletter is (usually) a monthly-ish round-up of life things - what I’m enjoying, reading, learning, buying, doing, thinking about, and more. More recently, I’ve been sending more themed posts around a set topic. But today, I’m bringing back a more random ‘life lately’ newsletter!
HOW ARE YOU GUYS?! Hope everyone is hanging in there!
Ioriginally wrote most of this newsletter in November, but here we are basically at mid-December and ~2 weeks to Christmas and just now publishing. Eeeeep, ‘tis the season!
I haven’t done an old fashioned ‘life lately’ newsletter in awhile, which was the premise of this newsletter when I started it many years ago. I used Substack as a brain dump of sorts to share about all sorts of things that were on my mind, but more recently have shared more topical posts. I’m curious - do you like the life lately or the most focused topic newsletters?
Excited to catch you up on some/most?? of what’s been happening in our little corner of the world.
LIFE LATELY
Daisy is sleeping through the night! For the past week and a half, she’s been sleeping through the night without one of us waking to feed/soothe her. For the last 14ish months, I’ve gotten up with her every night at least once, usually twice to nurse or soothe her. She’s been sleeping mostly independently for a few moths now, but we never had a plan or strategy for middle of the night wakings. And then one night, she started sleeping through the night and kept doing it. I’m a new person!
A few weeks ago, I went on a girls trip to Boston with my college friends turned sisters and ugh, it was so so so so stupid fun and silly. We were in college together then all lived in San Francisco in our 20s, but now are spread out all over. I’m so glad we made the time to get together and I’m already craving our next lurdies offsite. 🩷
I honestly get really annoyed when everyone is like *~I’m so busy~* but whew, this season with school aged kids feels really FULL. I mean the holidays kind of always are, but it feels even more so now that Lucy and Winnie are a little older. There seems to always be school events or fundraisers or themed days or something to do/remember. I know I’m not the only one who is like OMG WHY ARE THERE SO MANY THINGS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?
I recently wrapped up my third semester teaching at Belmont! I taught a Social Media Planning and Management course, and partnered my students with local Nashville-based small businesses/organizations. This semester, we worked with Hometeam Pizza, Apple & Oak, and Second Harvest Food Kitchen. The student teams put together campaign ideas and a comprehensive social strategy for their clients and I’m so proud of them! And also, I’m proud of the course I put together - I would have loved to get real-world experience like this and work with real businesses in undergrad. Semi-related, here’s some of my professor ‘fits.
Lucy joined the swim team! We’ve always been very focused on water safety and swimming skills - both Lucy and Winnie did ISR lessons starting at ~18 months and ‘regular’ swim lessons starting at age three). This fall, she joined Nashville Aquatic Club and we’ve been excited for her to participate in a sport where she can grow individually, but also be a part of a team environment. She’s had one official swim meet already and two more coming soon. So proud of her!
Last month, I did a little Instagram crowdfunding to support families in our Title 1 school community who are impacted by SNAP cuts. Both strangers and friends were so generous and in six days, there were $900 in donations! THANK YOU to those of you who donated.
KIDS HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS!
This is a big brain dump of all sorts of random gift ideas for kids! I’m also sharing more ideas over on Instagram (saving to this Gift Ideas highlight) when I think of them!
Honestly, I have more fun finding stocking stuffer gifts than the ‘regular’ presents. I put together a bunch of ideas in the collection linked below:
The girls are super into games lately, and so one of their shared presents this year is a bunch of new family-friendly card and board games. Linked the ones we ordered and a few other highly rated kids games below:
One thing all three kids (7, 5, 1) do almost every day is obstacle course / gross motor active play. Things like Nugget couches, tumbling mats, stepping stones, climbing toys, wobble boards, tunnels, etc. We’ve had most of these active play toys/gear for years and truly it’s such a great gift because you can keep adding onto your collection.
Lastly, here’s a bunch of ideas for one year olds/young toddlers. These are toys Daisy has and LOVES! (Again, many of them we’ve had since Lucy and Winnie were younger)
RECENT POSTS
WORDS THAT RESONATED WITH ME
‘Tis the season to bowl with bumper pads and yet still count every strike as a full win. Guard your heart. Watch Home Alone 15 times in a row if it’s what makes you happy. Skip holiday movies and watch Real Housewives if it’s what you need. Drop traditions, keep them, start new ones… there are no rules except do what you need to do to get to the finish line. For me, it’s diving into the holiday magic I’ve always loved and don’t want to skip, but publicly noting what brings me so much joy also breaks my heart. I don’t want this season to end. I look forward to the stability of ordinary days. ‘Do I contradict myself?’ Very well then. I am large, I contain multitudes.’ - Kelle Hampton
RECENTLY READ
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff, The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak, The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave, The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty.
READ PAST NEWSLETTERS HERE!
Thanks for reading! I love hearing from you, so always feel free to shoot me a note!
I enjoy your life-y posts so much! 🥰