FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. I love these little safari decal stickers that my coworkers bought for nursery decoration. My sister helped put them on the wall for me when she was here last week and I love the way they add to the space!
2. My husband and I have a new “watch together show” it’s been a while since we had something that we both wanted to watch and were willing to wait for each other on. The Morning Show from Apple+ fits the bill perfectly. It has an all-star cast and has quickly become a new favorite for both of us.
3. I am slowing getting into a maternity leave rhythm and Colby and I are getting out for a walk each morning which has been a game-changer for me. I am obsessed with our infant car seat. It was super easy to install and easily becomes a travel system with the stroller that we bought second hand. It’s been great for me to slowly start to become active again, I can’t wait for my 6-week check-up and to get the go-ahead to start practicing hot yoga again.
4. I’ve started listening to a new finance podcast called Millionaires Unveiled and have really enjoyed the interviews. The hosts walk though net-worth and asset allocation of the guest’s portfolios and also talk about habits that have led them to millionaire status. It reminds me of The Millionaire Next Door but it’s in a more modern platform.
5. I finally have been able to start cooking again. It was just too hard to get myself together after a day of baby care to make meals in those first few weeks. My favorite meal so far was Thai curry, something I used to make all the time but since it requires so much chopping, it was a hard one to get back into the rotation. I figured out that buying curry paste on Amazon is much more affordable than our local grocery store so I’ve added this to my semi-regular Amazon shopping list.

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. Hoooooo boy! We are crawling! And by we, obviously I mean my child. Baby Ernie is just over 7 months and he is a speed demon. It’s a bit early on the developmental averages, and I was hoping we’d squeeze a few more weeks of “stationary blob” status, but here we are. We’ve invested in these “bumper guards” on our living room hearth and coffee table and this magnet system for our kitchen cabinets. TBD on what else he’ll get into/onto next that we’ll have to babyproof.

   

2. I’ve been getting through season 3 of The Crown (slowly, but surely!) while simultaneously reading ‘99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret,’ so my royal interests are in peak performance. I dug up our old post on what to do when you finish The Crown and now want a whole weekend to binge some more movies! Anyone have any royal-leaning podcasts I should look into??
3. This aerial view of sheep being herded by sheepdogs is so mesmerizing!
4. I thought this New York Times interactive page on the New York City subway system and the design of its map was very cool. Going to school in Boston and riding the T always made me nervous of traveling into NYC and using public transit. I was so comfortable with the few lines (all called by color, none of this F train, M train, 4 train business!) that New York’s spiderweb of transit confused me to no end.
5. I spent all of Tuesday this week in a training at work called “Career GPS: How to Get Where You Want to Go.” It was exactly as cheesy as you’re imagining, but also wholly useful. Part of the training was completing an exercise that helped you align values with your career goals by giving you a list of 40 potential values and only letting you choose 7, and then prioritizing them. It sounds silly but that simple list prioritization gave me a few different “ah ha!” moments. I felt similarly reading this article ‘How I (try to) Align My Time and Money With My Highest Priorities‘ from the Frugalwoods. Being able to put words to your life goals and desires is as important as then following through on attaining them.