FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. My little family of 3 has made the temporary move up to Maine for a few months to be close to my husband’s family as we both continue to work from home + stay at home parent. It’s been a little cold but really nice to switch things up and we are loving exploring our new neighborhood — we are renting a cute little house near downtown Westbrook. We’ve been taking lots of walks and continue to love our Deuter Kid Comfort backpack.

2. I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately and it’s a nice switch up from my typically long podcast stream. I’ve decided to read 50 books this year and am already on track with three for the first three weeks of the year: Nomadland, Quit Like a Millionaire, and The War On Normal People. I loved all three books and am very excited to keep up the goal. Hoping to finish up another this weekend!

3. My 14-month old is obsessed with these fun toys – Squigz!

4. My favorite stay-at-home purchase is this electric milk frother. I’ve had a Nespresso Pixie for a couple of years and loved making espresso at home. But the ability to make perfect frothed milk has completely up-leveled my at-home-coffee-game. I am obsessed.

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. I loved this week’s episode of Hysteria featuring Nithya Raman, city councilmember for Los Angeles’ 4th district. I really appreciated her campaign last fall, and this episode has lots of solid advice on how to get more involved at a local level.

2. My husband and I are entering into a pretty big house renovation to add a second story! It’s going to add two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a lot more square footage. It’s very exciting and very daunting. It also means that our current bedroom will be turned into a guest room, so I’ve been doing a little bit of browsing for a new bed frame to replace the Ikea bachelor-esque frame that we’ve been sleeping on from my husband’s first post-college apartment! Top runners so far: this, this, and this.

3. I’ve been recommending The Office of Historical Corrections to friends near and far. It’s a collection of short stories and I just luxuriated in the language and writing. I read it all twice in a row! It was the last book I read of the year in 2020, and capped off 78 books read, far surpassing my goal of 50! (I have since set my 2021 goal to be 52, one a week!)

4. I’ve been really missing the routine and memory-making of keeping up Ernie’s baby book. I had one from this Etsy shop that covered his first year month-by-month, holidays, milestones, etc. I really enjoyed dedicating some time every week or month to document pieces of his life. I just ordered this one line a day journal to try to get that feeling back in my life. The goal is to write a quick anecdote about his day, every day for five years straight. Yikes? Will check back in to see if it’s overwhelming or a nice way to chronicle his updates.