Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living
You guys… it is 2026. Happy New Year! 🎉✨
We made it. We survived the holiday season. And now we’re officially in that beautiful, fresh-start January energy — and I am so here for it.
To kick off the year, I thought it would be really fun to share something close to my heart: my favorite baby and toddler books. These aren’t necessarily tied to a strict age range. When I first sat down to make this list, I thought I’d organize it from birth to age three — but that list got very long, very fast.
Unfortunately, George Saunders’ Vigil, was a big disappointment for me. I went into this book with a lot of anticipation. I’ve been a longtime fan of Saunders, and Lincoln in the Bardo is one of my all-time favorite audiobooks. I still think about it nearly a decade later. It was one of those rare listening experiences that felt more like a performance than a traditional book—layered, immersive, and emotionally powerful, with dozens of narrators creating this chorus-like world between life and death.
So when I saw Vigil coming out, I didn’t even hesitate. I downloaded it immediately. I went in expecting something similarly original or at least emotionally surprising. Instead, I found myself feeling… underwhelmed.
We got chicks last week, which already feels a bit unhinged given the stage of life we’re in, but here we are. The chicks are somehow both very fragile and totally resilient at the same time. I keep checking on them – are they warm enough, are they eating, is this too much poop? It’s a lot of noticing, paying attention. Which is what Tazria and Metzora are about too.
I hope you had a really lovely Passover! My older two kids were off school for a solid 2+ weeks, we spent part of our time in South Florida visiting family, and then closed out their break with a Cardinals game last night (Boston beat them). Everyone goes back to school tomorrow morning, and I’m looking forward to getting back to my routine.
Last we left off, Aaron and his sons were to wait in the Tent of Meeting for seven days (that magical, sacred number seven, we will continue to see over and over), and on the eighth day, they newly ordained priests step forward, they are ready to carry out the service themselves. The elders assemble once more to bear witness. Once all has been complete, a fire comes forth from God and consumes the burnt offerings and the fat parts on the alter (Leviticus 9:24). It’s a moment of divine approval, of closeness, of everything working exactly as it should.
Hello, hello! Thrilled to bring you three 5-star books, all read recently, that I absolutely loved. Plus, as usual, one overrated book. Because I just can’t help myself.
This episode is the final part of our series on building a rhythmic home. Over the past few weeks, we’ve built this together, layer by layer. We started with microhabits—tiny behaviors that set the foundation—then added daily and weekly flows for structure, and explored managing our home as an inventory: what comes in, what stays, and what we let go of.
Today, we’re zooming out. Our homes are not static—they shift, evolve, and grow, just like us and our children. When we fail to account for this, chaos sneaks back in. Today’s focus: the seasonal flow and learning to live with rhythms instead of constantly reacting.