Kelly’s Favorite Dudley Stephens Fleece (The off-white color is perfect for spring and summer!) / Jeans (Also love this pair and this pair.) / Rothy’s Washable Sneakers / Newer Utility Jacket (L.L.Bean has a good one, too.) / Goyard Tote / Headband / Sunglasses / Mitch’s Marine Layer Pullover, Shorts, Backpack and Birkenstocks
Mitch here!
It turns out that writing these “10 Things” posts is super enjoyable. It’s like journaling, but in public. Actually, when you put it that way, it’s sort of terrifying. Whatever. Here are the first 10 Things that come to mind today:
- Shoutout to popsicles for still being delicious after all these years. I stocked the freezer full of these things for the summer and I’m wolfing them down guilt-free like I’m a seven-year-old home from soccer practice.
- Any tips for giving a two-year-old medicine? Because Lucy is getting her second molars and is super-human strong in fighting me off. The funny thing is that she used to love the taste of medicine and would suck it out of the plunger like it was a lollipop. How times change!
- It’s allergy season which is truly frustrating as a Chicagoan. We endure the long midwestern winter only to be annihilated by filthy pollen and grasses and those nasty cotton wood seeds flying all over the place. Right now I’m floating in a sea of generic Zyrtec (my personal favorite), Sudafed and Benadryl—and I feel like I’m on Mars. But at least I’m upright!
- How often do you wash your car? Until recently, my answer to this question was “Never.” But I just had my first real car wash and oh my goodness. I had it all wrong! I couldn’t care less about the outside of my car, but they vacuumed and cleaned the INSIDE, and it is the best $15 I’ve ever spent in my entire life. Gone are the cheerios, the crumbs, the general kid crap flying around.., why didn’t someone tell me?!
- I’m spending a lot of time with Chilled Cow on YouTube while I work. Chilled Cow is a popular YouTube channel that plays endless LoFi music to aid in concentration while working or studying. Studies show that this kind of music offers the perfect blend of stimulation to keep focus and not distract. I love it and apparently so does everyone else. Even the Lofi Girl animation on the channel helps me to relax and focus. It’s the perfect thing for remote work.
- It’s “stoop sitting season” in Chicago and we’re partaking every chance we can get. Chicago is the best city in the world in the summer (don’t @ me) and we try to get out and enjoy it as much as possible. With two sleeping children at home, this often means sitting on the stoop and watching the city go by. Luckily, our fabulous neighbors feel the same, and we have an impromptu block party a few times a week. It’s the best.
- My parents have been watching the kids lately and it’s been the biggest help. I’m blessed to have parents who both live close enough and are willing to spend the weekend with our kids to give us a moment of relief. They’re the best grandparents, and Emma and Lucy make major developmental progress while we’re away. If they’re reading this (which they aren’t), I just want to say THANK YOU!
- Ever since our trip to Mississippi, I’ve been obsessed with rivers. I mean, if you take a second to think about it, rivers are absolutely fascinating. (Yes, I just linked to the Wikipedia article on rivers.) They’re everywhere, they’re virtually uncontrollable, and, at least in my case, they’re totally ignored by the people living near them. One of the cooler things I’ve found in my deep dive on rivers is River Runner, a site that let’s you drop a “rain drop” anywhere in the United States and then calculates the route it will trickle down on its way to the ocean. Fascinating stuff!
- Looking for a great men’s backpack? I’ve had this one for over a year now, and really love it. It holds so much and looks like something I’ve had forever–in a good way.
- Are you a Bo Burnham fan? I watched Inside on Netflix last night and my head’s still spinning. For the uninitiated, Bo Burnham is a supremely talented song writer/comedian who started as an early viral success on YouTube and has gone on to be one of the more prominent voices in stand-up. If you’re interested, I’d recommend starting with some of his earlier specials and building up to Inside since this new special is A LOT to handle. It follows Bo as he locks himself in a single room for the duration of the pandemic year. The whole special was created and filmed in that very same room and it gets, uh, very strange and very emotional. But also insightful, hilarious, catchy, meaningful and impressive. The breadth of Bo Burnham’s talent never stops surprising me.
- After weeks of planning, the kids are officially signed up for summer camp. Well, sort of. I can’t begin to explain how complicated figuring out our summer summer has been; it took WEEKS to figure out some sort of a schedule, and when I finally pushed the button, I was told that Emma was on the waitlist for August. Ugh.
Mitch. OUT!
