All of the links, all of the links

So much goodness to share with you!

Hey friend,

It’s been a time! I realised that I haven’t shared my favourite things with you for while and I miss them. The happy list on my phone is out of control so I’m devoting a whole post to it. Get an iced coffee and get ready to click 🎉

Books

January is 100% underrated. All the insanity of December is over but with none of the chaos of February. I declutter my house, go to the beach, make schemes for the year, and read more books than is healthy.

A good proportion of my voice texts with

Britt B

is sending articles and book recs back and forth. But I FINALLY had the brain space to read some books that she recommended to me aaaaaagees ago.

• Jenny Brown is a Christian, a social worker, and a Family Systems Therapist. Growing Yourself Up made me want to train as a Family Systems Therapist (if I had ten lifetimes and a spare $11k). I understand over functioning! I’m a Jenny Brown fan girl now. If you’re a helping professional or in ministry, highly recommend it 👍🏼

• Stolen Focus also lived up to the hype 🙌🏼

The thread to my other non-fiction book recs is, “How do I be less insane?” and, “How can my schedule have maniacal tendencies as opposed to full-blown mania?”

• Zeal Without Burnout. Super short, practical, and encouraging.

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Another one that lives up to the hype.

• The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius. To be honest, I didn’t finish this book, but a few ideas were completely new and had me thinking about it for ages. TLDR: 93% of time management books are written by men. Women have different needs. Our lives and cycles change all the time!

My library has a classics shelf and I’ve picked up a few delights, including The Princess Bride (it’s so funny!), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (I’m jealous of Capote’s one liners and descriptions!), and The Wind in the Willows (messing around in boats!)

Redeeming Blackwood was everything I wanted it to be. If you have not read the Blackwood Trilogy DROP EVERYTHING and read it now. It’s fun. 🤩

I also discovered Sarah Bailey, an Aussie thriller writer in the vein of Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and Robert Galbraith. I’m on my third book of hers so far. She doesn’t miss!

Finally read Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making. Obsessed with everything he has to say about Christians creating in community.

Food

In November, I had a bunch of ladies over for a spring grazing table and gin cocktails (see the table above? Stacey helped me. It’s so pretty!) Everyone bought some flowers/greenery and we practiced arranging flowers. I made all the dips from scratch and I’m never, ever getting back together with store bought dip. It’s such a low effort, high reward payoff. I got them all from RecipeTin Eats: French Onion Dip, Guacamole, and Creamy Feta Dip.

Guys, Mel Kelly makes amazing homemade seasonings. She gave me a bunch when I was newly postpartum and I use them all 👏🏻 the 👏🏻 time. Check out Season & Ko 🤤

Mel also gave me this Amaretto Italian Christmas Cookie recipe THAT WINS CHRISTMAS. It was a decide-once choice. Every one I had to get a little gift for (think: babysitters, teachers, extended family) all got a batch of these biscuits. You get a biscuit! You get a biscuit! Everybody gets a biscuit! They take ten minutes in the oven. I made a quadruple batch the night before Christmas with a Old Fashioned cocktail in hand and carols in the background. It’s that easy. (Also, don’t listen to the recipe, you can use Almond Meal instead of Almond Flour. It’s chunkier and cheaper).

Jasmine Niemann bought these cookies to my house. The boys and I made 100 cookies (they’re four ingredients!) and froze them in batches in the deep chest freezer for cookie emergencies.

Stacey sent me this two ingredient bagel recipe. I was grumpy and then I BOILED BAGEL DOUGH IN BOILING WATER before cooking them. It was a Sunday afternoon project that cheered me up immensely. Stacey says she makes these and then freezes them for breakfast for herself. I want to do this in 2025.

Finally, my slow cooker is saving my life in this heat with this recipe. I DO NOT want to turn the oven on when it is 45 degrees. And lemon sorbet for dessert. My kids do not know about the sorbet and I do not share.

Assorted Goodness

I brag about these culottes to anyone who will listen. I graduated from leggings. They make me feel fancy erry day.

And I bought the Freedom app. I know it is expensive, but it locks me out of distracting apps on a daily schedule. I feel like I’ve got deep thinking time back.

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would have never otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance that no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In case you missed it:

1. My Year in Books is like Christmas for book nerds. I answered questions no one asked me about my years’ reading in 2024 😆

2. Part Time Poets Collection 1: In Which I Try to Save the World (TLDR: I write a poem a month with a bunch of ladies online. We just released our first print collection!)

3. If you’re a Christian woman in Western Australia and would like a weekly dose of encouragement in your inbox with local women sharing honest stories, Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner launches in March. Sign up here.

Tell me in the comments (or hit reply to this email):

1. What are you reading?

2. What are you eating? Cooking?

3. What is saving your life right now? Do you have magic pants?? I need to know!