10 Things: Dirt, Soil, Flour
My recommendations on what to do, listen to, read, consider, bake, experience, and bread this week. (Yes, I did write "bread.")
Hello! It’s the weekend again already. Does it feel like summer (or winter) where you are? Here are my recommendations for the week. Paid subscribers get a new podcast, a recipe, and THREE LIFE TRICKS that I cannot believe I ever lived not knowing.
COMMIT: Keep googly eyes on your person.
If you’re a person who carries a purse (or a person who seems like they could be a mom), you’re expected to just kind of *have* certain things all the time: Band-Aids, a granola bar maybe, tampons, Ibuprofen, lip balm, etc. In many ways, it sucks to never be allowed to escape the perception of the role of being a caretaker. In other ways, when someone goes, “Oh fiddlesticks, does someone have a granola bar maybe,” and you can go, “Oh! I do!” it feels really great. If you know what I’m talking about, you know what I’m talking about.1
At some point in my life, I decided that, as much as possible, I would have stick-able googly eyes on me. I usually have a backpack rather than a purse, and I don’t always have the mom things I’m supposed to have, but I do try to always have (along with the googly eyes) foldable scissors, floss, a pen, and stickers. All of which have come in handy. The googly eyes are great when you’re stuck somewhere (like, in a line) with a kid (or a grownup behaving like a kid). “Here. Stick these somewhere surprising but not mean,” you can say.
Also, this year, I kid you not, I was in a situation where someone literally said, “Does anyone have any googly eyes?” They said it as a joke, but can you imagine what a Mary Poppins-y magician I looked like in that moment? You can buy a multipack here.
LISTEN: My summer playlist
This playlist is intended to be put on while you’re sitting in a backyard and the vibe is very much, “I’ve been waiting all year for this.” The drink is chilled watermelon blended with mint. Your feet are in sandals; maybe they’re getting spritzed by a sprinkler. This isn’t barbecue music. It’s late afternoon, eating the basil leaves straight from the plant because they don’t need anything extra music. It’s “what bird is that?” music. It’s “hey I want to tell you a secret” music, and you do it in a low voice, and the other person thinks the secret is amazing. I’ll be adding all summer. Please leave suggestions to comments. Thank you.
BUY: Get soil Instacarted to you
Soil is incredibly heavy, but there are strong people out there who go to gyms and like to be tipped generously to lift the soil and bring it to your house. I didn’t know until recently that hardware stores were on Instacart, and now that I know, I regularly get soil and mulch Instacarted to my house. I tip well, because this is worth a lot to me. The soil itself is only like $3 for 40 pounds, so be generous!
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