June 7, 2025

Five Things to Tell You vol. 27

school's out for summer, a seasonal read, showing up for others, and more!

Well, hello there! So happy to see you today!

Yesterday was my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL for the 2024-2025 school year, and I get the next nine weeks to live a bit more on my terms than during the school year. Wooohooooo!

Today, instead of sleeping in on my first day of summer break, I’m volunteering at a fundraiser for a local nature center that was devastated financially by the loss of AmeriCorps funding and staffing.

Speaking (tangentially) of loss of funding, are you planning to attend a No Kings event next Saturday??? We sure are, and I even bought us matching shirts for the occasion!

Now, please do settle in with your favorite snack and let’s dive in …

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Last year on this day, I was in coastal Maine with my kids delivering the oldest to her Conservation Corps gig. It was an absolutely wonderful trip, and worth every single penny and second. In honor of the one year anniversary of that trip, I prioritized reading a new release this week set, of course, in Maine!

Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein is a summer lake story about two adult half-sisters, and it was just exactly the summery, small-town, family drama that I needed this last week of school. I do love romances, but I loved that this wasn’t a romance, but instead fully focused on the sisters and their relationship and hopes and dreams. I and am excited to read more from Orenstein in the future!

Want more Maine books? Check out this collection of my favorite books set in Maine! And take a look at what I read in Maine last year too.

My adult-book summer reading plans are pretty loose this year, and I really haven’t even taken the time to dig into summer reading guides yet! However, one thing I am committing to is reading three short classics along with Chelsey Federer via her Eclectic Reader newsletter.

I love that Chelsey chose short books that will push me out of my comfort zone, without taking all of my required frothy-summery-book reading time. If you want to join in, definitely check out what Chelsey has planned for us!

This is officially the season of celebration in the world of education ~ graduation and retirement parties galore! I am proud of myself for working toward one of my recent resolutions this season: showing up for others, even when it’s uncomfortable.

In the last week of May, I had two retirement parties to attend for work and a graduation party of a friend/colleague’s child. All of these were fairly inconvenient time-and-location-wise, and I had to attend all of them solo.

This typically causes me anxiety, and in the past I have sometimes (often) used minor schedule conflicts as a mask for that anxiety and unwillingness to be inconvenienced. But not this year.

I showed up to all three parties. It was awkward sometimes, and I definitely stood there by myself for a bit, and just generally felt weird. But I know how important it is to ME when people show up for me and my people, so I shall continue working hard at doing so for others. I know that it hurts when people text at the last minute, or after not showing at all, with a “oh, the day got away from me” message. Showing up matters.

Even if, like for the graduation party, I knew exactly ONE person at the party, and they get pulled away after greeting me. At that one, I went and got some ice cream, talked awkwardly to someone I didn’t know for 3 minutes, and then left.

I showed up, though.

This newsletter is … not a cooking newsletter. But it IS a Midwest-proud newsletter, and it’s been quite awhile since I reminded you of one of my other favorite Midwest-proud publications.

Melissa Lindquist’s Deep North Eats IS a cooking newsletter, and it’s also a very proud celebration of our region. I love it so much, even though I barely cook. Melissa is a fellow educator, and ALSO a cookbook shop owner ~ how cool is that? I loved her last newsletter so much, and was delighted to learn in that missive about yet another bookstore doing the best work, supporting the authors who need it the most.

From Melissa:

Beck’s Books is a pop-up bookstore in the Twin Cities that is gearing up to open a brick and mortar by next summer! Check out their GoFundMe and shell out a few dollars for a community-centered bookstore that will add so much to our cities.

I’m excited to hopefully attend one of their pop-ups in the future, and support them by shopping online!

Last Saturday afternoon, I accidentally (but happily) took a 3 hour nap after a morning of errands and a few hours with the family watching the 18 yo walk in a parade with his new employer. I woke to a text from a friend about how much she and her daughter loved the new Lilo & Stitch movie, and I then realized it was THE LAST DAY OF MAY and I hadn’t been to the theater yet. Egads!

Luckily my girls were home and happy to help with my movie emergency. We went to see Lilo & Stitch that evening and LOVED IT. I’m an absolute sucker for any kind of cuddly furry animal movie and this was so cute. I have zero attachment to the animated original, but I fell HARD for the stellar performance by Maia Kealoha ~ Disney got it right with this one! This interview is adorable.

That’s all for this week ~ thanks for reading! Please feel free to reply to this email or use the link below to leave a comment to chime in about any of these things, or to share one of your own things ♡

Thanks for stopping by!