Thursday Things #102

We're talking kitchen gadgets, Walmart velour, a four-word prayer and an all-time favorite.

Every other Thursday, I share a handful of things I'm loving, reading, watching, listening to or just discovered. AKA the random good stuff we’d talk about over coffee, or text if we had one another’s phone number. I'm glad you're here!

Waving hello from the land of ‘I have a new part-time job in addition to my full-time job, and wow wow wow are things temporarily hectic.’ Y’ALL. I’m beside myself over this new thing and will share details just as soon as I can make it public knowledge.¹

I don’t mean to be vague, truly, but I just need you to picture this as you read the rest of the email:

Holy moly I am tired. Apparently working 9am-10pm every day will do that to you? Side note: chronic insomnia that keeps you up until 5am makes morning meetings quite the adventure. Bless it and fix it, Jesus. When is the eating supposed to happen? The laundry, the friend-seeing, the trail-walking? These are my questions. But—!!! It’s a temporary crazy that will soon even out and be so good. Short term tired for long term thankful.

I’m just saying there’s a real good shot you’re going to find typos below and I’m pre-sorry about it.

But we are here! It is Thursday and you are here and I am here and we are doing this! This full, tiring, heartbreaking, beautiful, brutal, funny, stunning thing called life!

!!!

Look at us go.

The next Thursday Things will land in your inbox on my birthday so we’re absolutely going to have a giveaway. For today: three new good things + two previously mentioned tried-and-true good things that came up in several conversations with friends last month + possibly a typo or two.

Can one ever have enough sweatshirts?

Yes, it’s another Time and Tru sweatshirt from Walmart. But the colors! The interior lining! The drawstring/hoodie combo! The velvet-y look! (It’s velour but whatever.) You might not need another sweatshirt after the ones I shared a few weeks ago BUT MAYBE YOU DO . . . or maybe you’re like me and you immediately say SOLD! to yourself when you lay eyes on the coziness that is this delight. You can throw it on with jeans or sweatpants, so basically it’ll be on constant rotation now until March. Worth the $16 and then some. It practically pays for itself, pennies on the dollar for every time you’ll wear it.

(Welcome to my internal dialogue while happily roaming Walmart with my new favorite fall/winter purchase in hand.)

Surprising absolutely no one, I went with the Emerald Forest option. No regrets and apologies to all in-person friends who are about to see this sweatshirt approximately 427 times.

This, or something better.

Oof.

I’ve written about the unexpected gift of prayers answered in a way other than what I asked/hoped. I’ve talked about the kindness hidden in an unwanted “no” or “wait” . . . But this simple phrase is one I’m tucking away to sit with.

jonathan_merritt

A post shared by @jonathan_merritt

A friend shared these words from Jonathan Merritt in her IG Stories, encouraging people to click through and read the caption, and basically I’m just here to say “yep, what she said.”

Worth two or three minutes of your time to read.

You can thank me later.

And now for a hard left turn.

Allow me to (re)introduce you to a kitchen tool that changed my cooking life. That’s dramatic, yes, but I shared it in Thursday Things back in August of 2021 and I’m here two years later to tell you that it remains a game changer.

If you, like me, dread the specific task of cooking ground beef, you need to order this immediately. Sure, sure, you could also use it for (much) more lovely things like quickly chopping strawberries into tiny pieces for Amy Hannon’s delicious strawberry cream cheese frosting. Or you could get two of this nifty gadget so you have one for “crumbling meat” and one for “all the other things.”

It looks like nothing special. It costs all of $10 dollars. But it is fantastic.

(Fantastic enough that it came up in multiple conversations with friends last month so clearly I’m hanging out with food bloggers. Kidding. We are struggling homecooks (that feels like a stretch) who need help in the kitchen and therefore say things like “Okay but the meat chopper thing, what’s it called again?, that thing is incredible. Browning meat is still a big no thank you but also it’s not as bad now so that’s something?”)

It’s a yes from me.

Another all-time favorite that came up with several friends in October: Upside.

If you’re new to TT or you missed this when I mentioned it before, jump on it. I heard about the Upside app months before I downloaded it and that was a mistake. Essentially if you “check-in” within the app before paying at a participating gas station or restaurant, you get money back. I’ve only used it for restaurants once or twice, but I use it every. single. time. I put gas in the tank.

Here’s a screenshot from right before filling up last week:

26 cents back per gallon? Thankyouverymuch.

Some days my nearby locations are 8 cents, some days they’re 17, etc. It seems to vary based on the regular price of gas + if the app is doing a monthly promo . . . but it’s cash back either way—saving on something I was already going to buy.

You can transfer the money to your bank, to PayPal, or cash out for gift cards like Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.

This is not sponsored (Although, dear Upside, if you’re magically reading this, let’s talk. You have a dozen very loyal fans in Birmingham.) but there’s a code in the app that gives an extra 15-cent bonus for new users. Ex: if it says you get 20 cents back per gallon at RaceWay, you’ll get 35 cents per gallon back.

The code is 9JG7E, but this link should also work: https://upside.app.link/9JG7E.

(And then, maybe, use it for a gift card so your nifty kitchen gadget purchase is free.)

Praise Before My Breakthrough.

From Thursday Things #101:

There are two songs from Bryan and Katie Torwalt that have made themselves at home in my mind, bouncing from one to another, an unending musical pingpong match. This is one of them. I’ll save the other for next Thursday so we can sit with these lyrics for a minute.

And so, of course, to round-out #102:

I will sing, I will sing, I will sing.

P.s.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, nor do I know who the experts are, but I wholeheartedly believe it. No data necessary. No doubt in my mind. GO FOR IT. Things are dark and heavy and overwhelming and just A Lot for so very many people. Put up the tree. Light an evergreen candle. Wear your flannel pajamas. Play the music.

Very much here for adding light and delight, joy and beauty where we can. Happy November and Merry Christmas to us all.

mypositiveoutlooks

A post shared by @mypositiveoutlooks

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1. First news always goes to paid subscribers—I’m spilling the beans there just as soon as the last i is dotted and t is crossed next week—but I’ll have the green light to make it more public later this month. :)