Thursday Things #116
A song straight from the algorithm, four pages, a treat, a children’s book, and an update on Thursday Things.
Every other Thursday, I share a handful of good 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!
Nothing, other than the sauna outside, signals the start of summer to me quite like the end of May hair cut (more accurately, hair chop). The salon receptionist asked when I’d like to come in and my immediate response was “By any chance, do you have a last-minute cancelation for tomorrow?” Limit = reached. 24 hours later, the hair stylist said what absolutely every single hair stylist has repeated my whole life long: “Wow. Your hair is super thick, it must take forever to dry!”
Yes. Yes it is and yes it does and now it’s summer and I can’t handle the hair dryer for this long any longer, please help me make it until fall arrives mid-November thank you so so much.
I feel like I should save my lament of The Heat until late August when we are all, even the not-ghostly-pale people, Very Done with temps in the 100s, but we’re probably all in this together, yeah? We will survive, maybe even thrive, with a bit of frustration, a lot of sunscreen, the purchase of a box fan, a snip snap of a hair cut, and an abundance of cold treats.
This week’s round-up includes a treat, a children’s book, points to four accounts that regularly add beauty and goodness to my Instagram feed (though you can find them elsewhere online if IG isn’t your thing!), a song straight from the algorithm, and an update on Thursday Things.
(Also, just one quick call-back to close the loop on this from March in TT #110… American Idol. The finale. Did you watch it?!? I cannot even handle how talented the winner (no spoilers here) is. Maybe I cried a little bit at the winner’s delight and humility and joy, maybe not, who can say. The entire top 12 was wildly talented, but it really does seem like the right person won this year and I’m so glad I watched all the way through. Big fan, legitimately and surprisingly bummed Katy won’t be back next season, and definitely didn’t have “start watching Idol for the first time in 17 years” on my 2024 Bingo card but here we are and I don’t hate it.)
Girl Scout cookies but make it year-round.
PSA: if you put these Fudge Mint Cookies in the fridge, they taste pretty dang similar to Girl Scout thin mints. Are they exact? I mean no. But if you missed the Girl Scout window, it’s a good back-up. (They’re available at online retailers like Amazon, but I just grab a box to keep in the fridge whenever they’re on sale at the grocery store.)
I’ve been waiting for this one.
“What color is waiting?” one character asked another in a novel I read during Lent. “What color is sadness? Loneliness? Rejection? Shock?” The main character, an artist, finds herself navigating unexpected loss and grief that turns her world upside down. I slowly flipped the pages, pausing to consider, imagining a canvas covered in shades of gray as tears threaten to drip onto the page in my hands. A few days later, I stood in the paint aisle of my local craft store. In the days leading up to Easter, I added layer upon layer, thick strokes mixing together.
Then I went to the plant store. My hands, speckled with paint, planted seeds deep in the dirt. Seeds that look remarkably like tears.
I wrote those words last Spring (here’s a direct link to For When You’re (Still) Waiting on a Miracle) and absolutely blabbered about the book series in the next Thursday Things (here’s a link to TT #89). Many of y’all sent messages with your own exclamations of love for these stories and characters, so you probably already know about this new children’s book, but just in case…
In Not Finished Yet, our beloved Wren paints prayers and feelings with Gran, a tiny bit like an origin story for the Shades of Light series.1
Now, I’ll honestly tell you that the illustrations missed the mark for me. I’ve seen a few reviews all saying the same thing (one said they’re dated and a little creepy, definitely not the visual you want in a children’s book). So maybe check your local library and take a quick look yourself before purchasing to read with a kiddo? That aside, Sharon doesn’t miss and the message itself in the text is beautiful. I’m an instant “add to cart” for whatever she writes, and though I’d definitely point you to Sensible Shoes and Shades of Light first, if you already know and love those characters it really was nice to be back “with” them again even for a few pages.
Beauty & words to sit with.
We’re all zero percent surprised that I’m following yet another embroidery account on Instagram, I know… but the minis! The colors! The tiny details all woven together! (For real, click on the bird post and swipe to see the close-up. Then scroll the account for so many more.) I’m here for it, but you already knew that.
When I tell you that I made and sold artwork like this—except only 5% as beautiful and sized at 8x10—I’m telling the truth, and my mom can vouch for the hoursssss spent cutting carefully selected paint chips and scrapbook pages, the tiny trimmings their own pile of beauty even in the garbage can… Seeing this wall waterfall of color (click the post and swipe for another angle) took me back and made me want to create, too. What Amanda can do with paper is amazing.
I could add my own words to these two — first from Laura Fanucci, second from Kristen Strong — but it would only take away from what they’ve written, so I’ll simply say each one brought that wild ‘how did she know, it’s like she’s in my head!’ feeling that is its own weird and wonderful magic, humbling to hear as a writer and comforting to discover as a reader.
Still waters in the valley.
YouTube knows me at this point, that’s for sure. The image of Still Waters drew me in, right there at the top of the homepage, but once I read the song title it was an immediate click. Halfway through the chorus I looked at the release date (last week) and the number of plays (51k) and thought, oh that’s for sure about to go up. Calming, inviting, full of truth and beauty, Psalm 23 set to music—my new daily listen:
A note/update/heads up about Thursday Things this summer:
We’re #116 emails in (wow wow wow) and it’s time to hit pause on TT for a little bit—solely due to travel logistics. This is the first real break other than when TT falls on Christmas week, but as I’ve looked and re-looked at the calendar for June and July, every Thursday I’m either out of town, preparing to be out of town (all the laundry and packing, fix it Jesus), or just back from out of town (all the catching up on work, bless).
For the travel Thursdays, I want to be as present as possible with those I’ve traveled to see—not staring at a screen.
For the Back But Really Busy Thursdays, I don’t want to send a half-baked email your way—always keeping the promise I made when you first subscribed:
Our inboxes have enough spam and sales-y promotions. For the past decade, I’ve written blog posts and newsletters to encourage, to bring a smile, or to share favorite things . . . all with this promise: I will never click send and fill your inbox just because the Marketing Wizards say it's been too long since I sent something your way. Nope. I'm entirely uninterested in adding to the noise — but sharing good things that will bring a bit of hope or joy? Yes please.
I have absolutely every intention of Thursday Things returning to your inbox, so this is not some kind of slow fade out, but instead a way to honor my commitment to you and be present with loved ones I see twice a year. :)
For June and July, on the days you would usually receive TT, you’ll instead receive a pre-written and scheduled email that’s either brand new content I wrote in advance (Today, May 30th, I filmed something for July 31st. This summer is weird you guys.) or a reader-favorite from years ago (hopefully it will be a right on time encouragement if you’ve subscribed for a long while, or brand new if we’re new friends!). I’ll also occasionally post pictures on Instagram and Facebook from trips (hello Italy!) + words to mark another year on what’s called ‘brain surgery day’ in my world.
If you’re a paid subscriber, alllllll the summer things we have planned are written out here. Everything continues there every single month, as per usual, except that we’ll have a hangout Zoom in June and more travel IG Stories than usual (you’re welcome? I hope?).
Following our every-other-week rhythm, we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming for Thursday Things with #117 on August 8th.
Okay, yeesh, that’s a lot of words to basically say I’m still here, but kinda, and also happy summer and TT is back in August and of course please don’t melt in the heat before then.
💛 Peace and blessings and cool breezes,
Note: Bookshop affiliate links are included in this post.
You absolutely must read the novels in order! More about it here, if you’re intrigued and thinking about starting the series this summer. (Particularly for Sensible Shoes, now would actually be a really good time as the novels move through the seasons of a calendar year—starting summer-ish.)
May the time you spend with your loved ones be blessed. Happy summer!