Power Nap #118
Kate's January food experiment / new fave sweater / Dads with daughters live longer?! / Birding is the new hot-girl hobby
Hey friends! Happy new year to you. We had a really fun, restful start to the year, spending time with dear friends in Myrtle Beach. I stayed up too late, had a lot of treats, and spent a ton of time with the kids. It might have been the best start to the year yet. I love January and the fresh energy, but I wish it was a few more weeks after Christmas. This year more than ever, I felt so tired, and I needed more than six measly days to feel ready for resolutions and purging my house. Those extra days in Myrtle with friends were a balm to my tired soul. Now we are home, the kids are back in school, and I feel ready to tackle some house projects. Enter: The Home Reset.
Also, this week’s quote is awesome. Number 3 under things Nate found interesting had me LOLing, as well as his use of the “Amen, sister” under number 4.
If you’ve been here a while, you know all about this 16-part audio course that I designed that has helped over 12,000 people take back their space and change how they see the purpose of their homes. It covers every area you can think of – and yes, it even includes de-cluttering digital spaces like your phone!
I genuinely believe what I have to offer in this course is far and above better than most anything else out there for two reasons:
The incredible combo of audio + checklists. The audio comes in the form of a private podcast you can listen to on the go and the checklists bring you back to the meat of what I talked about in the audio. I keep you motivated in the audio, and keep you on task via the checklists.
I teach you a different way to think about your home. This isn’t about creating a pristine space that perfectly matches your neighbor. This is about creating a home that reflects you in your specific season of life. A home that serves you, not the other way around.
I could go on and on, but if you’re feeling stuck in your home and want a PLAN to help you, I have got that plan.
Speaking of home improvements…the [washable] rugs that have changed the vibe of our house!
This Power Nap is brought to you by Ruggable. The Power Nap is free each week, and sponsors like Ruggable help make that possible!
I am slowly replacing a handful of rugs in our house to bring in some color and am 3/3 on Ruggable delivering the best quality, prettiest rugs! This runner is the new one we just added to the hallway and I am really loving the colors and softness it brings. Ruggable recently changed their design to include a full rubber bottom so you don’t even need a pad and it stays in place super well, while still being a breeze to clean.
I also have one under my kitchen table that hides stains perfectly and one under my bed. This one completely changed the vibe of our room and I love the moodiness! Also, their new collection with Anthro?!? I am swooning! I am eying this one for our front door.
Use code KATE15 for 15% off sitewide!
In Case You Missed It
We shared our 2025 recap in The Nappies last week.
We’re giving away 10 boxes of all my favorite goodies as a thank you for sticking around NTK for 10 whole years!! Enter it here (on substack) or here (on instagram). Thank you so much for all the love on ten years of NTK!!!
I wanted a new sweater and bought this one and just gotta say it’s 10/10. I love the fit. I love the little slits on the sides. I love the weight. I love the feel. I love the price. This is my third purchase from Quince and they are quickly winning me over.
I started a January Food Experiment…
Source: Letter to the poet Joë Bousquet (April 13, 1942)
(Nate found this quote but it WOWed me. Maybe it’s this wild digital age we are in, but I want to print it and frame it somewhere).
Things Nate Found Interesting
If you are new, this segment is where I put articles I found interesting. It doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with everything in every article (sometimes I even disagree!). Also, I do my best to link to free articles, but occasionally articles may require a subscription or require you to create a free account. I try to note when that is the case.
A study out of Poland claims that Dads with daughters live 74 weeks longer for each daughter born (and that there is no corresponding extension of life for those having sons). So for me that’s about 4 and 1/4 years. Thank you, girls! via The Friday Update
Really enjoyed this long but worthwhile essay on why boredom is underrated. It reminded me of something C. S. Lewis wrote about different levels of pleasure and attention. There’s “cheap” entertainment—scrolling TikTok, binging Netflix—and then there’s the harder, deeper stuff: sustained reading, real thinking, learning something difficult (say, reading Virgil in the original Latin). Both have a place, but the deeper pleasures take time and effort to access, which is why we so often settle for the shallow ones. The essay is a good reminder that boredom isn’t a problem to solve, it’s often the doorway to thinking and creativity. In other words, being bored is a feature not a bug. via Recommended Reading
Are we building an “animal internet?” Should we? “Human owners of parrots in the study reported that the birds seemed happier when they could interact online with other parrots and not just with people… When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks. . . ‘[The parrots] would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes.’ The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges.”
Birding is the hot-girl hobby of the year. Can’t say I’m surprised. "I feel like I got my sparkle back from birding." Amen, sister.
Long essay on consciousness, God, and physics. Niche but very good if this is your wheelhouse. The more we learn the more we realize how strange and wonderful everything is. I suspect we are just scratching the surface. “I remember, five years ago, walking through the streets of Amsterdam when I felt someone from my past move through me. I don’t mean I thought of her. I mean that for a moment she inhabited me, and then she vanished into a “thought.” She and her husband were very important to me when I was young, but we hadn’t seen each other in years. I resolved to write when I got home but before I could do so discovered she’d died—and very near the moment I had felt her. Quantum entanglement? A fluctuation in a quantum field? Two consciousnesses linked by love as one goes to God? Coincidence? Damned if I know, but it’s only the last answer that seems preposterous to me.” via the wonderful David Brooks Sidney Awards.
Amen Sister! ❤️
The way I laughed at "amen sister" after the bird calling note.