Power Nap #122
Saving $$ on fast food / a book, a show, and a podcast / Nate's weird but great!
Got a question?
I have been thinking a lot about what I want Substack to be in this coming year, and I am still not sure. I know I want it to feel light and fun and to provide a 5-10 minute respite while you sit in the carpool line or drink your morning coffee. I am thinking I want the Power Nap intros to either be me sharing something I am thinking about, or quickly answering a question you have. Past examples would be “How does your family do birthday parties?” or “How did you come up with your kid’s names?” Doesn’t have to be profound. Anyways, if you’ve got one, will you let me know in the comments? I can make a point to answer them in these intros, or maybe do a longer email and answer a bunch at once.
Here are a few quick hitters I current things I am consuming:
Book: I am reading Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. If you know me, you know I hate (hated!) The People We Meet On Vacation. So much so I swore off Emily Henry altogether. But January was a very heavy month, and as much as I LOVE depressing historical fiction (any recs for this category are welcome. Just finished The Rose Code, which I thought was just ok), I wanted a chick flick in book form. Here’s to hoping I like this book and can join the throngs of people deeply devoted to Emily Henry.
Show: I am finally watching Shrinking after my friend Sarah has been begging me for the last year to give it a try. Sarah was right. I LOVE THIS SHOW. It is funny and witty but also contains deeper themes and parallel struggles between people in totally different circumstances. I also love shows where there are boundary busting friendship dynamics that aren’t completely realistic but make you very happy (think Friends). I am watching it on Apple TV which I only have because I bought a new phone and get 3 free months. We already pay for cable (Nate watches a ton of cable — Weather Channel and sports), Netflix, and HBO…I just cannot pay for another streaming service.
Podcast: I have been making my way through John Mark Comer’s sermons and really enjoy his preaching. He did a 3-part series on Generosity (thanks for this rec, Kamri!) that wrecked me in the best way. He does a lot of series, and I like to take one and listen to it over the course of a few weeks. Nate and I listened to his 3-part series on Sabbath and it gave us a lot to think about.
I know I am a broken record when it comes to Quince, but they are killing it in the KIDS DEPARTMENT TOO! I just got Alberta this new swing dress and she has worn it nonstop (despite the cold temps). Scout’s jean jacket came in (she will get it this weekend on her birthday) and I ordered some bathing suits; the first one came in and I am really so impressed. I will keep the suits for the kid’s Easter baskets (read more about how I do my kids’ Easter baskets here), but suffice it to say, Quince is killing the kid’s clothes game just as well as the adults. I am interested in trying out some of their home stuff to see how it is. The Power Nap is free each week, and sponsors like Quince help make that possible! Thanks for sponsoring this Power Nap, Quince!
In Case You Missed It
This is the hardest part of motherhood that no one warned me about!
I shared all of my January Faves, including my new favorite bra I’ve been quality testing since summer. Want to see all my Jan favorites in one place? Click here!
Need a quick and easy Super Bowl recipe? Make these!
If your baby or toddler doesn’t sleep well or follow a schedule, you can look forward to this one day.
“If you want a new idea, read an old book.” — Ivan Pavlov
Nate’s “Weird but Great”
Keeping with past Power Naps (and this one), here is a running segment of “weird but great” people. Please send Nate submissions.
Helen Dewitt — One of my favorite (perhaps my favorite?) authors. She is weird in the way that only genuinely brilliant people are weird. She writes novels that assume the reader is smart, curious, and willing to work. If you want to read her, start with the English Understand Wool, a novella meant to be read in one sitting that follows a 17 year-old girl who was “stolen” as a child, but isn’t mad about it? It’s a take on class, taste, and how to avoid “mauvais ton” (bad form). And it’s hilarious. The other must read is The Last Samurai (not the Tom Cruise movie). The setup sounds straightforward: a single mother and her son, and the son goes searching for his father. But the book is really doing something stranger and deeper. It’s about education, parenting, ambition, and what society expects from “giftedness.” Ludo, the son, is a genius. Or maybe he just looks like one because he actually works at learning in a way most people never do. When he discovers his biological father isn’t the “Great Man” he imagined, he sets out to find someone who might be worthy of the title instead. She has new book out now, which I am about to start.
2. Glenn Gould was a Canadian classical pianist who became famous in his 20s for playing Bach. In 1955, he recorded Bach’s Goldberg Variations in a way no one had before—fast, crisp, intellectually playful, treating the music like a living argument rather than a museum piece. Then, at the height of his career and the age of 31, he did the unthinkable: he stopped performing live altogether. No concerts. No tours. He hummed while he played, carried a battered chair his father built everywhere, wore coats in summer, refused to shake hands, created elaborate radio programs where multiple “experts” argued with each other—only to later reveal they were all voiced by him, and structured his life to eliminate distraction. If you listen to just one thing, make it his 1955 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
3. Quentin Reiser from Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching He and his brother dive into competitive birdwatching, living in a van for a year while traveling across the country to see how many birds they can spot. It was hilarious and really accurate. I was a huge fan of Quentin. “One day I got high and found the family’s bird guide book and I thought about how crazy it would be if you knew all the birds in that book, just how insane that is.” The boys tell a gas-station attendant about their success. “Not bragging, but we’ve seen 579 species of bird this year,” Quentin informs the young woman behind the register. She doesn’t seem impressed. Watch it here for free.
How We Save $ At Fast Food Places
Jana, a NTK follower from North Carolina, asked me this question that is so relatable — the cost of eating out these days is astronomical and there is nothing worse than trying to convince your kids to eat fast food leftovers the next day. Soggy fries? I wouldn’t want them either.
Enter the best kept secret: the family meal deal. Have you heard of these?
Both Chick-fil-A and Chipotle have build your own family meals that serve 4-6 people. Other great options that we haven’t tried yet are the Whole Foods meal deal and Panera Family Feast. If you’ve ever ordered these, comment below!
The meal deal is the best way I’ve found to stretch your dollar when eating at fast food places. We also toss in Once Upon A Farm pouches, granola bars, or additional snacks from home if we’re eating on the go in case someone is extra hungry or the fast food has no fruits/veggies (though, of course, a french fry is 100% a vegetable. Amen.)
It might go without saying, but use their app! Almost every fast food chain has exclusive in-app deals that aren’t available anywhere else. Create one account for your family, even if multiple people in your family each use it separately on your phones so you can rack up points and pool them together to redeem faster.
2 more small things: a ton of places build the cost of the soda into the meal price, but if you opt for water, they take that out of the price. My kids know that 99% of the time when we go out to eat, they are getting water. Do they still ask for soda? Yes. But we just tell them no. Also, I often get more entree style meals and then 1-2 fries and split them. At the ages my kids are right now, they don’t each need an entire fry. I am sure this will change as they get older.
Now, here’s a totally different strategy I actually use more often, that allows my kids to go a bit more hog-wild when we do go out to eat: DON’T OVER-COMPLICATE DINNER.
Here’s what I mean by that: often dinner at our house is PB&J with a side of carrots or fruit. Or cheese quesadillas heated in the microwave with applesauce. Or a “charcuterie” tray with cheese slices, deli meat, and grapes. What I mean to say here is that I think oftentimes we end up eating dinner out because we don’t want to cook dinner. And I feel that way often! Sometimes, we go out. Other times, I simply grab an uncrustable and an apple and call it good. Taking that pressure off of dinner being fancy/homemade allows us to eat at home more, save money, and therefore spend more when we do go out.
Just remember, DINNER DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THE HERO MEAL. DON’T OVER-COMPLICATE DINNER.
Ok, now that I have yelled at you through the screen, here’s one final question you could ask yourself before dining out with your kids: What purpose is this meal serving for my family tonight?
If it’s just really been a #Turdsday (IYKYK) and the goal is just to get food in bellies of hangry children, then anything edible with a drive-thru might be the answer. Or, order yourself some amazing takeout and do easy sandwiches and an early bedtime for your kids.
But if the goal is to be together as a family and enjoy a meal out, you’re probably only going to spend marginally more money to go to a local restaurant and give them your business. You might eat better quality food, expose your kids to more culinary options, or find a new local neighborhood spot that becomes the Friday-night tradition.
Hear me loud and clear: sometimes fast food is absolutely my first choice for ease and money, and there’s zero shame in that. In my book I Just Wish I Had A Bigger Kitchen, I wrote a whole chapter about motherhood and I talk about how easy it is to believe that being a “good mom” means doing everything from scratch or feeling guilty for using the drive-thru again. There a million things that go into how you feed your family (cost, time, resources, working parents) not to mention the season of life you are in (home with a cranky newborn, three kids in after-school sports, etc.) Food is not a morality issue, and be very wary of anyone who makes you feel like it is.
Also, I know some of you with older kids playing sports/after-school activities likely have some great fast food/food on-the-go ordering hacks. If so, PLEASE share them! I don’t feel like an expert in this category and would love advice from those who have mastered it.
I saw someone else comment about this too, and I love all of your content, however we’re in a totally different stage of familyhood. I love reading your stories and saving ideas for later, but every now and then maybe you work in a throwback topic for mothering like transitions in expanding your family, postpartum, deciding to be a working mom, what you wish you would’ve done, what you’re glad you did, what different seasons have looked like in marriage, baby/toddler days. Better yet maybe you revisit the content you did post about when you were in those seasons and add your perspective from now!
A friend gave me this hack-buy a box of the crystal light packs of lemonade and bring those to restaurants instead of wasting money on a lemonade. I can usually split one packet among my 2 kids!