Power Nap #72
Acne: it might not be your fault / veggie chopper you need!
In Case You Missed It
Here's two recipes you can feed to picky eaters but also enjoy yourself. Tomato soup + grilled cheese. And roasted red pepper pasta with sausage.
This is the perfect top for summer to fall transition. So breathable and practical but cute.
These are Kate's favorite sunglasses she is always wearing! The color is the perfect neutral and they are on the nicer end without being so nice that she stresses about them around her kids.
Here's why you should batch labor intensive cooking tasks and dirtying cumbersome appliances. Kate's food processor is not made anymore but this one is super similar and this is the food saver.
Stuff Nate Liked
A scary short story (since it's almost Halloween). h/t to the Browser.
Playwright and poet Sarah Ruhl on love as a creative force: "There was once a very great American surgeon named Halsted. He was married to a nurse. He loved her—immeasurably. One day Halsted noticed that his wife's hands were chapped and red when she came back from surgery. And so he invented rubber gloves. For her. It is one of the great love stories in medicine. The difference between inspired medicine and uninspired medicine is love...[He] loved her to the point of invention."
How chicken tenders took over America. “One trait of the chicken tender that seems to have very little to do with its success, though, is flavor. On its own, without marinades or sauces, it has almost none. It is a piece of protein so mild it won’t offend anybody, although that, come to think of it, may be what has allowed it to come so far.” (This article is NYT, so you will need to create a free account and then you can read 10 free articles per calendar month.)
“A new Gallup survey reveals a growing consensus that alcohol consumption might be detrimental to our health, with 45% of respondents believing that moderate drinking, defined as one or two drinks daily, is harmful. That’s a larger share than the 43% who think it makes no difference, and the (diminishing) group who view moderate drinking as healthy — a stark contrast to the attitudes of the early 2000s.”
Molly’s Must-Haves
“Molly's Must-Haves” is brought to you by Kate's best friend Molly who is a meticulous researcher. Each week she is going to share an item, the problem it solves, and why she chose it.
TODAY'S FEATURE…
VEGGIE CHOPPER
I know we got this product to you when it was on sale for Prime Day (looks like it's still on great sale!) but here's a little more explanation from Molly on why this product is the best:
“If you’re like me and spend any amount of time in the kitchen, you likely know that chopping up fruits and vegetables can take a solid chunk of time. This veggie chopper is a huge help in the meal prep game. The chopper itself has a sturdy feel to it as opposed to others I’ve tried and is dishwasher safe which is a must for me. My kids also think it’s really fun to use! I’ve used it for cutting veggies for dinner and also for prepping fruit for my kids’ lunches for the week. It’s so easy to make a quick and fresh pico de gallo for taco night too—all it takes is 4 Roma tomatoes + 1 onion + 1 bell pepper, add a squeeze of lime and salt and pepper and you can serve it right out of the base, no need to dirty an extra dish which is another win!” - Molly
It Might Not Be Your Fault
Last week in stories I shared the sentiment that for so long, I believed that having acne was my fault. That I must be doing something wrong. That my diet or lifestyle was the problem, even though I changed my diet and lifestyle many times over. I shared that I was tired of carrying around the guilt and weight for something I no longer believe to be caused by my actions.
What surprised me was how many messages I received from so many of you, thanking me for my words.
It wasn’t always skin related. Many struggled with infertility, or horrible migraines, or a living in a body for one reason or another our world calls wrong. You have tried a million things and nothing is working and you feel to blame. Thinking if you just did the right thing or followed the right regimen, you would cure whatever was wrong.
Something I learned from having four kids is that some newborns are really, really hard, and some are little angels. If your baby is fussy, it’s easy to believe you must be doing something wrong to make them that way (and likewise believe you must be an awesome parent if your child sleeps through the night). You can drive yourself crazy trying to find what you did to make your baby this way. But sometimes, the reality is, some babies are just fussy.
I know there are a million factors that go into how we live a life and real ways people change and see positive results, but other times you can do all the right things and still come up wanting. Our default is to believe it is our fault, but sometimes it’s life or genetics or our fallen world this side of heaven.
If you have something really hard and you’ve tried everything and are pulling your hair out, wondering what you must be doing wrong, I hope you can let go of the weight and guilt that you somehow brought this on yourself. Sometimes you switch the formula or cut out the dairy and follow the sleep schedule and the proverbial baby still cries. You can try it all, and in the end, it’s simply not your fault.
**Please note: the above links are affiliate links. That means if you purchase through them I make a very small commission at no cost to you. Thank you in advance should you wish to use them!