Field Notes: July
July highlights, featuring - How do you visualize the months of the year? Great reads, kitchen things, what I've been wearing for my new job and some lip products I love.
Welcome!! This month, I’m trying out a new name for this series. I’ll still be documenting a personal reflection on the month, plus some of my favorite events/rituals/things. You can read all previous editions of my monthly digest of favorite things here.
I’m trying out a new name for this series this month because it’s not really just about favorite things - it’s a month-in-review, and much more of a journal entry than anything else. I’m putting that out here now, because I get that a lot of people aren’t into reading that type of a piece (but also, a lot of people are!)
I’ve been keeping a monthly diary consistently for almost 3 years now (not including years and years of being a journal-er as a kid and all the way through college) - I started the ritual in earnest after having the opportunity to work with a professional coach when I returned to work from having my second child in 2021 (PS: what an incredible benefit that my former employer had — access to a professional coach for basically anyone who wanted it provided you could articulate why you wanted to leverage the coaching and what you wanted to get out of the relationship).
It was in that relationship that I finally articulated the fact that I had been missing writing very much (it was a huge part of my life as a kid and through college), and that I wanted to find a creative outlet of some kind that was entirely divorced from my work! That conversation eventually led me to finally start writing this newsletter (a couple years later), but, even before that, it started with encouragement to “just write something,” starting with a simple monthly reflection - taking note of the personal, family and professional highlights I experienced over the course of a month.
It stuck! I started with a bulleted list I jotted down in a notebook that I kept in my bedside table at the end of each month - swiping through my calendar to make sure I didn’t forget anything I wanted to capture. Three years later and it’s morphed to have more of a prose format, but I still have that notebook filled with months and months of reflections so that I can take a moment to look back and recognize all the good stuff happening in my life over the course of a month.
So - it’s my Field Notes - systematic records of my observations (paraphrasing the official definition here!) A little life, a little stuff, a lot of reading. Thanks for reading!
I got caught in an internet wormwhole a couple weeks ago that was all videos of people illustrating how they picture the months of the year in their head. It was fascinating - all the various visual tools we use in our minds to remember and picture things that we know exist but are also conceptual. Some of the videos were so remarkably different from how I envision things and some of videos were extremely similar to how I think about it. I saw a tech company have a whole team do it - almost as an icebreaker (a brilliant icebreaker in my opinion btw!).
I haven’t completed the exercise myself just yet — I think I might have seen too many examples of what inside other people’s brains and it’s totally influencing how I articulate my own approach, but I do know that I would squish junejulyaugust together in a clump that doesn’t seem to possibly have the same amount of time inside them as any other cluster of three months during the year.
Summer is flying by, and even though we have plenty of warm-weather and the official definition of “summer” extends well into September, it does feel like the switch to getting ready for fall is starting. I’m not ready yet, but I also can’t turn my back on it because my son starts first grade in a few weeks, and my oldest daughter is starting preschool. Big changes in our house. We’re taking it one day at a time, and I refuse to jump on the “summers over” train at the beginning of August, but there is a little bit of that feeling around. At the same time though, the best of summer is still to come - the most perfect produce, the hottest days, the warmest water!
We got deep into our summer groove in July and it felt really good! We were local for the Fourth of July, but then spent the next two weeks in Wisconsin visiting friends in Madison and then my in-laws on Lake Michigan. Being on the lake is to experience summer exactly as it should be - bathing suits all day long. Sandy feet. Rushed lunches so that you can get back to the water as soon as possible. Lots of ice cream, mini golf, long walks, kayaking, and building sand castles. Our trip was wonderful, the trip home was very challenging (we got caught in the turnmoil of the IT outage while flying delta home through Detroit, and let me tell you being stuck at an airport for 12 hours and then trying desperately to get checked carseats so that you can leave the airport is NOT IT!) I lived out of this Away backpack for 3 days, love the backpack, hope to never have to do that again!
While on the trip, I unplugged in a way I definitely needed to (no wifi at my in-laws cottage helped!), plus enjoyed several weeks while I was in between jobs and I was able to read to my hearts desire (or at least a lot closer to it than I typically get!) The books I read were a good reminder to myself that I am never disappointed when I let my mood dictate what I want to read next and not just what’s next on my to be read list. And that I like to rotate genres - I can devour romantic comedies and thrillers and I enjoy it the most when I have some variation in the genres so that the books have distinct and different feelings. The books?
Right on Cue by Fallon Ballard - Enemies to friends is one of my favorite tropes and this did not disappoint.
Super Bloom by Megan Tady - This was a little weird and different, about a massage therapist who is having a bit of a life crisis/long stretch of bad luck and ends up finding herself when she agrees to help a famous writer do research for a book she wants to write.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren - Never met a Christina Lauren I didn’t like and I also always love the fake relationship trope!
Annie Bot by Annie Greer - I don’t know how far off we are from having life-like AI-driven people, like the protagonist of this story, so this really made me think!
The Rom-Commers - I love Katherine Center, and I loved this book - the characters were so endearing to me (this would be the forced proximity trope!)
Towards the tail-end of the month, we celebrated my sister’s birthday - with a dinner out to a new Portuguese restaurant in Boston (recommend Baleia if you’re looking for something new) which we absolutely loved and had so much fun at!
Chaos dinners have taken a bit of a summer hiatus for us as weekend trips are frequent and our schedules rarely overlap, but we did have a Friday evening where the stars aligned (aka all parents needed adult company & a stiff drink) and our crew got together for Mexican takeout and gigantic margaritas at our house. We had planned to have everyone outside but obviously it rained for the first time in weeks right at the time that everyone got to our house (and by rain, I mean it downpoured). So, chaos at an extra high, but it was so nice to see friends and get everyone together.
A couple weeks ago, Material Kitchen reached out to me and offered me the opportunity to pick out a few things to test from their incredible selection of kitchenware. The brand has been on my radar for awhile - we love and have 3 of their cutting boards, the ReBoard - which are made from plastic kitchen scraps and renewable sugar cane - they wash great and come in fun colors so they look nice in your kitchen! I picked the Cloud Pitcher and the ReBowl, and I love both. We pulled them out to use when we had friends over - the pitcher was perfect for a big batch of margs (would make a great gift!), and the bowl is as good for mixing/prep work as it is to pour a bunch of chips into. I’m going to get a couple more of the Rebowls - they nest nicely and I can let my kids use them when they’re helping with cooking! If you’re in the market for any new kitchenware, I can’t recommend Material enough (plus, very fair prices!)
We wrapped up the night by letting the older kids watch a movie supervised by the dads and the moms taking a walk around the neighborhood once the rain subsided (extra relaxing thanks to EarlyBird, which also happened to be a MVP of 10 days with my in-laws), and it was so nice to have some adult time at a reasonable hour to kick off the weekend.
On the opposite side of the spectrum from hitting a summer groove and relaxing— I started a new job in July. I have been working in management consulting for the past 7 years, and now am working in-house for a newly established life sciences company that specializes in rare disease, leading business operations. Starting a new job is hard! I’m so happy to be where I am, this is 1000% the right choice and a great opportunity, but man - learning the ins and out and getting up-to-speed and developing new relationships (and I even know a few people already) - it’s hard! One fun thing though is that I’m in an office again. A huge driver for looking for a new opportunity was wanting to be in more of a team environment, where I’m regularly collaborating and interacting with co-workers, and I am SO HAPPY to be in a hybrid work environment. And, the extra bonus is that it’s given me a fun opportunity to shop for a few new pieces that are appropriate for a business casual office environment. Two major discoveries this month were this dress from Theory that I’ve already worn three times, and these pants from Club Monaco that I am loving. If you too work in an office and are looking for some amazing & realistic office-friendly outfit inspo, I urge you to read my friend
newsletter - she has been sharing her daily office outfits & the thinking behind them, and I have been so inspired!What else have I loved wearing? I wore a lot of really simple outfits when we were in Wisconsin (eventually I will get my act together and recap everything I wore - eventually!) I bought the J.Crew bucket hat before we left and I was really happy I had it - I’ve been wearing it constantly!
Going on long walks with my youngest child has always been a huge and critical part of my postpartum routine. Get out and get that mental health walk in. We don’t have a teeny tiny baby anymore but I do have one child who will let herself be strapped onto my body and come with me without complaining so I’ve been keeping the routine going as long as I possibly can. On weekend mornings, our big kids typically want to watch a show of their choosing for a bit, and it used to mean we have a slow start to our weekend mornings which is a lovely little luxury that we enjoyed very much.
Now, though, we have a mobile one year old and slow is not in her vocabulary. So, on weekend mornings my husband and I take turns taking the baby for a long walk. It used to just be me that does this, but my husband recently discovered how nice the practice is, and he wants in. I pop in my headphones, strap her on to me, and we get a nice solid 60 minute walk in - it’s a great way to start the day, enjoy my audio book or a podcast, and get a little exercise in. I’ve been wearing my new favorite workout dress (gifted!) from Greatness Wins on repeat and I absolutely love it.
I am a lip product fanatic and as I was cleaning out a purse I hadn’t worn in awhile I rediscovered one of my absolute favorite lip balms that also happens to be under $20. It is tingly, it is moisturizing, it is plumping, and it is the best color (it changes a little based on your lip pH to create a custom shade for you).
I have also been loving the Wonder Skin lip stain. It looks crazy when you put it on, but it really does last. I really love the colors XOXO and Romance. I have had the best experience when I use a baby wipe to wipe off the peel-able portion, and just dab a little aquaphor on top. Bonus - my kids love it, and I’ve been using it to put “tatoos” on their bodies.
I hope you are hitting a happy mid-summer point, not feeling too rushed by September being around the corner and still finding opportunity to be where your feet are. Thank you so much for reading!
The most popular things I shared in July included…
Greatness Wins Bike Shorts (use code CHRISTINA25 for 25% off your order)
Earlybird CBD Gummies (check their website for codes before you buy!)
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Love love love the new title. Field notes is PERFECT. Keep em coming 🥹🥹🥹