SNACK TIME: May Morsels
Planting, digging, growing + a water bottle that’s cuter than a stuffed animal
Welcome to Snack Time! A monthly series that takes a break from the regularly scheduled munch meal planning to share some of the best things I’ve consumed this past month (edible and otherwise).
I handed in my book edits a few days before Mother’s Day and found myself absolutely decimated with fatigue. We’ve been on a tight turn-around and it’s made me feel like I’m back in college pulling all-nighters in the science library.
The next day, we went to visit my friend’s farm in the Catskills and spend Mother’s Day together. The guys planned a horseback trail ride for us, which was lovely. But mostly we just wanted to be left alone to do everyday things without interruption. Which is how I found myself sweating in a field digging a ditch on my “day off.”
My friend Julia was explaining all her projects on the property that were in process, but that she never had time to actually make any progress on. My chores look a little different in the city, but I could relate to the way ordinary grunt work that used to feel productive and fulfilling now fills me with anxiety since I always have to squeeze them into packed weekends or juggle them at the same time as childcare.
Every spring, I look forward to repotting my plants, upgrading some into bigger pots, splitting larger growth into two babies, and giving them all a healthy pruning. I have 30 plants at this point, so what has historically been an all-day joyful affair has now become a back-breaking marathon during naptime…which I procrastinate until it’s almost summer.
Which is all to say that digging up the ground with a shovel, sweating in the sun and chatting leisurely with a friend was the perfect way to spend Mother’s Day.
The following weekend, we did our annual tradition of going to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. As cheesy as it is, I love the tradition of taking an annual photo in the same place. It really captures the growth over the years. I look at last year’s MD photo and wonder how my munch could have been so small and had so little hair just 12 months ago.
I experience that same freight train of time passing every time we come back up to Martha’s Vineyard, where we just spent the long weekend, and look at the pencil marks on the doorframe. One inch, so many memories later.
I hope you all had an amazing day and an amazing month, doing whatever it is that makes you feel relaxed and rooted.
Happy munching,
Phoebe
WHAT YOU MISSED
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ME TIME
(Everything I’m watching and reading)
Euphoria (TV): I have two categories of TV. Things I watch with my husband, and things I watch on my own. Euphoria has always been the latter and it’s been my guilty pleasure recently. I had such low expectations for how they would resuscitate this season after four years of stops and starts, but it has been an absolute feast. The costumes, the production design, the Breaking Bad high-stakes friction. Still one of the most entertaining and stressful shows on television! Watch it for the wedding episode alone.
Widow’s Bay (TV): I read on another Substack that this new show is essentially Stranger Things for adults. A few episodes in, I’d say that’s accurate down to the 80’s retro font in the poster. The show is about a small New England island that is trying to transcend its creepy, cursed history to become a tourist destination like Bar Harbor or Martha’s Vineyard. As a resident of MV, I’ve always been enthralled by whaling town ghost stories and mysticism. This show is hilarious at times, and genuinely scary in the spirit of Hitchcock and Kubrick.
So Old, So Young (Book): As an only child, I am always a sucker for a book about “found family” that skips the usual cliches and wades into the muck of friendship. This novel, which is billed as a millennial Big Chill meets Four Weddings and Funeral, follows a group of college friends over the course of 20+ years. It’s a breezy read that weaves multiple narrators, their simmering resentments and unrequited loves, and offers a realistic, moving portrait of how friends cling to each other through life’s shifts—jobs, moves, children and tragedies.
Famesick (Book): Please picture me doing my best Stefon when I say, this book has everything. Come for the impeccable writing, biting humor, and celebrity gossip, stay for the diabolical portrait of how Hollywood chews up bright young female creatives and what happens when your body can’t keep up with what the industry requires of it. As someone who has written a chronic illness memoir, and read a lot of chronic illness memoirs, I can say this is among the best.
Noah Kahan: The Great Divide (Listen): When I listened to the first track of Noah Kahan’s new album, I immediately started crying. Yes, I may have been about to menstruate. But it’s also got that same beautiful melancholy feeling as Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, which I used to sob while listening to in my twenties. Anyway, if you’re going through it, or want to be reminded of a time you were going through it, or just want to listen to Noah going through it, I highly recommend.
MUNCHKIN ESSENTIALS
A few accessories that have made my munchkin’s month!
This seal water bottle, a gift we brought home from duty free in the Buenos Aires airport but is in fact a Canadian company and something you can mail order easily (and more affordably) from the US. We were really torn between the unicorn, cow and octopus—they are all SO fun!!
We also got this carry case which she calls her fanny pack. She uses the seal less as a water bottle and more as an imaginary friend / baby she can carry around with her. It is cuter and more sustainable than a stuffed animal, so I’m here for it!
We are doubling down on these Patagonia sun shirts now that she’s spending so much time outside. We have a few different versions, but prefer the hoodies.
Last summer, we bought these tick stickers and this summer, I’m considering sending her most worn wardrobe items for treatment via the Insect Shield website.
MONTHLY ASK
How does your schedule change with summer childcare challenges? Would love to know how other mothers are juggling.