Hey you, how are you?

First, a big thank you to Katie who bought me some coffees last week!! What a lovely surprise that was!

Second, Cam takes Alexander to a class once a week, so they’re gone for 4.5 hours (3-hour class plus the driving). My phone protector is cracked to a point where I feel like it’s going to cut my finger every time I swipe down from the top. Anyway, I asked Cam to take it to Best Buy to get the protector replaced (we paid a little extra for some sort of replacement plan). Annnnyway, that means he’s got my phone. For 4.5 hours, no phone! That seemed like a long time until I typed it, and now I feel silly for thinking it’s a long time 😅 

Next, speaking of no phone, Stranger Things is finally, nearly here. I keep seeing memes about how the kids are middle-aged now, which make me giggle. Despite that it’s taken nearly a decade to release 5 seasons, I’m excited to see what this last season holds. Will there be actual conclusions or loose ends? Who will Nancy end up with? Will we lose any main characters?

Okay now onto the show ❤️ 

Today’s newsletter agenda:

• Love languages

• How do you connect?

• Gifts

• Seasonal recipes

• More gift ideas (different from “Gifts” above!)

• Math chat

Love Languages

I already knew mine, but I took this quiz just to double check it hadn’t changed. That quiz wanted me to pay to see my full results, so I can only see the top answer. Mine? Gift giving. I like to give and receive. I love coming up with gift ideas for people that aren’t just on some “top 10 gifts for dads” or whatever (nothing wrong with those lists, I do check them for inspiration sometimes!). For receiving, it doesn’t have to be some big wrapped thing - if Cam is at the grocery store and picks up a pack of Reese’s for me, I would be thrilled. It’s just that the person was thinking about me, you know?

While I think it’s helpful to know this for myself, I think it’s helpful to know this about those closest to me too. For example, Annabelle’s big on “words of affirmation,” which is tough for me. I have tried my hardest over the years (of being a mom) to speak good things over my kids.

• You’re so helpful.

• You are a great big brother.

• You are a sweet, gentle girl.

• You worked really hard on that and didn’t give up!

The love languages came to mind recently, and it was a good reminder that we all need different things from the people we love. Without taking any quizzes, you can probably figure out the way you and your people like to be loved, and maybe it would be helpful to reflect on that! (In case you don’t know, the 5 are words of affirmation, gifts, physical touch, acts of service, and quality time.)

How do you connect?

This morning I sent two Marco Polos, one to my mom and one to my friend Amanda.

I use Marco Polo a lot but only with a few people. Last year, I shared a recap on TikTok that showed how many times my mom and I sent a MP to each other, and one commenter said they’d forgotten about the MP app.

That got me wondering, how do you connect?

Ages ago, I would send snaps back and forth with people on Snapchat. Then I switched to Instagram and started chatting with people through IG messages. There are a handful of people I only talk to through Facebook. Others, only via text. And then there are a few I catch up with whenever I see them, at church or homeschool co-op and don’t talk to beyond that.

I read a book a while back called The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, and in the book, Mrs Kip talked about people she had been friends with throughout her life. Some folks were friends for a long time, but she had lost touch. And she didn’t mourn those lost friendships; she just remembered the good times they had when they were close.

It made me think of decades ago before social media, before cell phones. You’d see a friend whenever you ran into them, maybe you called them on the phone. You were friends with the people around you - neighbors, coworkers. I think we’ve gotten to a point where we are all so accessible all the time. On the one hand, I think it’s so cool to be able to meet and connect with people from all over the world! On the other hand, I feel a great guilt when I don’t reply to messages or texts in a timely manner. It’s a constant tug that isn’t necessarily the same as connection to the person, it’s some unwritten rule about text etiquette that may just be in my own head.

There’s a tiny part of me that would love to just find some pen pals and send notes, chatting once or twice a month through a long, written letter.

Would love to hear your thoughts on all this! ❤️ 

Hey, one thing you can do for me is forward this to a friend who might also find it helpful! (And if you got this email as a forward from someone else, you can click the link below to subscribe to these emails. Thanks!)

Gifts

Have you seen Parks and Rec? Whenever I think of exceptional, thoughtful gifts, I think of Leslie Knope. In two different episodes, she gifts her coworkers something very thoughtful that perfectly fits their personality. (NOTE: if you aren’t familiar with the show, it’s a comedy, and Leslie’s character is very over-the-top in everything she does.)

• For Galentine’s Day, she gives her friends a mosaic portrait of themselves using crushed bottles of their favorite soda.

• For Christmas, she gave Ron (her boss) a device that let him close his office door automatically (he’s notoriously bothered by visitors).

Anyway, I love the idea of a handmade and/or personalized gift! (And I’d love to know who actually came up with those gift ideas from Parks and Rec… I assume it just one of the writers on the show!👏🏻)

If you’ve given something personal and thoughtful like that before, what was it and how did you come up with it?

Throughout the year, I do my best to jot down ideas and notes about people so that, when a birthday or Christmas comes, I’ll have a little bit of a head start. If I come up with any clever ideas for my own family, I’ll send them out to you too. 🙂 

Today I decided to pop into Goodwill to see if I could find anything for the kids. Charlie likes stamps (the kind you use with an ink pad), and I found a small bag of 3 dinosaur stamps, which we do not have. I also got 2 razor boards (the skateboard type thing that just has 2 wheels instead of 4) for $8. Both A and AB would have fun with those, I think!

Seasonal recipes

Hey-o I loooove baking stuff this time of year! Okay to be fair I can make apple cider or gingerbread cookies any time of year. But I don’t. I save them for these couple of months so it’s more special. 😄 

These soft gingerbread bars are divine. I made them, we ate them, and tomorrow I’ll make them again (although I’m currently in the midst of trying to figure out the Biscoff cookie recipe, so the gingerbread bars may need to wait a day or two). You probably already have everything you need, so you should give them a go!

One of you sent me the recipe for an Apple Bundt Cake! It’s pulled up on my computer right now, and I’ll get to it next week!

An IG follower sent me a recipe for autumn soup, in a pumpkin, that looks and sounds so good. I’ll be making that as well and will let you know how it is!

Give me your fav fall recipes - they can be sweet or savory, and you know I love a good cooking challenge. I’ll try to put together a roundup of ideas in a future newsletter!

A few more gift ideas

Here are just a few more ideas for ya. I’m slowly buying some gifts for the kids (and a few grownups) so that I’m not overwhelmed with purchases too close to Christmas. I plan to hit up thrift stores over the next few weeks - I’ve got lists in my head for different people, and sometimes I get lucky at one of the Goodwill locations in town!

Wonderbly makes a lot of different customizable books for kids and siblings. I’m getting Charlie one this year (A and AB have one already).

And some other ideas:

• Gua sha face scraper things. I use my hands sometimes, and it feels really nice. I think an actual tool would be a lovely gift, something you may not get for yourself!

• Pocket tripod. If you know the person likes to take videos or photos in public, this little guy fits in a wallet. It’s more of a phone stand, not a tripod, but the comments I’ve seen say that it’s really handy and sturdy!

  

• Bocce balls! I played this last week at homeschool group, and it was really fun. It’s a great lawn game, and I plan to get this for my kids. Yard games are a brilliant gift in general: croquet, corn hole, bocce, giant Connect 4… anything else?

• Shaplaboo sells shadow books. They are interactive books that are read with a flashlight - the pages create images on the wall. Some of them come with characters on sticks that you can use like puppets, to interact with different pages. It looks really cool!

  

• Make Do sells tools for creating things with cardboard. They’re kid-safe tools and screws, specifically for building with cardboard. Great idea for a lot of ages!

• For grownups or older kids, create a custom Jones Soda! You pick the flavor and design the label. I did this once, ages ago, for Cameron!

• In the same vein, you can personalize M&Ms, which I have also done in the past!

Math chat

When I was a Math teacher, I’d come up with games for my kids (teens). Now that I homeschool, I still like coming up with games. I just don’t always think to do it.

One great game I played with my students, when I was a teacher, can be played with any age, any topic, any number of kids. It’s so simple to create, but it’s hard to explain without visuals. I just typed out a whole bunch of steps, and it was SO confusing to read so I deleted it😬 . I’ll turn this into a video and post a link to that!

Another activity I did recently with my older two kids is these math worksheets. I found two versions that I’d made several years ago! Here’s one of the versions (PDF below). Each sheet uses the digits 0-9 exactly once. You can cut out little cards for each digit that can physically moved around, or they can just try to fill in the answers in pencil. As you see at the bottom right in the example above, (something) minus (something) equals 1 … there are MANY right answers. In order to get that one, you have to use up some of the other numbers first!

We’ve got many math games at our house as well. Logic games fall under MATH for me, but we do have a couple that are more focused on arithmetic.

• Sum Swamp - geared toward lower elementary, this game practices adding and subtracting as well as odds and evens.

• Adsumudi - the name itself comes from AD(d), SU(btract), MU(ltiply), DI(vide), so you’re encouraged to use all those skills. A younger kid who can only add and subtract can definitely play this game, too, though. If I’m playing with A and AB, we will play at different levels, simultaneously.

• Math Dice - roll the dice and try to reach the goal number!

• Tiny Polka Dot - this is good for little kids who can simply count as well as older kids who can do arithmetic!

Let me know if you’d like a fuller list of our learning games. ❤️ 

Ok byeee

As usual, feel free to reply to this email if you have any feedback or ideas or anything. You can also click here to “buy me a coffee,” which is my virtual tip jar!

Other than that, hope you have a good weekend and week. I’ll talk to you real soon.

❤️ Bethany