We’ve rounded into the last quarter of the year, so Sarah and I elected to devote this week’s podcast episode to our plans and goals. We open with a discussion of planners. Short version: There will be no huge round-up of planner reviews this year. However, you should search the archives of The SHU Box for reviews of last year’s offerings. The major brands don’t change that much year to year.
I continue to use my paper weekly calendar and my Target notebook as a planner. If it isn’t broke…why fix it, right? Sarah is marking another year on the Hobonichi, albeit with a new peaceful water scene cover.
We talked about how we did on our summer (and early fall) goals. Sarah read lots of books (yay!). She scored an easy win in getting winter travel plans taken care of…as they decided not to go anywhere after their slight-fail of a summer vacation. Her residency program went through its first evaluation. She hosted a playdate and her parenting book club. She did “mommy days” with her two older children.
My spring goals got somewhat subsumed to the goal of getting through my first trimester. I try to tell myself that gestating is productive. I did not touch my novel. I did not do an overnight retreat anywhere (though I have one coming up this fall!). Michael and I did not do a trip together, though we did eat at French Laundry in August during our family Yosemite trip. That was fun, and we also ate at Aquavit (another great restaurant) though I was still in the throes of nausea at that point which was…unfortunate. I have not signed up for voice lessons and probably won’t for the foreseeable future.
However, I think we still had a very good summer, with the Disney cruise, the California trip, mommy days with all four kids, a Phillies game, hanging out at the beach…So I’ll take a passing grade on all this.
Our question comes from a listener who has a longer maternity leave, and is wondering what to do with the last 12 weeks or so before she goes back to work. Her baby is older and sleeping more regularly, so time has opened up, at least for certain sorts of activities (e.g. reading). She’s on a strict budget so she’s looking for recommendations of free or low cost projects. We have lots of ideas. So please give the episode a listen!
Hi Laura, love all your books and the podcasts. Not sure where to send this in so decided to comment here 🙂
On your BB episode about looking great fast, I like your advice to accept a certain level of looking ok, not needing to look “the best” all the time. In addition here are my tips:
1. I focus on hair and skincare. Lots of people only style their hair once a week and use shower caps/dry shampoo to get through the week. This doesn’t happen overnight, but if you do it regularly, ie stretching out your hair washing/shampooing a day or two at a time, your hair sort of gets used to it and you can maintain your blowdry/style a longer time. And keratin/Japanese straightening also seems to be pretty popular. Another option is to experiment with “wash and go” using good products like Bumble and Bumble etc (though this never worked for me)
Skincare is easy because you can do it watching tv etc – sunscreen is a must. Retin A, Vit C, Vit B, and maybe a moisturizer. Then you need less “face makeup”
2. Permanent makeup can make things faster on a daily basis, eg eyebrow microblading and eyelash lifts and tints (but not lash extensions which are high maintanence). There’s also semi-permanent tattooing available for eyeliner, lipliner etc but that seems a bit overkill to me for someone who’s not a model
3. I’ve invested in makeup I can use quickly – Anastacia BH brow kit (or ELF brow kit); ELF kohl pencil; mascara that doesn’t clump (Eg Loreal Voluminous or Volume Million). I wear the same 2-4 shades of lipstick. For a bit extra, YSL Touche Eclat is a great concealer and highlighter and pretty quick to apply. I find powder blush much quicker to apply that cream though depends on your habits. Highlighter can be more forgiving than blush so quicker to apply. I do wear sunscreen daily and don’t wear foundation, I find foundation the trickiest and most time consuming to apply. But again, practice might make this quicker – the reader might want to experiment with fingers vs tear-shaped sponges etc. Tinted sunscreen or moisturizer or BB cream could be a quick and easy compromise for her.
If someone else is driving you can also do most (not eyeliner) makeup in the car.