I’m writing this edition of Naptime Notes out on my back porch, resting under the shade of our giant red umbrella. The girls are napping, I’m sipping a homemade iced latte, and I can see our growing tomato plants from where I’m perched.
It sounds peaceful, but it’s almost 100 degrees outside, so it’s really more sweaty than anything. Nothing kills a writing session like an overheating laptop, and I’m starting to look like a tomato myself, so back inside I go.
Ah, air conditioning. That’s much better.
Needless to say, summer is here in full force. We’re avoiding melting into total puddles by hitting up our favorite parks before 9:00 AM, surrounding ourselves with giant piles of board books at the library, passing the afternoons in the kiddie pool, and eating loads of ice-cream.
All of these tactics of triple-digit summer heat survival come highly recommended, by the way.
The girls continue to coordinate their afternoon nap times and thanks to all the swimming (and the unbearable heat), they both are out like lights in the evenings. So once again, I’m coming to you sunburnt and well-rested.
But hey, if you want to send an iced (or frozen?) coffee my way, I’ll gladly accept. Enjoy this month’s edition of Naptime Notes and I’ll be back in your inbox next month!
What I’m listening to on repeat:
The Arcadian Wild. Next week, Joseph and I have a date night. We’re going to see The Arcadian Wild in concert, so I’m relistening to some of my favorite songs from their albums. If you’ve never listened to them, start with Rain Clouds. The concert is at the same venue of our attempted Penny and Sparrow concert this past spring (read about that fiasco here), and I have my fingers crossed for a better experience this time round (read: no fainting). Say a prayer for me, friends!
You Bring the Morning by Andy Squyres. This song off of Andy Squyres’ album Poet Priest is one that I’ve sang in the kitchen while making breakfast, prayed with in my living room, and cried through. What I love the most about it is that it fill a gap I often see in praise and worship music: what it looks and sounds like when the human heart wrestles with grief, doubt, and tragedy. In other words, it reminds me of the book of Psalms. The entire song is beautiful, but my favorite lines are: “You bring the stillborn baby to my shoulder. You bring your sorrow to every fallen soldier. You bring your passion to the graves that we stand over. Young love that we lost, we will find as we grow older” Just gorgeous. Go give it a listen, and then listen to the entire album and all of his other work, too.
A Little More by Alessia Cara. Alessia’s voice just rings on the speakers in our listening room, and the chorus of this song is stuck in my head (and I’m not complaining). You’ll find me humming this tune allll day.
Something I’m reaching for every day:
My Panera rewards card. This summer, Panera upgraded their monthly drink subscription and instead of just being a coffee and hot tea subscription, it now includes unlimited lemonade, coffees, hot and cold teas, and soda. My little frugal heart loves that it only costs $10.99 a month, which is the price of half a Starbuck drink these days.
There’s a few Panera locations with drive-throughs near me, which make it the perfect pit stop when the girls are sleeping in the backseat after a long morning at the park. But it’s also been fun to unload them and grab a drink inside.
We’ve become regulars at a few of our go-to locations, and it’s fun to see the same people both behind the counter and in line. Almost daily, Maeve asks me if we’re “going bye-bye today to get you a Dr. Pepper,” so maybe I shouldn’t be reaching for the Panera card quite so often. 😜
A tiny shift that is making all the difference:
Breakfast time with hangry toddlers takes a lot of mental energy, something that I have a short supply of at 6:00AM without coffee. Although Ada defaults to a slice of bread and an egg with some milk for breakfast, Maeve up to this point as not had a default breakfast.
She’ll fling open the fridge and pantry and stare at all the options, only to be paralyzed by all the choices. Usually I end up picking for her after five minutes of deliberation, and, of course, I always pick what she absolutely does not want. She then proceeds to not eat breakfast and melts into a hangry puddle by 8:30AM.
The last time we were wandering the aisles of Aldi, we threw two different kinds of granola bars in the cart. I tossed them all into a tupperware a container and put them in the pantry. The next morning, I let her pick her breakfast out of the two choices.
Maeve is fascinated by individually wrapped breakfast items and so she had a lot of fun opening up her granola bar. Then, she ate the whole thing with a glass of chocolate milk and wasn’t hangry the entire morning.
Mission accomplished.
The books on my bedside table:
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. At the recommendation of several friends, I picked up this book about a rural Yorkshire veterinarian and the adventures he has while tending to all kinds of animals. Reading it has both stirred up memories of riding horses as a kid and reignited my desire for backyard chickens. The book is the size of a small brick, but the chapters are short and almost stand-alone reads. It’s currently sitting on my bedside table because it makes for the perfect pre-bed read.
Andalusian Hours: Poems from the Porch of Flannery O’Connor by Angela Alaimo O'Donnell. I happened on this book after diving down a Flannery O’Connor rabbit hole. It’s a collection of 101 sonnets that channel the voice of Flannery O’Connor, so not poetry by her, but inspired by her. It was such a fun way to get to know more about Flannery through her original writings that Angela shares at the beginning of each sonnet. I also loved how the book is organized according to the structure of the Liturgy of the Hours. Read on to the end of this newsletter to read one of my favorite poems from the book!
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. This book follows Mila Pavlichenko, a student librarian and young mom turned sniper to defend her family and her country against Hitler’s invasion of Russia and Ukraine. After her 300th kill, she begrudgingly leaves the eastern front and goes on a goodwill tour in America. It’s a fascinating read given the war that is going on in that exact part of the world right now. I’m once again racing the clock to finish this book with 300+ fellow library patrons waiting in line for me to wrap it up. I’ve got to start reading less popular books.
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis. I had no idea that Lewis wrote this book on the Psalms until my spiritual director mentioned it. This past year, I’ve been praying through the Psalms (read more about what I’m learning here), and I wish that I’d picked up Lewis’ work before starting. Right out of the gate, he addresses some of the biggest questions I’ve had while praying through the Psalms, like the over-the-top revenge the psalmist wove into their prayers. He also references some of my favorite passages (most of which are from Psalm 27).
A Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engel. What a TRIP. There were multiple times while listening to this book via the Libby app in the car that I caught myself exclaiming “WHAT?!” outloud. The twists and turns left me loving this second installment of the series even better than A Wrinkle In Time.
The books I’m reading (and re-reading!) with the girls:
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. The library didn’t have any of Maeve’s beloved Piggie and Gerald books on the shelves a few weeks ago, so she begrudgingly settled for this books. One read through and it won her heart.
Hello, Ninja. Hello, Georgie by N.D. Wilson. What could be better than one ninja? TWO ninjas! This is a cute sequel to Hello, Ninja and the perfect read with sweet Maeve who is a little shy around new friends.
Hello, Door by Alastair Heim. A thieving fox greets everything he sees as he robs a house belonging to the bear family. Bright illustrations and fun rhymes have earned this book a spot on our repeat list (and I’m excited to check out other books by the same author, including Love You, Too).
This Is House We Do It by Matt Lamothe. I discovered this book in the comment section over at Cup of Jo and knew I had to pick it up at the library. The book follows one day in the lives of seven kids from around the world. I loved reading about everything from what different kids eat for breakfast to what their walk to school looks like. This book is easily going to become my default gift for kids’ birthday parties.
In a Small Kingdom by Tomie dePaola. This sweet story is written by our beloved Tomie, but illustrated by Doug Salati, which made for an interesting read! It’s a modern fairytale story of young prince, a jealous older brother, and what happens when the magical and powerful imperial robe is torn to bits. It’s the perfect bedtime fairytale and has been read many times in the past few days around here.
If you’re looking for some fun summer reads, check out this recommendation list from Sarah over at Read Aloud Revival. I guarantee that some of these books are going to be in July’s version of Naptime Notes!
A braggable thrift store find:
Not quite a thrift store, but a local Catholic church had their annual garage sale this past month. We went twice: Once to the preview sale on Thursday night, and again to the here’s-a-bag-please-take-all-the-stuff sale on Saturday.
It was an adventure. There weren’t any major kid meltdowns, we ran into so many good friends, and spent 20+ minutes attempting (unsuccessfully) to assemble a vintage Barbie dreamhouse—another story for another day.
One of my favorite things that we picked up is an ice-cream maker. I have so any great childhood memories of going into our small-town grocery store and picking out a can of Shasta pop that mom then turned into ice-cream on the back deck. Granted, those memories are coupled with traumatic childhood memories of being too short to trigger the automatic exit door and getting stuck inside the grocery by myself after returning the cart—again, another story for another day.
I’m adding ingredients to our grocery list for the first attempt at homemade ice-cream (maybe this weekend?). Joseph’s vote is cherry ice-cream (made by chopping up maraschino cherries and blending them into a vanilla base). Meanwhile, Maeve just keeps yelling “Purple ice-cream!”
Maybe I’ll just toss a Dr. Pepper from Panera in the ice-cream maker and call it a day. 😂
Quite a few conversations to tune into:
🎧I recently sat down with Elise Crawford Gallagher on my podcast Letters to Women. She’s the owner and CEO of Ringlet, a company that equips women to blaze their own path to business success and financial freedom through their marketing, strategy, and coaching services. If you’re ready to reframe the way you think about work and learn about the nitty gritty of building a business the serves others, tune into our conversation.
🎧In another recent episode of Letters to Women, I visited with Marcie Stokman. She’s the founder and president of Well-Read Mom, an international movement and book club. If you’re ready to read more and read well, start by listening into our discussion.
🎧I woke up super early and chatted with Jen and Bruce from Spirit Mornings before I even had my first cup of coffee. We talk about my new book, Sisterhood (our conversation starts around 10:45 time stamp).
🎧I was honored that Allison Gingras of A Seeking Heart stayed up late to interview me about my new book on her podcast. Watch our conversation here!
What’s inside the Little Langr Library this month?
Last month, Joseph surprised me with a free little library for Mother’s Day. We had so much fun sanding it, staining it, and installing it in our front yard. Next up, lay some pavers down as a pathway to the library and plant a few flowers around the base.
We decided to start off by sharing books with our neighbors around certain themes that we announce via a letterboard on the side of the little library. One of my favorites so far has been “Books that will blast you to the past,” featuring all kinds of historical fiction and non-fiction.
I think Maeve was a pretty big fan of the theme, too:
Here’s a quick peek at some of the books that are inside the library now (plus a fun Jane Austen puzzle that if someone doesn’t come and take, I’ll snatch back out of there and put together myself!):
A quote I’ve been thinking on:
I'm all for letting go of perfection, but we've somehow conflated order with being fake. I want to stop applauding chaos as the only indicator of vulnerability. You can be real when life is in order and falling apart. Life is beautifully both.
Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius Way
A poem to leave you with:
One of my favorite poems in Andalusian Hours by Angela Alaimo O’Donnel is Flannery’s Prayer. It is inspired by a line from one of Flannery’s prayer journals: “What I am asking for is really very ridiculous. Oh Lord, I am saying at present I am cheese, make me a mystic, immediately.”
Enjoy the read, and then go pick up a copy of this charming book of poetry that will better acquaint you with Flannery:
Sometimes I tire of waiting for the trans- formation, the moment I move from milk product to holy hallelujah, halo on my head instead of rind, my smell suddenly sweet instead of sour, a rose growing amid the dairy farm of life. My mama and my proper Catholic aunts pray for rain, good weather. Won't they be surprised to learn what their odd daughter hankers for— wisdom to light on me like a pet bird pecking its feed from my open hand, vision that penetrates walls and doors that shut me up and away from your love, the stuff that cheeses like me dream of.
Your turn! Tell me about the book you’re currently reading, or leave a suggestion for the next Little Langr Library theme! 👇🏼
If you enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be honored if you’d join me as a paid subscriber at just $5 a month. Also, if you know someone who would love reading along, could you send it to their inbox? Thanks in advance!
In His Sacred Heart,
Chloe
p.s. This website is becoming my go-to for unique and sweet gifts.
June Naptime Notes
Oh how I wish I was sat on that porch with you and an iced latte! I'm new to your naptime notes, and I'm here for it. Thanks for his lovely insight into your life - off to listen to your music suggestions.
Bookwise - I recently finished Lessons in Chemistry - would recommend!