Can you believe it is now August? Today that gorgeous quote from Tuck Everlasting will be posted everywhere, and I will read it every single time I see it because I love it so.
It is a steamy day where I write to you from—not my kitchen table, actually, but the guest room at my parents’ house on Cape Cod—and the crisp chill of autumn feels far off. Let’s keep it that way for a little while. To thank the month of July and celebrate the beginning of August, here are a few things I’ve been loving lately.
On the East Coast, the outdoor shower is a thing. A glorious thing. You come back home after a day on the water and rinse the salt and sand off your body before stepping foot in the house. Back when I was little, we just had a shower head on the side of the house, beneath it some giant slabs of stone my grandfather got free from a museum demolition in Boston (I think I have that story right…), a bottle of Pert and a bar of Irish Spring balanced atop a line of brick. Then, wild vines and trees grew up all around the house; no neighbors were close enough to peer over a garden fence and see whomever was showering. The neighborhood built up a bit, and youthful or nostalgic immodesty faded away. My parents had a small enclosure put up around the shower a few years ago. It’s quite nice. You can still feel the cool breeze come on from the open top, but you can shower in peace. So that’s the first thing I’ve been loving: outdoor showers. Here is the view from inside mine.
Rewatching High School Musical numbers on YouTube. Bodie loves sports and he loves music. The other day it hit me: that’s the plot of High School Musical. I started showing him clips of the movie on YouTube and he is in. “Getcha Head in the Game” is an obvious winner, as is “I Don’t Dance” (Bodie calls it “Base” for baseball) and “Biggie Car” (Zac Efron singing and dancing in a junk yard???). HSM came out when I was a sophomore in high school. As a self-professed drama nerd, I felt this movie was speaking directly to me, and that soon a lead role and some sporty boy would be mine. (Lead role, yes. Sporty boy, no.) Is this what they talk about when they say it’s so fun to share your passions with your kids? I may not be a basketball or baseball player, but I can certainly introduce Bodie to the athleticism of musical choreography!
This one pair of white cut off shorts I found at the thrift store. I’ve been looking for a comfortable pair of shorts for a long time now, and I somehow found them at the thrift store, though, honestly, I don’t know where else I’d find them as I actually dislike shopping everywhere else. The vast majority of my clothing comes from thrift stores. I love the hunt. I love the music my local thrift store plays over the speakers. I love that I can walk into the store and come out with a pair of shorts, a dress, two books, some basketball figurines for Bo, and, I don’t know, like a basket or something, and I’ll spend less than twenty dollars. But earlier this summer, I found the holy grail in my pair of white shorts. They’re not too short, but nowhere near Bermuda short length, and the fringe on the cut off part is consistent and soft. They slide on and tie in the middle—no buttons or zippers here!—and they are a nice thick material so colorful underwear doesn’t show through. I love them!
This salad by Half Baked Harvest. Michael and I made it for my family this week and it was a hit. Everyone loved it. It was just as good the second day, too. But be warned: you better have some music or a good podcast to listen to because you’re gonna be chopping for a while.
Think Baby brand sunscreen. I slather this all over Bodie and on my own face. It leaves both of us looking a bit ghostlike, or like the undead version of Grimace. That is: chalky with a purplish tinge. It smells delightful, though! Like tangerines! It is near impossible to wash off, but, hey, it does its job. No baby sunburns to date, knock on wood.
Okay, here’s the Tuck Everlasting quote by Natalie Babbit. I believe this is how the book opens. It’s been some years since I’ve read it, but I think I might be due for a reread. Anyone with me?
I hope you enjoy this first week of August, that you can move slowly and easily through the heat, that relief comes to you in the shapes of popsicles and shared laughter and dips in lakes and rivers and seas. I hope that wherever you are, kindness finds you, and that you find it easy to be kind in turn.
With love from my kitchen table,
Kaia