Life lately

Sarah’s been confined inside with sick kids, but generally thankful they have been spared from the worst of the winter illnesses.

Abby’s planning Plum’s first birthday party, which will include some out of town family and carrot cake.

Reading lately

Abby discusses Swing Time by Zadie Smith, a tale of identity, race, and friendship set in the UK and Gambia and narrated by an unnamed black woman. If you like audio books, this one has an excellent reader.

Sarah read Homeward Bound: Why Women are Embracing the New Domesticity by Emily Matchar, a non-fiction book that explores the draws and downsides of the movement toward crafting, blogging, local food, and women opting out of the workforce. It touched on the questions in Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte, another book we both love.

Trips, vacation, and travel

We chat about family trips growing up, our favorite vacations as adults, our ideal vacation, and how we hope to travel as a family in the future.

Eating lately

Sarah and HP have been making these two-ingredient cookies (just bananas and oats).

Abby is making a more traditional (and delicious) chocolate chip cookie. The recipe only makes a single pan, which if you are anything like us your family will eat in a single sitting.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Sarah is planning a trip (sans kids!) to visit a friend in Nashville next month. Abby is celebrating the birth of two friends’ first child and remembering both the joy and challenges of those first days with a newborn.

Reading lately

Sarah read the sequel to Gone With the Wind—Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. She enjoyed it, but some of the magic was missing from the original.

Abby is listening (and laughing) to Catherine Newman’s latest book, Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood’s Messy Years.

Favorites

We introduce a new recurring topic on the podcast–favorites. We discuss our favorite television shows, cheese, games, and secondhand wins. Here’s a list of the games we mentioned in case you’d like to play them yourself:

• Euchre
• Cribbage
• Boggle
• Quixx
• Pandemic
• Flapjacks and Sasquatches
• Hanabi
• Splendor

Eating lately

Abby expanded her enchilada repertoire to include black bean enchiladas. Instead of chili con carne, she used this chili gravy recipe for the sauce.

Sarah’s been loading up on purple radishes from the farmers’ market and sauteing them in butter and salt.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!