The kitchen counter is doing something I haven’t seen in a while: it’s calm. My parents arrived yesterday for a short visit, and the house is full of the kind of easy, low-stakes togetherness that only happens when you stop scheduling every hour. There’s a football game tonight, a boat trip on the lake Saturday, and for now, just tea and quiet and the sound of my kids being kids.
This week I kept noticing how much of my happiness is made of small things: a toy that actually gets used, a drink that mixes without a fight, a cookbook I’d have passed on the shelf. So instead of a polished list, here’s an honest look at what I’m loving right now, and what I’d gently let go of.
Pixel puzzle bricks that earn their shelf space
The first thing on this list is the kind of toy I wish I’d found earlier. My mom gifted a can of Pix Brix mini pixel bricks to Ryder for his birthday, and all three of my boys have been quietly obsessed ever since.
I’m a picky toy parent, and that’s no secret. I want things that get used for years, not things that die in the closet by winter. These bricks do exactly that: the kids build animals, people, little villages, weird shapes that only make sense to them. They come with an inspiration booklet that kicks off a few starter builds, and then the imaginations take over.
One honest note: the mini bricks can be a little tricky for a younger one to take apart again. If your child is on the younger side, keep that in mind before gifting.
A rechargeable frother with three speeds (finally)
I have officially been through the frother wringer. My milk frother is dialed in and I love it for hot, foamy latte milk. But for mixing powders into water or milk, every frother I tried was either too fast, too slow, or just right until it died within a couple of months.
This rechargeable one is the first that has actually stuck. The low speed is perfect for electrolyte powders, the medium is great for matcha and protein, and it mixes without overmixing. I know, who complains about protein getting too fluffy? Me. I’m the woman who complains about protein getting too fluffy.
Three speeds sounds like a small thing. It’s the kind of detail that turns a kitchen tool from a source of low-grade frustration into something I reach for without thinking. That’s the bar now.
A library find worth buying
I have a habit I’m glad I have: checking cookbooks out of the library before I commit to buying them. It saves me from impulse purchases and tells me, honestly, whether a book will actually live on my counter or collect dust on a shelf.
Cookie Club by Mallory Oniki is one of those finds. When it was time to return it, I already knew I needed my own copy. Every single recipe we made was a winner. The photos alone are reason enough to open the book, which matters in my house, because my kids gravitate straight to the recipes with the best pictures. Ask any mother of children.
We’ve made the edible cookie dough (dangerously delicious), the brown butter chocolate chip cookies, birthday cake cookies, and the sticky toffee pudding cookies. All of them stayed in rotation.
For what it’s worth, that’s the 80/20 way to build a cookbook collection: borrow first, keep only what you actually use.
One honest book rating: B-
Here’s a book I’m not going to pretend I adored. Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is a contemporary romance with a genuinely unique premise, and I typically love her work: fun, funny, upbeat.
This one is a bit far-fetched, and I don’t mind suspending my disbelief for a romance novel, but I’m giving it an honest B-. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading, not enough to hand it to a friend and say you must get this. One real call-out, though: the author’s note at the back of the book was my favorite part of the whole thing. It captures exactly how I feel about the romance genre. Don’t skip it.
I’d rather give a fair B- than a fake five-star review. That’s the whole point of rating something.
The slow part of the week
Next weekend, a few college friends and I are splitting a long weekend between New York City and Connecticut. We’re also finally seeing SIX the Musical, which I’ve been streaming in pieces for years. When it came time to pick a show for our night in the city, I suggested it without hesitation. They were on board. I was on board. I have been on board for a long time.
I’ve never been the person who plans a trip around a show. This is the exception, and I don’t even feel guilty about it. Some weeks the slow-living version of me needs a big, loud, colorful night to balance out all the quiet mornings.
My parents are leaving on Saturday, and the house will go quiet again. But this kind of visit is worth squeezing into the calendar, even the short ones. Sometimes a weekend of being around the people you love is the whole point of the week. Everything else can wait for Monday.
A gentle reset for this week
If you take one thing from this list, make it the smallest one: find one small thing in your week that’s actually working, and let it keep working. You don’t need a full routine overhaul. You don’t need a new kitchen, a new wardrobe, a new identity. You need a frother that doesn’t die in two months, a cookbook you’ll actually use, and a weekend that lets you be a guest in your own life for a few hours.
80/20 is enough. It really is.
A note from Hazel: My parents are in town and I’m taking the rare gift of doing less this week. If you can borrow a weekend like this, borrow it.