Confession time: I’m struggling.
A few months ago, I started feeling an uncomfortable urge to diversify my income streams to offset as many threats from AI that I could. Trying to stay ahead of the game? That’s the idea, except I don’t really know what’s going to take hold, take root, and be insulated from AI anyway.
Regardless, I burrowed into my favorite space—the let’s start a new business space—and have been working on several different projects, one of which is a course on navigating the crushing mental load that so many of us (Especially women) find ourselves battling.
Except I’m apparently not my best student, because I’ve found myself frenzied beneath the new weight of these fresh projects, trying to stay mentally grounded underneath the buzz of ideas that blankets my thoughts at all times. Trying to remember all the gear for the soccer game tonight, the one that’s after the tennis match, which is actually after cross-country practice. And don’t forget that it’s Tuesday, so one of the kids has to wear lace-up shoes to school for PE, and the other one is supposed to wear yellow, and they both “earned” getting to wear a hat to school.
I’m missing things, like packing for three sporting events after school but forgetting my oldest’s soccer cleats (Critical.). I forgot that I bought tickets to a mother-son sneaker ball that I had planned to take both of my boys to, all because I didn’t immediately put it on my calendar. Tonight, I’m supposed to be at Austen’s Pride, but I neglected to put that on my list, so I booked a tennis lesson right on top of it.
I just can’t get my shit together right now, and it’s making me feel even more frenzied an overwhelmed than before.
My instinct is to follow this up with a solution, “So what’s a girl to do? Well, I’ll…”, but I’m not entirely sure I have the answer. Commit more to clocking absolutely every single thing in my calendar, and create foolproof systems for extra-curricular packing, but other than that?
I think I’m just trying to survive. I know myself well enough to know that until these projects are out, launched, or at least in motion, I’ll be buzzing with brainstorming—emphasis on the storm part of that. Might as well accept it instead of fight it, right? Right. Right… OK. Right.
Who the Heck I Even Am
So many new faces here! Welcome to all of you who came to me from the Kpop Demon Hunters party guide, and I hope you love what you read and stick around. Here’s a bit about me:
I’m Cheryl—hi, hi, hi!! I have three kiddos and three recipe websites (40 Aprons, Easy Healthy Recipes, and Easy Cheap Recipes). I’ve been developing and sharing recipes on the internet for ummmm, 16 years, which is a really long time to do anything, much less to do anything on the internet. I’m a big fan of extravagant, maximalist living in an accessible way. I love themed parties and dinners with my kids, structuring self-care so it feels indulgent and non-negotiable, luxury touches that are always affordable, and restaurant-quality dishes that are made easily between school pick-up and Cub Scouts.
This place, Substack? This is where I get to write about what I love, which is romanticizing your life, because your life totally deserves to be romanticized. It’s about living an opulent life that doesn’t blow the budget, living loud, celebrating unapologetically, and really just enjoying each season of life and of the Earth’s turn.
If that resonates with you, I really hope you subscribe:
What I’m loving lately
Skylight calendar: Is it just me or are you your family’s Alexa, too? “Mommy, when is practice tonight? Mommy, what color jersey do I wear? Mommy, do I have cross-country practice tomorrow?” Oh my goodness, answering all these questions wears me out so freaking fast. Enter… the Skylight calendar. We stuck it on our wall right inside the garage door, and it connected seamlessly to my Google/Apple calendars. Now everyone can see everything, and it’s changed everything. My kids can see which uniform they need to wear, my husband knows which kid has what sport on whichever day. It’s an absolute must for busy families.
My GreenLife slow cooker: I know what you’re thinking—yeah, it’s just a slow cooker. Sure, it may be a slow cooker, but it’s super lightweight, honestly huge, and has a non-toxic, PFAS-free ceramic nonstick interior bowl. I use this thing all the time—there’s actually short ribs braising in it right now!—and I hardly ever use my Crockpot anymore. An absolute must-have for soup season.
Chicken shredder: OK MAGICAL. My life lately is all Instant Pot and slow cooker dishes made with lots of chicken, just trying to get something on the dang table before we have to leave, but I used to dread the chicken-shredding process. So tedious! However, I try to avoid just more gadgets, so I was really hesitant to try this chicken shredded. But I got one anyway, and it changed my life. OK, maybe it didn’t change my life, but it made shredding chicken like, instantaneous. I love it so much.
Pomegranate candle: This pomegranate candle is just precious, and I love it so much. I bought three so that I could have one on my kitchen island and two on my fireplace mantle, flanking my TV. I have a slight obsession with Persephone (In fact, my car’s named after her, has a PRSPHNE license plate, and I made this bumper sticker for her), but don’t worry about that…
Slinger Bag: Yeah, tennis? Obsessed. But I felt so silly thinking my son and I needed a ball machine to practice. We just started, after all! Then I had a conversation with a friend whose kid plays baseball, and he told me how much all of them were spending on pitching machines. 45 seconds later, and I was the proud owner of a Slinger Bag. I love, love, love how easy it is to wheel on and off the courts, and it just lives in my van at all times. It’s help my ground strokes so much, and my son uses it multiple times a week. Absolutely recommend for an affordable ball machine, and it’s a great way to get in some tennis practice and exercise that isn’t boring.
What I’ve been up to lately
OK, soooo it’s been like 3 million hot seconds since I last had the editorial space to share much about my life. I’ve been so consumed by exciting content ideas that my personal life has taken a backseat. So allow me to catch you up on oh, two months? Let’s go.
A Wicked-themed birthday party
My daughter just turned 7 (Dying inside), and we had a Glinda-themed Wicked party to celebrate. Did we also have a Kpop Demon Hunters-themed party to celebrate? Yes. We did. …moving on.
My girly girl loves Wicked, but she also loves princess dresses and pink and purple and unicorns and demon-fighting superstars, so a heavily green, Elphaba-ish party was out of the question. But you know what goes good with green?
Pink.
One of my tricks to throwing really top-notch, immersive-style parties is to pick a very specific theme, feeling, or scene off of which to base the party. After a trip last winter to the American Girl Doll spa in NYC, we knew we wanted to have a doll-makeover party for her next birthday party. It occurred to me that we would Galinda-fy the dolls, and the theme of the party took off from there.
Instead of doing really theme-y green-and-pink everything, I wanted it to feel like you were in Glinda’s dorm, with lots of pink everywhere, from fabric draped below the ceiling, to pink clothing racks stocked with lots of Glinda cosplay outfits, frilly pink curtains, pink hat boxes stacked, and a pink couch (Which we bought for her Auradon-themed graduation party and has since been commandeered by the dog).
After transforming the house into Glinda’s attic, we set up our doll spa, inspired by the salon/spa that Glinda and Elphaba go to in the Emerald City. We set up little salon chairs, doll vanities, and doll pedicure chairs, all the suit the theme, but the girls ended up playing with the doll salon for most of the party.
I posted up at one of the salon chairs and took orders to make over each girl’s doll’s hair a certain way (Doing one with Rumi’s brain!), and it was just a blast.
There was, of course, a pink/green moment, but we discovered that the girls do not like matcha. Hazard of any Wicked-themed party, I think.
And naturally, Glinda and Elphaba themselves stopped by…
Here’s to 7, baby girl. Love you to the moon and to Saturn!
An apology to hot yoga
Dear hot yoga, I need to apologize for hating on you for so many years. I didn’t “do” hot yoga or heated classes, because why?! Why would I want this?
Except then I tried it, and well, you know how this goes, right? Now I love it.
Does this make me “that girl”? I certainly hope not. Doesn’t “that girl” always seem completely silent? If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I’m certainly not silent. Nor am I quiet. In fact, my husband might even argue that I’m actually quite loud. Oh… and I’m not a girl. Just a woman who found out that sweating profusely whilst moving her body ACTUALLY quieted me… for 60 minutes at a time. Inside and out.
Trip to Canada
We spent a couple weeks in Canada in July, and my husband got to visit his Canadian family there for the first time in decades. We spent tons of time with our generous, hilarious cousins, who toured us around Ottawa and Montréal. Our kids met their kids—instant magic—and we vowed many times to make this visit a regular thing.
After visiting with the family, we headed to Club Med in Charlévoix, Québec which was such an experience. Like a cruise ship, but on land, on a mountain? I spent my days doing as many yoga and fitness classes as I could, punctuated by trips to the spa to sweat it out in the sauna then dip in the cold pool overlooking the St. Lawrence river.
My oldest son and I hiked up to the top of Le Massif, failed to read the small sign about the gondola’s closing times, and umm… proceeded to be stranded at the top of the mountain. Was the gondola still running for like 45 minutes after closing time? Absolutely. Would they let us on when we were 4 minutes late? Absolutely not. Oh well. Luckily we managed to call a taxi who rescued us before we had to like, seek shelter and roast a squirrel to survive, but there were definitely a few minutes then when I thought we’d be stuck spending 4 hours trying to climb down the mountain in the dark. Oof.
Tennis
In my last Everything Edit, I talked about how my oldest son had recently picked up tennis and fallen in love. He worked his tail off, passed the skills test required to make the middle school team, and is now in the middle of his first tennis season. We even tried our first USTA tournament last weekend, which honestly shocked me a little. He played very young kids, as young as 7, who had 8 tournaments under their belt. The oldest kid he played was 10, who was playing his 20th tournament. These kids certainly had the skills to show for it all, and it was a great experience for him… but we have a little catching up to do when it comes to the tournament circuit.
I’m playing tennis, too, and almost as in love with it as my son is. The only difference? I can feel that I have an underlying knack for it, but it’s the first ball sport I’ve ever played! I was a serious dancer growing up, performing en pointe alongside professionals while I was still in high school. But catching and tracking a ball? Not a thing I ever did.
It’s coming together, though, and I absolutely relish my ladies’ clinics. Gather a gaggle of women, all trying something new, just happy to get out and get some air and exercise? We cheer for each other, apologize when we hit badly, tell each other we look cute, and complain about our kids and husbands. Pure, wholesome girlhood.
Halloween / Disney World Outfits
Did you know this? We love Disney World. If you didn’t know this already, you’re sure about to, because it’s Disney World season, baby. Each year, we take a break from entering the city limits of Orlando between late April and early October, because it’s just too dang hot, y’all. Last year, we made it to Disneyland in California over the summer, but otherwise? We force a Disney drought for almost half the year.
But the drought’s almost over, y’all! Our first big Disney trip coming up is over fall break in October, and we’re doing a land-and-sea trip—a few days at the Disney World parks and resorts, and a few days on a Disney cruise.
More importantly? The outfits. I’m an active Disney bounder, which means piecing together outfits using everyday, non-costume clothes to evoke the look or spirit of a Disney character, attraction, or theme. We use the color palette and signature accessories to subtly pay homage to that character or attraction (or, in my case, the carpet of the Grand Floridian, because I love a niche moment).
Since the trip’s in October, we’ll be in the full Halloween swing. Here’s what we’re planning:
Halloween party in the parks and on the ship: Descendants theme
Me: Maleficent, but like, funky, sort of sexy?
My daughter: Mal, naturally
My son: Carlos
My mom: Cruella de Ville
Hanson concert at EPCOT: 90s Cinderella theme
Inspired by this look, although I can’t decide if I should really pull the trigger on this one, since it’d require lots of new purchases:
What I’m reading/listening to/watching/playing:
reading: I recently finished House of Sky and Breath on Audible and decided to move our relationship to my Kindle. My mom just finished the Crescent City series, and is all “Just wait!!!!” whenever I mention a Ruhn or Bryce theory, so I decided to just lean in hard to finishing the 3rd book.
watching: I’m almost finished with the Love Is Blind UK series, and I have no clue what I’ll do during my trash-TV hours after that. Any suggestions?
listening to: Um, hello, it’s almost mid-September, which basically means we’re in deep fall. And in fall, I listen to classic jazz. Try it; it’s lovely.
Oh, and I already feel so much better about not having my life in order, just after talking to you about it. You’re the freaking best.
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