Have a Lovely Weekend. | Cup of Jo

What are you up to this weekend? I’m heading to visit family (and sharing Instagram photos here, if you’d like to see), then going to Chicago for work, so Cup of Jo will take next week off. We’ll be back with some fun posts on Monday, April 29th. Hope you have a good one — take gentle care of yourselves — and here are a few links from around the web…

This week on Big Salad, 22 readers shared their favorite things, and we love them! Also, I went on a funny movie-inspired date. This issue is free for whomever who would like to read. xoxo

An open letter to the editor of the NYTimes Connections game.

A good argument for a yellow sofa.

Love this movie-list title: “Definitely there was love, oh but the circumstances.”

Ikea’s ad campaign — Proudly Second Best — makes my heart swell.

The wrinkle-free shirt I always pack on trips.

Reporter apologizes for being creepy to Caitlin Clark. So over this sort of thing! Get your sh*t together! (NYMag)

We got this for our living room, and the boys love it.

Have you seen the new season of Girls5Eva? Looking forward to watching.

These Berlin restaurants look very fun. Homemade lemonade! Leafy courtyards! Spicy turmeric! A sense of performance! Toilet doors with one-way mirrors!

Writer math, haha.

Busted.

Plus, four reader comments:

Says Kathleen on what are your bunny rabbit shows: “I call gentle TV shows my ‘brain sweatpants.’ Like, ‘Ugh, what a day. I think I’m gonna put on my brain sweatpants,’ as I queue up Bob’s Burgers.”

Says Katherine on five pick-me-ups: “My neighbor has a vanity plate that reads ‘DANG IT’ and I covet it every time I pass it.”

Says Lindsay on framing sentimental objects: “One day, I discovered that my five-year-old daughter had drawn the word ‘mom’ inside a heart directly my bedroom wall wall. I’ve scrubbed many scribbles by my children off the walls before, but this time I melted. Of all the things she could have written, she chose to express her love for me. Instead of cleaning it, I bought a small frame to hang around it. Now I smile every time I walk by.”

Says Hali on five pick-me-ups: “I recently said to my husband, ‘Do you think these are the happiest days of our lives?’ and then both of us looked up with our jaws dropped! I couldn’t believe those words came out of my mouth. For one, he works six-day work weeks and spends three hours a day in the car. And I’ve struggled with major anxiety and had a insanely difficult pregnancy with my second child that left me bedridden and grappling with a diagnosis of my daughter having a complete cleft lip and palate. 2023 was so, so troubling and dark, and I spent so much time exhausted, terrified to move my body, and worried about my baby’s life with a facial deformity.

“But here we are, three months into life as a family of four, and I simply cannot believe my luck. Even with surgeries, pediatric hospitalizations, the increased juggle of tending to two tiny beings simultaneously, pumping exclusively, yada yada yada… these days feel like the cream of the crop. My son makes me laugh and breaks my heart with his beautiful quirky ways all day long. My gorgeous daughter is such a fighter and so wildly strong and capable that I actually feel weirdly comforted by her presence. And when our whole family is out on our little neighborhood walks — to the sand, along the greenbelt, out for coffee — I feel like the absolute LUCKIEST woman in the world. I know better than to assume every phase of child development will flow like this, but that it’s THIS good when it’s good? It’s a miracle.”

(Photo by By Kitty Kleyn/Stocksy.)

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