Coffee With Kate #1
Making time to rest, the Pandemic Skip, Fall fashion, and a yummy beef orzo soup that will impress your family
When I was trying to think of a name for this weekly feature, I wanted something that felt like me. You’ll see that phrase a lot in my writing here. I am trying to define what “feels like me.” My coffee is a big part of my day. I’m not a coffee snob or anything like that, but coffee is essential to my morning alone time. For a long time, it’s what I looked forward to about getting out of bed. And my morning alone time is just for me. It may be 5 minutes or 2 hours. There’s no way to know. I hope that the weekly Coffee With Kate email will be a fun resource that you look forward to the same way that I look forward to getting out of bed for that hot cup of coffee every morning.
I’ll share articles I enjoyed, random thoughts and recommendations, and discussions you might have missed either here or on Instagram. I promise this won’t just be a big list of products for you to buy. I’m trying to get away from the overconsumption myself, so I definitely don’t want to push that on others. Oh! And I’m going to share my weekly meal plan… or what I ate the previous week. I haven’t decided yet what this will look like, but it was a popular section of my Substack over at
and I loved sharing it so I’m going to bring it here!This Week’s Intention
I will make time to rest.
I wish I could say that I’m going into the week well-rested, but I’m exhausted. Neither of my kids has been sleeping well due to some combination of new developmental milestones, teething, and sickness. I also don’t usually give myself enough time to sleep at night, so when it is interrupted it’s not like I can make up for it. It’s hard for me to shut down at night after they go to bed because it’s usually the only time of the day I can hang out with my husband and decompress from the day.
And now that the temperatures are cooling down, I find myself wanting to get cozy and soak in the cool temperatures from the comfort of my couch and a nice big blanket. It’s one of my favorite ways to work on my computer so I need to make time for that to happen.
Recommendations
Sharon Says So has been an incredible source of information on the war between Israel and Hamas. It’s just enough to know what is going on without being completely overwhelmed because I can click out of it whenever I need to do so.
The Pandemic Skip | What was your pandemic skip? As the pandemic started my husband and I had been married for three years and were in the middle of unexplained infertility. I had spent a year in my role at work and it still felt pretty new. When the pandemic technically ended in May of this year, we had two kids and had been married for six years. I was four years into my role, and even weirder is that it was completely different than when I started due to changes within the industry. I also got a promotion during the pandemic and a new boss. It was a lot.
I started following case.kenny on Instagram and I love his carousels!
As People Return to Offices, It’s Back to Misery for America’s Working Moms | I came across this article through Smarter in a Sec (she links to the best reads!) and it really resonated with me. I often comment that I have no idea what it’s like working from the office and being a parent, and I’m very grateful for that. I already struggle with balancing home and work, and I’m working from home all day. If you added in 2+ hours of commuting, I would be absolutely done. Flexibility has been key to my stability since entering motherhood. This article goes into more about how companies need to value working moms and offer more flexibility now that people are returning to the office.
- ’s Fall Vibes series was so thorough and enjoyable to read even as someone who doesn’t especially love fashion for myself. It was thorough and gave me a lot to think about! It’s a 4-part series and I have linked to Part 1.
ICYMI
Let's (Finally) Meet!
What I’m Eating This Week
In my Fall meals post, I talked about a beef orzo soup. I made it earlier this week and it could not have been easier! I ended up cooking it in the crockpot because I had errands to run and would be out of the house otherwise, it would have done well on the stovetop. It came together quickly and has given us days of leftovers. I even got to sneak in some extra veggies in the way of a whole block of frozen spinach. I definitely recommend serving it with garlic bread and a side salad!
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