Coffee With Kate #6
Coffee With Kate #6
A weekly round-up of my favorite links and random thoughts
Welcome back! I have not sent one of these newsletters since the beginning of December and I have missed it. Writing these is so much fun for me so I’m happy to get back into it. It just wasn’t a priority with the holidays looming, but now that we’re back to our normal routines - here she is!
How has the start of 2024 been for you?
If I’m being honest, I had a lot of energy and excitement for the new year until I went back to work on the 3rd and things have kinda tanked from there. I’m still struggling to find the motivation to get my work done, though there are glimmers of the motivation coming back now. I haven’t had the best start to my Change My Life Challenge. So overall I’m just feeling kinda blah. Like I said, I’m seeing what may be the light at the end of the tunnel and a way out but I wanted to be transparent that things are not great over here. Which I think can be nice to hear because from where I’m sitting it feels like everyone is kicking off the new year wonderfully… except for me.
I am very excited though because we’re expecting our annual bout of cold weather this weekend. I know everyone else gets hammered with really cold weather, but here in Texas we usually only get one week a year. I love it. It’s such a great excuse to stay home in our PJs, have the fireplace going, and make a big pot of chili and a big batch of cookies. I swear that people in Texas automatically associate cold weather with snow regardless of precipitation, so I try not to leave the house during these times to avoid the horrible drivers. So that’s what I’ll be up to this weekend! I hope everyone stays warm. I highly recommend checking out my list below for some things to peruse on the Internet this weekend!
Reading Recommendations
On Substack
I came across this essay on how we’re getting influencers all wrong. I’ve seen time and time again that influencers get pushed into one niche and any time they try to change their content or speak about another interest they are accused of trying to be an expert. I don’t think that’s fair. We’re all humans and we have so many interests. How boring would life be if we could only enjoy one thing forever?
Sorry to sound like a Renaissance philosopher for a second, but the seeking of knowledge — and in turn, of understanding — should be the whole point of our existence. To ignore this breeds a sort of easy contentment, yes, but it also draws an ever-shrinking bubble around us. We are evolving in such a way that allows us to relate only to those of us who look like us, live like us, and have had the same upbringing as us.
Have you ever toyed with leaving Instagram and never looking back? For some, it is more than just a social media platform but how they promote their business.
shares some ideas on how she can promote her work off Instagram and also shares how Instagram holds the power to make her feel bad. Like other addictions, are we allowed to abandon it if it’s not serving us?What Gen Z Got for Christmas in 2023 | This was such a fun read and I’m really trying to wrap my head around all of it. It’s interesting how the internet has elevated brands so much that it’s common for teens to ask for such high-priced items, and seemingly so many. Maybe they’re not really and it’s being a bit sensationalized on Tiktok. I only have one teenager in my life and you best believe she was thrilled to get her Uggs for Christmas. I know we had the same issues as teens with wanting the right items to fit in, but it seems to be on another level now. I’m also still trying to figure out how teenagers are carrying around 40oz Stanleys all day. They have to be mostly empty, right?
With everything being more expensive these days and feeling the stress of not wanting to spend more money than I need to, this essay from
about how to care for the items you own is incredible.My internet friends
and are doing a No-Buy January and it’s so much fun to watch them put outfits together every day with stuff already in their closets. Christina shared more about her reasons for the shopping pause on her Substack and I highly recommend giving it a read! It’s such a smart way to kick off the year.
Elsewhere on the Internet
How millennials learned to dread motherhood | Pretty much everyone read this article when it came out last month, but I wasn’t able to find the time until I was off work for the holidays. It’s such a fascinating and bleak read. I shared some of my thoughts about it on Instagram. This part made me sad:
“My entire friend group, we all raised great kids, but we’re not writing that because we don’t want to be insufferable,” she told me. “If we say anything about it, people hate you, and I understand that. There are cultural taboos against talking too much about it, and huge penalties for women bragging about anything.”
In other words, if joyful motherhood or equitable parenting is seen as a rare accomplishment these days, then, like many other small and large achievements, women learn to keep it to themselves.
I shared this on Instagram and received several DMs from moms echoing how true it is. Especially on the Internet, it feels like we cannot talk about motherhood too much lest someone have it worse than us. It’s so invalidating and frustrating. And I fully acknowledge that there are plenty of reasons someone might have challenges in parenting, especially when medical conditions are involved. But I thought one person said it best in the screenshot below.
The puzzling gap between how old you are and how old you think you are | This was an article I found through
and it’s so interesting! The premise is that you always feel 20% younger than your actual age. I can attest to always feeling a little whiplash when I have to tell someone how old I am and realize yet again that I’m 35, not 32. I know they’re not that different but 32 is consistently how old I feel. The article also brought up how this causes us to have a hard time realizing how old others are, like parents. We see them as younger than they actually are.
Books
The first book of 2024 that I finished was a quick read called How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. I’ve seen KC’s videos on TikTok from time to time and didn’t realize she had written a book until I came across a video of hers describing her method of tackling a messy room. Overall, I found the book to be very freeing to help me think about how I keep my home clean and tidy and what my priorities are.
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TV and Movies
I am feeling very called to get back into watching more TV. I love TV but aside from finishing a lot of my favorites from the past few years in 2023, I haven’t been watching much of anything lately. I miss really good TV. It’s one of the ways my husband and I connect and always has been. While I was off work for the holidays, we watched a couple of movies and caught up on our current TV show and I want to continue to find more so we can use this as a way to connect at the end of the day. So if you have any recommendations, please let me know!
shares her recent watches and it’s been such a helpful starting point!TV
For All Mankind, AppleTV+ | We’re currently in the middle of the season and it will wrap up this weekend. I’ve talked about it a little bit before, but it’s an alternate history in which the Soviets beat the US to the moon and what would have happened if that had been the case. I haven’t loved Season 4 as much as Seasons 1-3, but I’m committed and hope the finale is great! I’m interested to see where it goes after Season 4 or if this is the end.
Movies
Barbie, MAX | Yeah… so… I never watched Barbie until December. I’m ashamed. But I absolutely loved it. I ended up watching it once by myself and again with my husband. Everything about it was spectacular from the set to the costumes to the acting. It’s one of Margot Robbie’s best roles and I cannot believe how funny Ryan Gosling is in it. I went down a rabbit hole of videos of him as Ken and all the lines and little behaviors he improvised. The message was incredible.
Oppenheimer, AppleTV+ | Yes, I did have my own Barbenheimer. This movie was phenomenal. One of my favorite things to do with period dramas is to spend time watching the movie and googling things to learn more. It’s been so long since I did that and that’s how I spend much of the time watching Oppenheimer. Cillian Murphy and RDJ are at the top of their game. This was probably the most prestigious movie I’ve watched in a long time.
If you haven’t watched Colin from Accounts, I highly recommend!!
Thank you for sharing!