Toxic Positivity Book
I’ve been following Whitney Goodman on IG for awhile. She’s a therapist with tons of quality, helpful content. If you reference my January tchotchkes post, I mention how I’m really grateful the concept of toxic positivity is being discussed more often and that there’s a societal shift to move away from it. When this book came out, I knew I wanted to read it. Right up my alley. It didn’t disappoint. Such a great read and I finished it super quick. I also recommend it to any white people who may be struggling with conversations around race, racism, bias, and discrimination but who may not want to deep dive into a book completely dedicated to that topic at the moment. This one was great because it touches on all the areas in our lives where toxic positivity shows up, including that one.
Zara semi-annual sale
Zara runs two big sales every year. One at the end of June and one at the end of December. Everything on their site gets marked down during this time. Zara is my favorite place to get kids’ clothes so I always keep it in my mind when the sale is coming up. My son goes to school where they don’t have uniforms so I used the June sale as an opportunity to do back to school shopping.
Tip: go through your kids’ clothes before you shop the sale to see what items you actually need. I find that we typically always need pants and the less exciting options like socks, etc. Even though the graphic tees are always way more fun to buy.
Ring Light
I got this ring light for my home office and while I’m on zoom calls. One of the things I hate about zoom is that we can see our own face during the entirety of a meeting. I find it distracting and also not the best confidence boost if I don’t feel like I’m looking great on the call – which is most of the time. I know that’s not the priority in a meeting – but still – it’s a thing. Angles and lighting can be weird. I also no you can use an option that makes it so you can’t see your face, but that also feels weird to me. So this light has helped me not hate the way I look completely as I’m on these calls. It plugs directly into the computer and has different settings that can be adjusted.
Kids Books
In June we bought three new kids books: Bodies are Cool, The Grumpy Fairies, and Outside Inside. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy buying books for my kids. I follow a few great kid’s book accounts on IG: @kidlitismagic and @bookoholicmom and get a lot of recommendations there.
Bodies are Cool was recommended by a coworker with similarly aged kiddos. I was inspired to buy it after she told me it was a great way to direct a conversation with small kids when you’re out and about and observe various types of body. She said that instead of blurting out a comment, they now look at each other and say “bodies are cool.” Loved that and since buying the book this has actually happened with us a few times and I’ve responded by saying “bodies are cool” and they seem to totally get that.
The Grumpy Fairies is a cute read about grumpy fairies! I saw this book and loved the illustrations and the idea of grumpy fairies so I made it a point to pick up a copy.
Outside, Inside is a book about the COVID-19 experience, being in quarantine, and the experience people were going through during that time. To me, I think this book will be nice to have to look back on years later as a documentation of what was happening during this time in history.
That’s a wrap! What were some of your favorite June purchases?