Hello, Friends. How have you been? We spent the last week in Brittany and it felt great to take a break from my laptop.
Things I want to discuss with you:
– How France has handled reopening — what school and church and errands and vacationing is like.
– Our trip to Brittany (you can see highlights here and here).
– Updates on the house renovation. Things like tile for the bathrooms, the light fixtures in the office, and updates in the garden.
– The frustration between creating content for Instagram versus creating content for the blog.
– The American passport and having kids that can’t get to us.
– My emotional visit to La Cressionnere (the house we used to rent when we lived here before).
– Mental health updates.
I owe you blog posts on all this and more. I find I’m having a hard time managing my time and can’t quite put my finger on the reason. Is it stress from current events? Renovation overwhelm? Depression? Not sure. But I always miss it when I’m not updating regularly, so even though it’s Sunday while I type this, I wanted to share my Friday link list. : )
Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:
-“In the end, Trump did what he said. He built a wall around America and made the world pay for it. He just never told Americans that they’d be stuck inside.”
-How black slaves were routinely sold as ‘specimens’ to white doctors.
-Scientists discovered broadcasting the sound of a healthy coral reef on underwater speakers in dead areas along the Great Barrier Reef resulted in life returning and thriving. Twice as many fish visited those areas with speakers vs spots without speakers.
–This article about the Portland Place couple is woah.
-I love this project from my niece Rachel — cool campaign that teaches kids mental health skills, dance routines and cardio, strength and stretch exercises through interactive videos.
-The billionaires and country clubs that received small business loans from the government.
-Ford employees ask the company to stop making police cars.
-Why do American cities waste so much space on cars? What the future could look like without them.
-A budgeting game for teens I made up.
-I’m so angry about the murder of Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood. As details come out about the case, it’s more and more horrific. Defund the police and defund the military while we’re at it.
-I was sad to hear of Ennio Morricone’s death. We listened to the soundtrack from Cinema Paradiso while we drove through Brittany.
-Have you ever heard of Keratosis Pilaris? It’s when you get lots of harmless little bumps, typically on your upper arms. I have KP, though mostly don’t notice it, but when I wear short sleeves in the summer I remember. I’m trying this CeraVe lotion for rough & bumpy skin to help minimize the bumps. Have you tried it?
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
-An info-packed thread on how police violence increases crime rates.
-Do you believe in writer’s block?
-Hah! Four years of experience for something that has only existed 1.5 years.
-I try to stay up to date, but I missed this conspiracy altogether.
–Entertaining responses. Some thoughtful, some silly.
-Another one with really good responses.
-Sometimes it feels like every other country has figured this out.
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
