One thing I'm trying to do this year is simplify. That means unfollowing and unliking things on social media, reducing the number of newsletters I read, clearing out the list of websites I check daily, and other "reduction" activities. It also means trying to care less about certain things. Unfollowing something is easy. Not caring is much harder.

For example, my pictures auto-backup to Amazon. It's a great service that preserves my images if I lose my laptop. Plus, I can share things with family. Occasionally, however, photos get duplicated. When I got a new laptop and installed Amazon photos, almost everything duplicated. In the past, I would go through and dedupe everything. Now, I'm trying to ask myself, "Why? What is the purpose and benefit of doing it?" The purpose is that I like things neat and tidy. Duplicates make me itchy. But, the benefit? There is none. Now, instead of systematically removing duplicates, I'm trying to just let them be. It's hard, but it's saving me so much time. I expect that I'll get used to the new way of doing things over the coming months.

Another example is in my Mint account. Every quarter or so, my husband and I balance our books. That usually means I send him a few lump sum payments to cover shared expenses. In Mint, I used to split those payments out by budget categories. It would take some time to do correctly. Then I asked myself, "What is the benefit of doing this?" There wasn't any! We don't do budgeting by category. I was just making more work for myself. So, I stopped. 

On my simplification journey, letting go is hard. It's really hard to stop doing things as they have always been done. In asking myself to find an actual benefit, it has become easier to start saying no to myself.

How do you stop doing things?

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This week, I started the YA novel Ledge by Stacey McEwan. I am super excited to read it every night. It's your basic YA fantasy novel but I'm loving it. McEwan's story blends a lot of Sarah J. Maas, some Suzanne Collins, and a bit of Game of Thrones. The lead character is a feisty young woman who could be TSTL if she didn't have the skills to back it up. Sadly, I spoiled the ending by reading the promo for the next book in the series, but I am still excited to see how the author gets there.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• The big business of styling bookcases. [Literary Hub]

• Email productivity tips to try. [HubSpot]

• How am I just now learning what paprika is?!?! [@simsimmaaz]

• I co-sign this story on the need to verify what we read online. [Anti-Racism Daily]

• Noticing everyday things. [Syllabus Project]

• Women are not obligated to fix men's problems. *screams in aggravation* [Men Yell at Me]

• A lot goes in to making good bread. [Wordloaf]

• I agree with everything in this essay about liking the movie Titanic. [homeculture]

• I rarely sauce my pasta correctly. [Serious Eats]

• We need to improve pulse oximeters. [Short Wave]

• Great. Now I want truffles. [Gastropod]

• This should definitely not be legal. [The Indicator]

• This week, in things I learned about music, the start of the LA punk scene. [99% Invisible]

• One of my favorite podcasts is coming to an end, but they wrapped up with a great clip show. [By The Book]

• AI chatbots can get really creepy really fast. [The Daily]

• We opted to continue our LOTR binge by watching all three films in The Hobbit Series. I read the book in college and, honestly, I don't remember most of the stuff from the films happening in the book. The films are enjoyable but it feels like they could use an editor to cut out some of the bloat. (Perhaps there should only be two films...) We didn't even watch the extended versions this time. [HBO Max]

• This week for meatless Monday, I made grilled vegetable and goat cheese tacos. I love any excuse to eat goat cheese. It's so creamy, tangy, and delicious! I roasted off the vegetables on a sheet pan with a premade blend of southwest spices. Served this with a side of canned corn. So easy. So good. [Pure Wow]

• It's been ages since I made ground orange chicken. It's deceptively simple. The most complicated part is remembering to get all the ingredients in the sauce. I accidently overcooked the sauce and need to add some water to thin it out. Still tasted great. We served this over rice with a side of roasted chopped broccoli. [Dinner Then Dessert]

I love a pretty cake. This one of a mountain scene is a work of art. [@typs_baker]

Cultural Reads is a bi-weekly newsletter with book, movie, and music tips from countries all around the world. If you’re interested in culture, learning, and broadening your horizon – this is for you.

Architectural Digest shared a simple story compiling pretty streets from around the world. This gave me so much wander lust.

Our kiddo’s daycare is closed for the week BUT my in-laws are in town for lots of quality grandchild time. This is an accurate look of me commuting - by myself! - to and from work this week.