A Few Good Things

Pride with friends in our small town, a yummy (easy) recipe, and what we did at the farm last weekend

Happy Friday! How was your week?

My loves, I hate that I missed last week’s Good Things. We were traveling for work and I just ran out of time. BUT, I loved catching up with you this week in the Okay McKay Chat. We talked about moving apartments, new positions at work, writing novels, unpacking at a new home, and even, sadly, the loss of a loved one. Nothing is off limits in the safe space of our chat, so we’d love to have you over there if you’re ever up for it.

Our summer days have felt a lot like the rest of how we spend our year. All three of our children are in a summer program at school that runs Monday through Thursday, so we’re still on a semi-school schedule right now, though the three day weekend has been nice. We spend it out at our farm, though we haven’t really been home to do that in over a month, which is one of the reasons we’re excited to head out there this weekend. We’re spending the night out there tonight with our best friend Beau who’s in town checking on his property and staying with us for a few days. He’s making us dinner, which is always a treat, because he makes the most delicious food and I will always and forever get excited when anyone wants to make food for me. I think making food for another person is just about the most loving thing you can do for someone.

Lastly, we’re back from California and are going through all the photos that Amazon took of us while we were there! Here are a few below, if you’d care to see:

Side note: we posted the photo of us and our friend Preston Konrad (in the blue blazer) on Facebook, and a subscriber commented that he looked like Adam Levine, and my mom saw it and then told my sister-in-law that we were with Adam Levine, and then it somehow got spread around that we hung out with Adam Levine, haha. When I saw her this week, she asked how we got to meet Adam, and I was like mom what on earth are you talking about lol. I politely explained to her that was our friend Preston. She laughed.

Hope you have a magical weekend, and here are a few good things from the week.

1. Blackberry Picking

It’s blackberry season at Ocoee Farm! Last weekend, after dinner one night and with a glass of wine in hand, I joined my family who were all roaming around our farm in a very intense blackberry competition to see who could pick the most blackberries. Of course PJ won, like he does every year. The next day, he made a bunch of batches of his delicious blackberry jam that we all get to enjoy on his equally delicious buttermilk biscuits. We all look forward to this time every year, and I hope the kids remember this little tradition when they get older. PJ used to do similar little things like this with his grandma when he was young, and they're some of his fondest memories.

2. Delicious Body Wash

I shared that we love Oars + Alps wake up eye stick a few months ago, and while we’ve been using our favorite Dove Men+Care body wash back home, at the beach last moth, we used Oars + Alps body wash and OMG YOU GUYS. It smells SO good and lasts all day. I walked past PJ hours after I had showered with it and he was like, “Wow, you smell really good.” Which means this stuff works! The Mandarin Woods scent is intoxicating and has a masculine, unique scent that instantly turns me on.

3. Dress Code

I have been a major fan of Air Mail for years, so I was so stoked to see they launched a new pillar of their newsletter dedicated entirely to style called Dress Code. It’s a weekly dispatch from the world of fashion and style from some of the medium’s biggest and brightest voices, giving you all the inside scoop and answering some of your most pressing questions. This is starting to sound like an ad for them, which I promise it isn’t, haha, I just love the entire vibe of Air Mail and I am so looking forward to reading their new venture!

4. Italian Pasta Salad

My mom makes the best pasta salad, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it. SO, this week I decided to look up a recipe and give it a go. I found this one and it was so delicious and easy! I added some cucumbers and replaced the mozzarella with feta cheese, and I also added some smashed garlic and lemon juice to the dressing. It tastes even better the second day. Is there anything better than a cool pasta salad in the summer?

5. Small Town Pride

Our town is small, which means the LGBTQIA+ population here is extremely small. Still, we’ve managed to accumulate a group of friends we love dearly. We all went out for greek yogurt earlier this week, and our kids came too, which I loved all the more because the fact that they were surrounded by all of us and getting exposed to those who are so few and far between in this area is such a beautiful thing. But to them, it’s really such a normal, everyday thing. So many people in their lives are queer, and I think because it’s so normal to them, they will grow up with so much empathy and understanding for those who may be different than them. And I think at the end of the day, that’s all it boils down to. Kids are taught to hate and to judge and to be mean. I believe children are inherently good, and it’s our job to keep them that way. Pride can be found everywhere, because queer people are everywhere, even in small towns like ours.

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tap the image to shop

Father’s Day is only 9 days away! We’ve rounded up over 100 gifts for the father or father-figure in your life to make shopping easy this year. There are the everyday essentials, but we also included a few surprises in there that they’re sure to love.

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This Week’s YouTube Video

In this week’s vlog, we’re taking you on our quick, two-day trip to LA with Amazon!

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Tuesday’s Letter

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If you want to start receiving emails for Keep & Delete, our daily journal, you can do so by following the instructions below:

1. Go to your Substack account

2. Click on the publication you want to subscribe to (Okay McKay)

3. Click Manage Subscription

4. Find the Subscriptions section

5. Slide the toggle next to each section you want to receive notifications about (Keep & Delete)

6. Save your changes

If you want to see all the Keep & Delete’s so far, you can tap the link below. We also end each one by asking you to share your own Keep & Delete for the day, if you feel up to it.

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What about you? What have you been up to recently?
PS: last week’s good things

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