Ice cream season, our favorite dinner right now, and a nostalgic summer
weekly report 05.15.2026
What is the Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T? I wanted to create a fun weekly format to share food, reads, hobbies, items, shows and more that I’m currently loving or making my life easier. I see “Efficient Kitchen” embodying the whole home as well as the people in it. I also want to hear from YOU. What are you enjoying? Comment on the post anything you’re loving in a R.E.P.O.R.T category.
I’ve been a bit all over the place with reading lately. Started reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck and was LOVING it until a certain character was introduced and it got too heavy for me right now. I paused Steinbeck and picked up Austen because that’s what I do when I need something I’ll enjoy.
I hadn’t ever read Northanger Abbey which is surprising I know. I usually rotate through her core four but really didn’t know much about this novel.
It was her last published but first written and I think that’s important to note. It’s very different from her other work— more satirical and light hearted. My opinion is that it just felt like she was making fun of Charlotte Bronte novels the whole time even though I know Charlotte wasn’t even born yet.
It’s not my favorite but I still enjoyed it. I know there is probably some deeper analysis of her writing but it was just a light easy read for me. One thing that Austen does is have the reader or the main character not see the same thing. In Mansfield Park, the reader was almost “wrong” at first and in Northanger Abbey you are kind of screaming at Catherine to wake up in parts.
In a short summary, the book is about a young Charlotte Morland who is gothic novel obsessed and her time in Bath meeting society and then her journey at a potentially “haunted” Northanger Abbey. It’s not that deep and it’s just a light easy quick read.
A tip for Austen novels: I think Rosamund Pike is my favorite narrator for her books. They are all included with an audible subscription. I just used whisper sync on the Amazon classics on Kindle Unlimited this time. The narration was fine but Rosamund is my favorite. Austen novels translate particularly well to audiobooks and film because so much of the books are dialogue.
In case you missed it, I launched volume two of my plan, prep, plate meal plans along with a new “10 minute” dinner recipe. I’m working on making meals as simple as possible and working on more easy weeknight dinner recipes.
I had a request for putting all my go to meals together for families, and so I’ve been working on that awhile. I had to pause a lot of recipe development last year because of being pregnant and food not tasting right. I basically survived off potatoes and protein smoothies.
I know that I’ve talked about my meal prepping method in my old kitchen blueprints, but sometimes you just need an example. My hope is to teach the method through a meal plan written out so that you are proficient at it and can plug and play whatever recipes you like into it.
It just takes a little bit of practice to get to where it is second nature in your week. If you haven’t read it, you can find my full meal planning 101 series here to learn the planning part.
When I think about “playing” in this season of life, I think about what is bringing me joy right now or what it fun. By now you know my hobbies— needlepointing and reading. Sometimes I do those activities just for myself and sometimes they are mixed with me being a mom. Right now I’m working on needlepoint ornaments for my kids. I know that sounds crazy working on Christmas stuff already but I made a list of projects that I wanted done for this Christmas.
Each year I try to get an ornament for both my kids that somewhat represents their interests at the time for our pencil slim main tree. Our home doesn’t have room for a super big tree, but I personally love the size of a pencil slim. Now that we have three children, I’m pivoting with my plan a bit. I am working on a literary themed small tree. I have a vision of a 4ft tree in our other room covered with ornaments that represent our children’s favorite books.
If you needlepoint, you know that canvases can get quite pricey, so I knew I would have to start charting my own. I took some shortcuts with my first two but so far I only have a few wonky spots. I bought charts from this Etsy shop because she had so many of my kids favorite picture books and they weren’t overly complicated to chart. If you’re a cross stitcher, then you should be able to use the patterns as well. Let me know below if you would be interested in some more information on needlepointing, and I will “point” you in the right direction.
I was inspired by Brighter Day Press painting ornaments of her kids books every year, which I’ll link her tutorial here if that is more your thing. (There’s also a non painting method)
Run and get your Old Navy Flag tee now! (Bless you if your weather is cool enough to wear a chic flag sweater in the summer!) The men’s have already sold out. I am kind of obsessed with how they have a heritage tee shop and brought back every 90’s and Y2K tee from the past. I thought it would be a cute idea to get kids tees for the years that they were born. They have a lot of cute items on sale right now, and I also linked my favorite white jeans that I’ve worn all spring.
The Breville Smart oven is one of the biggest workhorses in our kitchen. Ours is used every single day for reheating, toasting, and air frying. What I also love about it is that a whole chicken can fit in it to roast as well as a quarter baking sheet. I can bake a couple cookies from the freezer without heating up my entire house with the oven, and I’ve found that we eat way more produce because we can get it nice and crispy in the smart oven.
The smart oven would be a top five kitchen item to make your life better, especially since leftovers taste a lot better reheated it in.
Homemade ice cream season is upon us, and I was looking for some cute ways to serve it this summer. If you haven’t made ice cream before, it’s so so easy. We’ve had the same ice cream maker for almost 12 years that we received as a wedding gift. It goes to work in the summer.
I found these SUPER cute reasonable bowls at Anthropologie that I’m eyeing for serving this summer.
Anthropology is having up to 30% off outdoor living and there are so many great hosting items on sale right now.
Old Navy is having 50% off Deals featuring Tees, Tanks, Shorts, Swim and Dresses right now through May 16th.
*This post may contain affiliate links at no extra charge to you. All opinions are my own.