Kate's Five Things #76
Welcoming an ordinary life.
At the end of 2025, we committed to donating 5% of House Call’s net monthly proceeds to organizations that help people find safety and stability. The donation for April was given to The Listening House of St. Paul. You can find other mutual aid organizations supporting our community here.
Catching Up
Hello from an impossibly fast month of May! This morning was warm enough for bare skin on the tennis court. It is so green outside, it hurts my eyes. I am welcoming the balm of ordinary life when uncertainty seems all that is certain.
Here is what I can say is good and useful and worth checking out.
One
MERIT Tinted Sunscreen + a few good serums. I had a bevy of sunscreens arrive in the mail and have been testing them over the past few weeks. This is the one I'm reaching for most—it works best as a makeup product when I layer it over Glow Recipe Niacinamide Drops, which have really helped my dry, flaky skin. Finding the balance of coverage and moisture has been increasingly hard, and the order matters more than I want it to. I've also been loving Susan Kaufmann's Hyaluron Serum and Nutrient Serum—the texture locks in hydration in a way I haven't found elsewhere.
Two
The freckles I had as a kid now read more like dark spots. And I love my freckles. Lately, I have been defining the dark spots with less definition with eyeliner. Then Freck sent me some of their product last week, and the Freck OG is genuinely easier to apply and looks like the real thing.
Three
Giant ferns. It’s me and overwhelm vs. our garden and outdoor spaces. It’s a struggle every year, and I want it to be easy and enjoyable. Joe has taken on more of the upkeep this year, and in the spirit of simplicity and letting go of what isn’t working, I decided to keep our planters radically simple: just huge, lush, gorgeous ferns, both in hanging planters and sculptural pots.
Four
I shared my Dana Rebecca hoops a few weeks back and have gotten so many compliments on the stack I've been wearing them with—these dangly hearts from Fête and the fat little hoops from Electric Picks. I like to put jewelry on and forget it, and this stack has been light and wearable enough to forget for weeks.
P.S. If you shop Electric Picks, use code TAKE20 for 20% off!
Five
The Creative Pragmatist. I bought Amy Smilovic's second edition and have loved sitting with her thinking on self-expression. So much of it transfers to the home—the colors we tend to avoid in our outfits because they feel risky or wrong for us are often the same ones missing from our rooms. The outfit that finally feels like you usually has the color you'd never picked before. I think the same is true of a chair, a wall, a lamp. I have more to say here—might pull this into a longer essay.
And one extra thing for this week…
Scheduling sex. I have to share this because it's changed our relationship. Joe sends me calendar invites, I accept based on what I have going on, and—guys. It's the best thing we could have done for intimacy. Real time on the calendar to prioritize our physical relationship. I know it sounds clinical. It is the opposite. I keep a bottle of this (the vessel is so pretty!) on the nightstand.
Bonus Question: Where are you overthinking, and what feeling is it keeping you from experiencing?
My answer: Where there is overthinking, there is under feeling. I’ve found that to be very true.
I’ve found myself trying to negotiate away things that are outside my control, and what’s underneath all of that was the unwillingness to feel the impact of that loss. It’s been something I’ve been teaching my kids, too. That sometimes you just have to feel what you feel, and things resolve themselves from there.
Your turn. Grab a pen and paper, take a few minutes, and write down your answer.
And in case you missed it…
If you liked this post, check out the latest essay on embracing the storied histories and quirks of our homes.
