The State Of Things: A Coffee Date for 2024

Hi! Hello! Hi. ♡

I’ve had this version of a coffee date on my heart for months, but life! time! more life! You get it.

Recently I’ve met several people out in the real world who talked about what POY means to them and how much they have enjoyed the recipes over the years. And I think these happy little run-ins gave me the push I needed to sit down and write this post.

Which… isn’t anything earth-shattering, I don’t think? But it’s just a bit of an update on what life is like for us these days, what we’re thinking about, and how things have shifted behind the scenes of Savory Sojourn as we head into 2024! (Yes, it’s February. This sort of lateness is on-brand.)

There have a been changes to a lot of things within POY in the last year – some wins, some losses, but almost all of them for the better, being driven by alignment of values and priorities.

And there have been some lost-feeling moments, too. And that’s okay. As life goes.

So, I guess this coffee date is really just a review of life. ♡ Maybe you can relate or maybe you just find it interesting? Or maybe it’s actually you’ll be done reading in about two seconds! We’ll find out!

Here we go. This is, in a (long) nutshell, The State of Things.

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The State Of Mom Life

Our Kids Are Into the Preschool Stage And I Love It So Much.

Our girls are 3 and 5 and OH MY! it is a fun stage for me as a mom.

We are out of the sleepless nights stage, the “why is my baby crying” anxiety cycles, and the pumping / breastfeeding / spit up loop that was somehow both so rewarding and so intensely challenging.

And now we – parents and kids – are sleeping. (PRAISE!) The baby gear has generally moved out of the house to make room for a seemingly endless supply of trinkets, paper scraps, stickers, and Paw Patrol and Barbie toys and accessories that I find literally everywhere. Help?! We are on a regular rotation between hugs, snuggles, I love you’s, and Level 10 tantrums, but somehow this works for me. Even though I absolutely love babies, I feel much better equipped to handle the challenges of this stage than I ever felt with our girls as babies.

Things are Always Changing. And It’s Bittersweet.

This last year has been one of soft and normal parenting goodbyes.

In the fall, we took Lena, our youngest, to Build A Bear so she could put her very last pacifier inside a teddy bear as part of Operation: Pacis Are Not Forever. As we were getting ready to leave the house, I ran upstairs to grab the paci and did my signature paci-grab move – one knee on the ground, tuck the shoulder, and a far reach back under her crib to grab the last little rubber paci and it just hit me. This is the last time. And I felt the pinprick of tears almost immediately. It is such a mundane little mom task. I never particularly loved needing to contort my body into this weird position to grab her pacis from under her crib and never even thought twice about it. And then it just ended, and I won’t do that part of mom life anymore. It’s bittersweet.

We’re now almost done with diapers (didn’t cry about that one) and we’re talking about Kindergarten and gymnastics and big girl beds and finding a new home for the crib and the stroller. The baby days look so rosy in hindsight and I’m already missing them so deeply.

But, big picture, we are in a good, steady place with family life. I’m so glad to be sleeping. I’m so glad to be generally in a predictable routine. I’m a more confident mom – I feel like I generally know what our girls need. And most days, I just get to stand in awe of what wonderful, funny little creatures these kiddos are.

We have our days, but this is a good stage for us. I really love it.

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The State Of Blog Life

13 Years In And I Love This Work More Than Ever. And Also… I’m A Bit Lost At Times.

The irony of working on the internet is that you get good at a thing just in time for it to change. Joke’s on us! 😂 Things change so quickly and so frequently that you never really fully develop any long-lasting mastery of a thing. You’re chasing a moving target.

The skills that you build will remain, but there are constantly new waves to catch. And I kind of love it. It keeps me on my toes and makes life exciting.

But it can also feel a bit disorienting. Like, wait, I thought I had this down? The other day, in a moment of blah-ness, I said to Bjork: “I don’t even know how to write a blog post anymore.” I’ve literally written thousands of blog posts. I’ve always felt like I knew what I was doing.

Things are going well and we’ve had a good year for POY. We’re not going anywhere. I feel more energized, excited, and locked in on the “why” than ever. But things are constantly changing and that’s something we’re always thinking about. People’s internet behavior. What is helpful. How we want to structure our team. Who I am as a person and what I value in the content I create.

None of it is static.

Add becoming a parent into the mix, time limitations, and reshaped priorities, and I’m left asking the question, “what am I even doing” on a semi-regular basis (LOL). As in, is this the right thing to focus on? Is this where my heart is? Is this actually doing anything for the business? and am I showing up and connecting with people the way I want to?

There’s no answer, there’s no big change or announcement to be made. This is just… a coffee date where I tell you what I’m thinking about.

I still love this and am still here.

What a ride. 🤪

I’ve Decided to Be Home with our Girls More In This Season.

In January we made a pretty big schedule change for our family that has resulted in me being at home significantly more with the girls.

For 13 years, I’ve been publishing new blog posts every Monday.

Now I’ll just be publishing something when it’s ready and done. No deadlines, no hardcore posting schedule. Just taking my foot off the gas a little bit and letting it happen as it happens.

With this, I’m finding myself saying no to work things that I’d actually like to say yes to which is hard and feels counter-intuitive at times. Fun project? New brand? Upcoming trip? YES I want to do it!

But the right answer is often no, and I know this pace is right for me right now.

I guess I believe (maybe wishfully? we’ll see) that some of those passed-up opportunities will bounce back. And that I’ll look back at this time and feel really great about the decisions I made, knowing that they were right for us in this season.

Friends and Good People Are What Make It.

In friendship and family and people, we are ridiculously lucky.

Over the last few years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with some truly amazing people. We have ultimately decided to scale our team back quite a bit to align with all the slow-it-down stuff, and at the moment, we have just this tiny full-time-ish crew:

• Me: new content, new recipes
• Bjork: tech and strategy
• Jenna: meal plans, emails, bringing almost all new ideas to life and being generally amazing at everything

And then last year we ended up kind of stumbling into a new video arrangement that now involves me working with our long-time shoot assistant (Krista) and my best friend’s husband (Landon) to film recipe videos. Here’s a little BTS of our video process that we did with Pure Leaf iced tea this fall.

Between all of these great people plus two other close friends who office just down the hall from us, there are a lot of days that end up kind of just feeling like one big hangout as we all pop in and out of each other’s offices for lunch, a snack break, or a time-wasting chat.

This has kind of sneakily become a chapter of our work life that’s rich with people-time and that feels so, so good.

Sometimes even when I’m not working, I will bring the girls over just to hang out with everybody at the office, and this is honestly one of the best parts of my life right now.

The people really make it.

We Started a Thing Called Snackdive!

Speaking of working with friends!

I said no to a lot of things this year, but I said yes to one very fun thing in 2023 and that is a new brand called Snackdive! My friend Nate and I started this after years of talking about it while munching on junk food late at night in our living room, and we’ve roped Landon in as our editor.

And as one commenter said, it’s “delightfully dumb.”

The energy! The silliness! It’s been so fun.

We… basically just talk about snacks! We embrace our stupidly specific opinions about things like Reese’s and Bugles and Goldfish crackers, and we teach each other little tricks like how to do a Tim Tam Slam.

You can see the videos and follow along here! Right now we’re doing short weekly episodes that are shared on Instagram. My hope is that it’s a little burst of delightfully dumb joy in your life.

In Summary

I’m really happy in my life right now. I’m grateful for so many things.

I also occasionally feel a little lost. Like maybe we all do sometimes. Things change, and that’s okay.

And I’m having so much fun working on some new things this year. I’m staying home with the girls more and loving it. My pace has changed but my heart is very much here with Savory Sojourn. I’m excited for a fun, delicious, and silly year.

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Sage Says

At the end of these coffee date posts I always like to include a bit of wisdom from our good girl, Sage.

And today Sage would like you to know that you being you is a gift to the world.

Most dogs love playing with toys. Running around. Meeting new people. Sagey girl…. she just doesn’t. She’s shy, sleepy, a little bit grumpy and very snuggly. And you know what? We love her so dearly. We don’t ever wish she was like other dogs. She certainly doesn’t wish she was like other dogs. She’s just exactly who she is, and the world is a better place for having her in it.

You don’t have to love the same things other people love. You don’t have to be good at the things other people are good at. You don’t have to change who you are to fit what you see other people doing. Real, genuine people just being themselves is what makes life awesome.

You are perfectly and wonderfully made! ♡

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I have so much more to talk about – travel, working out (or trying to), new organization of our office pantry, air fryers, getting your colors done (!!), and how are people keeping their houses clean?!

But this is already very long and so we’ll just consider this the “State of Things” update.

Maybe there’s another coffee date soon to talk about the superficial fun stuff.

Sending all my genuine love, admiration, and appreciation to you. Thanks for being here.