Hi there,
This week I got my booster shot, and while I had some annoying side effects, I highly recommend getting yours if you haven’t already! I got mine at a free county government-run pop-up clinic, and major pharmacies and medical centers are offering them, too. We are still very much in a pandemic.
Watch
If you’re in the mood for a cleansing cry or to have your mind blown, there are a few documentaries about adoption that will crack your heart right open or make your jaw drop.
Found (Netflix) is a new release that follows the lives of three cousins who were adopted from China by American families. The movie follows them discovering each other, and then traveling to China in search of their birth parents. It also delves into China’s one child policy.
That film follows in the footsteps of 2011’s Somewhere Between (On demand, free on Tubi), which profiles four teenagers who were adopted from China and live in the U.S. Some of them also travel to their birth country and grapple with their identity, racism, and what it means to be adopted.
Three Identical Strangers (Hulu, on demand) tells the mind-blowing tale of a set of triplets who were adopted and raised by three different families and ended up finding each other as adults. But later, they eventually discovered a terrible secret involving others like them — so terrible it truly seems stranger than fiction.
Read
The Murmur of Bees tells the tale of a family in northern Mexico in the early 1900s, including a very eerie section during the 1918 flu pandemic that’s chillingly familiar, even though the book was published in 2015. And while some of the themes are based on real historical events, there’s some magical realism, too. Much of the story involves an adoptee, Simonopio, and his relationship to his two families: his adopted human family, and his bees. It’s beautifully written and moving, and the translation from Spanish is excellent.
See the full list of recommendations.
Follow
I follow Modern Farmer, which I’ve previously recommended, and I believe it was through that account that I came across Bracken Oaks Farm. Do you think tiny goats and farm dogs are adorable? Then they’re worth a follow! (Also, if you live on the West Coast, you can adopt a goat! For hundreds of dollars, that is.)
Do
I recently weaned myself off of caffeine due to a health issue, and I do not recommend it! I really love coffee. But if you eventually decide to cut caffeine, here’s what worked for me:
Mixing caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and gradually reducing the amount of caffeinated scoops I put in over the course of two or three weeks.
Drinking full decaf thereafter, and taking aspirin the first two days without caffeine.
And eventually I hope to switch over to herbal tea in the mornings, though it’s so hard to entirely kick the coffee habit. (Any tips?)
Until next time,
Rachel
Tip: Get a lot of sleep every night so you don't need coffee.