Circle Time // 8.28.25
Recent joy igniters, info to stay in the loop, things to try, and stuff for your brain to sip on.
Circle Time is our weekly huddle on Thursdays (and the next-gen iteration of The Weekly Report, formerly in every weekly paid issue of Sitting in a Tree). A digest of *all the things,* if you will.
Every week I’ll be sharing what has been hanging out in my mind– things bringing me joy, current events to stay informed, recommendations, and thought starters.
And I’d love nothing more than for y’all to share what you’ve been consuming, too!
Also, hello everyone! I’m making this first edition of Circle Time available to all subscribers, both paid and free– giving you a little taste of what’s to come.
My office makeover! Since moving into our house (see our bedroom and kitchen glow-ups), I’ve wanted to set up my office properly, but kept pushing it off. Then one of my long-time brand partners helped nudge this office makeover along (see the video)!, and it got my butt into gear. I’m soooo happy with how it turned out, and can’t tell you how good it feels to have a space to myself that truly feels like ME. Should I do a full post on all the updates and behind the design process here??
These ranunculus that were as big as my hand, that were a part of the flowers J got me for our 2-year wedding anniversary. I’ve always loved and appreciated flowers, but I’ve gained a new level of awe at the magic of nature and flowers after my first year of gardening. So much goes into these beauties!
J sent me this video. He said that this is me when I am hungry, and have a specific food craving. I’m just going to leave this right here, and now you all know me a little bit better.
How ICE became Trump’s secret army.
We are all aware of the ongoing inhumane ICE raids, even racially profiling and illegally detaining U.S. citizens. If you’re wondering how they are funding all this muscle, the Republicans passing their Big Beautiful Budget Bill back in July– this includes $75 BILLION for the ICE budget over the next 4 years (for scale, it was previously $8-10 million annually). $45 billion is specifically going toward building more detention centers (like Alligator Alcatraz), and $30 billion is budgeted for hiring more officers (who are offered up to a $50k signing bonus and student loan forgiveness…but yeah we can’t afford healthcare).
The CDC scaled back it’s program to monitor foodborne illnesses, as of July. Their partnered program is now only screening for salmonella and E.Coli, instead of the usual 8 total (including listeria…kinda important, it killed 10 people during the Boar’s Head outbreak [that resulted out of the Trump administrations deregulation of pork processing facility inspections]) pathogens. Make sure you’re washing, handling, and storing your food well, y’all (to be clear, this won’t stop processing center contaminations, but can help reduce the amount of bacteria that ends up on your plate if so).
A bit of good news / a barometer check! In Iowa’s special election, a Democrat won a state Senate seat in a district that has been held by Republicans and heavily voted for Trump in 2024. This is why this administration is throwing a hissy fit and trying to gerrymander (redistrict, mid-decade) in as many red states as possible now, because they know bending over for facism isn’t winning them any favors, headed into the 2026 midterms. I’ll cover this a bit more as things progress over the coming months, but here’s a quick TLDR video I posted a couple weeks ago to catch-up a bit.
I lived in NYC and was on the wellness influencer scene during the peak Outdoor Voices obsession, where every woman exiting a Pressed Juicery after their Y7 class was clad in neopolitan ice cream-style leggings while reapplying their Glossier Balm dot com. My red flag radar tingled after experiencing the mean girl retail associates behaviors in all of their stores I ever stopped by, their very apparent lack of inclusivity in their advertisements, and then an acquaintance of mine who moved to Texas to work at OV headquarters (then promptly resigned not too long afterwards) confirmed the toxic girlboss work environment that stemmed from the top. So color me shocked, upon learning that the founder (who was ousted as CEO for a bit after stumbling investments, and has recently been reinstated) is not only an tryhard Elon Musk fangirl, but MAGA trad-family advocate. Highly recommend this read that is filled to the brim with receipts, and consider me DOING THINGS by never touching that brand again.
Focus Friend: An app developed by the internet’s favorite biologist, Hank Green, it’s an ADHD’s cutest productivity timer that J and I immediately took to last week. It's like a Tamagochi meets executive dysfunction manager, in the form of a cute customizable bean (the default is a pinto bean, with discernible buttcheeks) who loves to knit, but is easily distracted, just like you. It knits socks for as long as you set the timer, but if you pick up your phone and go on other apps, it gets distracted and messes up its socks. As your bean knits more socks, you can trade them for decor for its little room! People pleasers🤝 people who struggle executive dysfunction = this app was made for you, and oh, it doesn’t steal your data and it’s free!
Bud vases > big vases for flowers: Get a bunch of flowers that make you happy (TJ’s truly the GOAT for these), and instead of having them in one vase in only one spot in your home, split the stems up into several bud vases and scatter them around! This method sparks a little delight, by brightening my mood seeing them everywhere throughout the day, instead of in just 1 corner.
Written by a CFP, I found these 6 recommendations on what to do with our money during this
potentialactual fall of democracy helpful.Gen-Z is worse than you think (this is not a post purely dunking on Gen-Z, rather an astute observation from a Gen-Z’r).
Men who genuinely like women vs. men who really don’t like women.
How “just asking questions,” got us here (here = platforming extremists and normalizing dangerous, harmful ideologies, like “sH0uLd w0mEn be aLLowEd to v0tE?” Side note, platforms like Jubilee need to wither away, stop giving them oxygen.
As someone who has been fascinated by health and food for the majority of her adult life and a person who has worked in the wellness industry since its modern inception, I have *a lot* to say on MAHA and the very real health crises in this country. Dr. Jessica Knurick is one of the most sound, science-based, thoughtful voices we currently have in this fight against pseudoscience and fear-mongering (low-key often eugenicist rhetoric-laced) campaigning of this administration. We all know know America is lacking when it comes to health, but not for the reasons that MAHA is pointing towards– I highly recommend this read by
, to better understand what is driving our issues.All of us in this country know that our healthcare costs are bonkers– but as a result of (the oft rightfully warranted) anger towards healthcare corporations, insurance, and big pharma, there’s a lot of hate unpaired with an understanding of the greater infrastructure of the different components of the healthcare system and how they work, and in turn, how they affect us. I personally find it really important to better understand HOW flawed systems work, so we know what to actually target when asking for better (instead of just being another complainer with no solutions to offer). One of my favorite internet brains
, is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, and she shared this eye-opener of a piece I highly recommend reading– on how life-saving drugs are developed, what is behind the expenses, and of course, how funding from federal agencies like the NIH are crucial in medical advancement.
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Thank you for including my drug costs deep dive in this very smart, thoughtful roundup!