Weekly Check-in | 10.27.26

Random tidbits about how I spend my days and where I’m finding joy in my life.

Oct 27, 2026

Happy National Black Cat Day 🐈‍⬛🐾 (10.27)

Wishing you a week filled with good books, delicious bites, and joyful moments… AND an especially spooktacular Halloween — stay safe, stay spooky, and enjoy all the treats!

xoxo, Arielle

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One of the biggest highlights of this past week was carving a pumpkin and roasting the seeds.

Other highlights this week was making time for a breakfast get together with some friends and starting to get my home office library a bit more organized.

I also started reading The Witches of Cambridge and am pleasantly surprised with how much I’m enjoying the writing style.

Mom Life

🎃 We carved a pumpkin to look like the one from The Little Kitten, then roasted the seeds.

🍪 Made a large batch of chocolate chip cookies (and a few with no chips for the kiddo) and froze a bunch to have on hand.

👩🏽‍🍳 Recipes made this week:

Fave: A large pot of beef chili
Fave: A large batch of chocolate chip cookies
1st time: A small batch of applesauce oatmeal bars - the consistency was great but they tasted a little too herby

What we’re reading this week

📚 Favorites this week: this set of 4 short PAW Patrol stories that came in a cute carrying case (mom savings tip: Target has a 25% off one item this week). Our kiddo is quickly memorizing stories and delights in reading them to us. Witnessing the level of excitement and pure joy that lights up her face when she reads to us is by far one of the best things about being a parent.

Last week by the numbers:

🥘 Recipes made: 2 made, 1 new
📖 Finished: 1 novel + 1 short story
📦 Book mail received: tons!
🚛 Bags of donations to the VAA: 11
😴 Middle of the night kiddo snuggles: 1

In case you missed it:

Fall Reading Guide on Instagram
Book giveaways on Goodreads
Halloween is almost here! The October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁

Joyful Finds

📲 What to Cook by Caroline Chambers; discovered her Instagram then her Substack. Now following her page for the delicious recipes like this shredded beef.

👩🏽‍🍳 Sur La Table has a new location in the Portland area and my Instagram feed is now filled with foodie bloggers. And hey, I’m not mad about it. I’m excited to discover more recipes and cookbooks to try, and I’m excited about their cooking classes.

Gifts & Finds

Favorite Purchase of the Week

My kiddo had fun helping me put my storage cart together and it looks great in my office! It’s mostly filled with bookish candles on the left and the right has bookmarks, bookish décor, and miscellaneous bookish things.