Jessica's Friday Five: Stop living life on hard mode (plus a 14k celebration!)

Hi Reader,

In addition to Juneteenth, yesterday we celebrated my daughter's 11th birthday (she's thrilled to be old enough to attend Hogwarts now), and tomorrow we'll welcome a horde of rising 6th graders to our home to celebrate with her, featuring a flavored lemonade bar, chicken nuggets, and a Taylor Swift-heavy playlist. Oh, to be 11. It will be fun, 0% relaxing for us parents, and hopefully very memorable for all involved.

Oh, and another fun milestone this week - we reached 14,000 Friday Five subscribers yesterday! 🎉 As is our custom, we'll celebrate by giving away a book of your choice to 3 of you - be sure to enter the raffle below. We'll do this again when we reach 15k, so please share your personal link (scroll down to find yours) with friends and help us get there faster, earning rewards from me as a thank you for spreading the word.

Let's get to your Friday Five:

1. Stop those verification codes clogging up your text messages: Stop letting verification codes for website logins clog up your messages. There’s a setting for that. For iPhone: Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords > Delete After Use. For Android: Open the Google Messages app. Tap your profile picture (top right). Select Messages settings. Go into Message organization. Toggle on "Auto-delete OTPs after 24 hrs".
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2. Tips if you or a friend are moving: My former colleague and friend Robin recently moved and shared intense the whole process was. As someone who did a big move a few years ago, I totally related. She shared some specific ideas for supporting someone who is moving, and I thought it was a great roundup of ideas. If you have a friend in the process, help them out! Offer to bring a meal (they may have packed their kitchen), offer to take their kids to play while they pack, offer to pick up and take a Goodwill donation, offer to come over and keep them company/help while they pack, or offer to take fridge/pantry/freezer items, or finally - just text and ask what would help.
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3. Two parenting resources: Two of my very best friends, Atnre and Tatiana, are leading a workshop next weekend for parents about creating a transformative summer for your kids. These two are perhaps the most intentional and inspiring parents I've ever known, so you won't want to miss this. Second, I just finished the book How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years. If you have a kid aged 10-13, you'll want to read this. Trust me. It was SO helpful. I added it to my Favorite Parenting Books page, which is organized by children's age and stage, featuring books I've loved from the baby stage through the toddler years and beyond.
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4. Staying organized even when you're feeling stressed: This article from Apartment Therapy offers 5 practical tips for days when you're not feeling up to getting things done. I appreciated that they included one of my tips in the article (here's a related free resource on the topic), and the other 4 are helpful too. That second-to-last tip has been more complicated than usual for me lately with a bunch of travel, so I'm recommitting to it.
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5. Living life on hard mode unnecessarily: I wish I'd figured out this life hack a few decades earlier than I did. However, it is certainly helping me manage both significant professional and personal responsibilities these days with a lot less stress.

Bonus Sponsor Resource: I love these shirts from KindCotton. I have this one and wear it weekly, and this one and this one are on my wishlist. I asked for a code, and they gave us one! Use JOYFULLYMANAGEDFAMILY for 10% off. This resource is from one of our Friday Five sponsors - thank you to them for keeping this newsletter free for readers!

Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link: The free national park pass for US-based folks with disabilities like ADHD, diabetes, or other lifetime disabilities.

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