Create a Restorative Recipe Notebook, Advent Calendars & Lessons From a Broken Stove

Weekly Literate Love: November 21, 2025

Happy Friday!

I have a funny story with a big lesson because life always seems to be sending me signs and maybe you need them too.

The fan that sits above my stove to ventilate the air when we’re cooking has been broken for a while. Like awhile awhile. I’m taking a couple of years. It’s been a bone of contention between my husband and I as one of us thinks the fan is important (me) and one of us does not (guess who).

We FINALLY ordered a new one and had someone come to install it. After a few minutes, the electrician found me to ask me a question: Did I know it was unplugged?

Um, what?!

It turns out that when the fan stopped working, my husband unplugged it until we could get someone to fix it so it was not draining electricity or sparking a problem. The second the electrician plugged it in, it started working. And it hasn’t stopped working ever since.

The electrician’s theory is that the system reset itself while it was unplugged and the problems we previously had were just magically fixed in the reset.

Let me say that again:

The system reset itself while it was unplugged and the problems we previously had were just magically fixed in the reset.

Seems like a pretty good metaphor for our lives as we gear up for a busy holiday season, rushing, cleaning, tending, buying, wrapping, baking, cooking, entertaining and all the other things that get added to our plates at this time of the year.

Let the story of my stove fan be a reminder for us all. Sometimes, we just need to unplug and the problems we think we have can reset themselves with a bit of rest and perspective.

Keep reading for your weekly dose of literate love and click the button below to share with a bookish friend!

Happy reading & writing!

Stephanie

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What I'm Reading:

The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman (Amazon / Bookshop)

Here’s my four word review: I hugged this book. =)

As always, Viola Shipman delivers a story that threads together family, friendship, love, loss and legacy and in this case, recipes, too.

When Sam leaves her NYC job at a bakery and returns home to her family’s orchard in Michigan, she’s not sure what she’ll find or what she’ll do next. But being around family, exploring her roots and seeing the legacy her family has created slowly starts to shift things for her. Told in alternating perspectives, then and now, this book will immerse you in the Mullin’s family history and invite you to explore your own, one recipe at a time.

I recently released a podcast episode inviting listeners (and myself!) to create a restorative recipe notebook and was all set to create my own. But this book changed that. I’m going all in on the recipe box and asking those I love to handwrite recipes that I can keep in it…hopefully with a little lock and key, just like in the book.

This book warmed by heart and I’m sure it will warm yours.

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What I'm Writing: 

The newest season of Beth Kempton’s Calm Christmas podcast released this past week and I’ve been in Christmas heaven. =) In her journaling corner, she recommended that we all create a list of things we can do now that will make life for our December selves a bit easier. So, I pulled out my holiday notebook and did just that. Here are some of the things on my list:

• Purchase all of the baking supplies I’ll need for my December cookies and cakes.

• Start the snowblower to make sure it works. Get extra gas and shear pins. Oh, and the salt/sand to sprinkle on the icy sidewalk too.

• Inventory the wrapping paper and tape situation. Buy accordingly.

• Clean, clean, clean, clean, clean. There’s nothing worse than getting the Christmas decorations out and then realizing I need to dust.

What items are on your list? Let’s crowdsource ideas so we can be the best version of our December selves possible.

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What I'm Learning:

The Calm Christmas podcast inspired my writing and it also inspired my learning, too. My favorite holiday tradition is the handmade advent calendar I create for my children. I’ll never let this one go. =)

Each year, I get out the shoe organizer and hang it on the kitchen door, the kids create 24 labels to clip onto each plastic section and then I fill the calendar with small treats, coupons and trinkets to brighten each morning. It fills my cup.

I knew how important this tradition was to me, but I did not realize the long history behind the advent calendar. It dates back to the early 1900’s in Germany with the first printed Advent calendar credited to German publisher Gerhard Lang. From there, it evolved from religious to secular, with early versions hiding devotional pictures and later versions featuring small chocolates behind the doors. This was the advent calendar of my own childhood.

Here’s what the calendar looked like last year, although I admit, the quality is not wonderful. It looks better on my phone, I promise. =)

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What I'm Loving:

Notebook Therapy’s December calendar is here. Download and add it to your holiday notebook!

I just learned that Buffalo, NY is home to a combination yoga studio / bookstore. I know I’m stopping for a visit the next time I visit my daughter at college! Come see!

I wholeheartedly believe this statement. Describe your coffee mug below!

I adore this utility tote. It’s perfect for a portable reading and writing nook!

Keep scrolling for my latest podcast posts and updates!

Podcast Highlights:

E204: Create a Restorative Recipe Notebook

On this episode of Restorative Reading & Writing for Wellness, I’m exploring my newest notebook obsession: creating a restorative recipe notebook. It’s a notebook full of my own personal recipes and the recipes that have been handed down to me. I recently shared my new project with my Get Lit(erate). community in hopes they’d offer suggestions and they did not disappoint.

Come listen as I open the episode with this new idea and talk about why I’ve chosen a new format to do so. We’ll explore the power of recipes as restorative writing, the varied ways you might create your own recipe notebook and hopefully, you’ll share your ideas with me as I piece together my own.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

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From My Private Substack Community…

Every Sunday, I post additional content for my private Substack community to bring even more literate love to our lives. Here’s what I shared this week:

November Book Club Meets on Thursday!

Be sure to subscribe and add them to your TBR stack. Click the button below to subscribe. It’s just $5 per month!

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Let’s Work Together!

I love to connect with others around our shared love of reading and writing.

Here are some ways we can work together to create a life you love where restorative reading and writing is at the center of it all:

🩷 Join my private Substack community for themed book calendars, bonus posts, book clubs and events each month!

📚 Connect 1:1 for personalized coaching to unlock the transformative power of your reading and writing life.

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