Midwestern Nice: The Interim
Life that happens in between life
If there’s one thing I’ve been terrible at almost my whole life, it’s being realistic. I am not a patient person. I’m a bulldozer — and I get away with pushing my way through the muck and obstacles with ease, until I don’t, and then I crash and burn disastrously.
I was thinking about that this week as I got the stomach flu that my kids had had just days before. In trying to continue on with my regular life and the plans I had already made in my head, I tried to convince myself I wasn’t sick, even though I definitely was, and it resulted in me driving 80 mph home with an emesis bag held to my face.
You might think, ‘Wow, I bet that’s the last time you’ll push yourself when you’re feeling sick,’ but you’d be very, very wrong. Because I can think of multiple occasions before this happened — when I did something while I was sick that I had no business doing, Like not rescheduling a family session I was photographing that resulted in me puking in front of a 6-year-old and his parents. Woof.
But there are also ways in which I’m doing a lot better being patient and realistic about life — where I’m not just pushing through an idea that popped into my head that will result in chaos in my personal life.
Having three kids now means that not much happens outside of just existing every day. Between the cooking and laundry and cleaning and making sure the kids’ needs are met, plus trying to make sure mine and my husband’s needs are somewhat met (gym and a social life and work deadlines and house chores and and and! we get like 60% of that done), there’s not always time for the stories I want to pitch or the house projects I’ve dreamed up. But the benefit of also having three kids is that I know from experience that this isn’t forever. Sure, we have more kids than we’ve ever had, but also, I know this time is so short and goes so fast and we’ll squeeze in what we can and the things we don’t? We’ll get to them or we won’t. And that’s fine (I keep telling myself).
I feel more at peace than I ever have about the things that aren’t getting done — and man, there’s so much that isn’t getting done. But that’s because so much is getting done, and some days that’s just that dinner was made and we sat on the porch with a spritz and watched the kids play in the yard. And that’s not checklist worthy, or resolution material, but isn’t it the whole point?
Recent Work
It’s been a very slow summer for work, which is kind of okay, because if there’s any time of year you don’t want to work, it’s summer. One of my favorite calls for photos recently was a request for Kansas City taco photos, which was funny, because I weirdly had a lot of taco photos in my archives. The story was for an opinion piece that was actually a response to a food story about tortillas made near Kansas City, and they ran a photo I had taken in my personal time of the infamous In-A-Tub taco, a deep-fried taco topped with orange powdered cheese. Love it when a photo I just take in my spare time earns some cash on the side!
Baking Nation: Loved working with the incredibly sweet Erin McDowell for a new publication about baking. The best part, aside from working with Erin, was taking home lots of treats at the end of the day.
Washington Post: My first byline in The Post was for this opinion piece about the Kansas City taco, a response to a New Yorker article about tortillas made both in Kansas City and nearby Lawrence (some locals took offense to the insinuation that it was surprising that some of the country’s best tortillas were made in the Midwest)
Wall Street Journal: A story about tariffs and the U.S. economy
Northland Lifestyle: A fun profile about a local trim shop and the vintage cars restored there
What I’m Cooking
If there’s one thing I love, it’s an impressive and incredibly easy appetizer. Recently, I threw together this current TikTok obsession for a party, a plate of Boursin topped with hot honey and crushed pistachios, and my friends and I just sat around and gobbled it down while raving about how good it was. Highly recommend.
A quick, yummy, semi-healthy dinner that 2/3 of our family will eat is the holy grail here. Lately, that’s been these barbecue salmon bowls from Pinch of Yum. You bake the salmon on a sheet pan with a barbecue rub and then serve it over a mango salsa and rice. It’s so good and so easy — I’ve been making it weekly.
My baby sister recently started a newsletter, too! In her most recent one, she wrote about a banana bread latte and a banana bread old fashioned, which sounds….so good? I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet (mostly because our baby eats bananas like they’re going out of style), but it’s on my list!
What I’m Listening To
Speaking of bananas, that reminds me of this episode of one of my favorite podcast shows, Mobituaries, about bananas and how they literally don’t taste like they used to. Some people have their Roman Empire — for some reason, I have this episode about the Gros Michel banana.
Some of my favorite podcasts that haven’t been out for a minute are coming back, and I couldn’t be more excited (because I’m an uber nerd). Heaveyweight, the podcast that takes personal stories that have weighed on people, is coming back and I cannot wait for Jonathan Goldstein’s wry sense of humor through my car speakers again. And also, Articles of Interest, the podcast that takes a real deep dive into different aspects of fashion, started season 6 this week. Dig through their archives if you haven’t listened before. I love this Heavyweight episode about a Vietnam war vet and an interview tape of him wounded in combat that was lost when his kid recorded a Billy Ray Cyrus concert over it. And this Articles of Interest episode about wedding dresses will challenge everything you thought you knew about the white dress.
Until next time,
Katie Currid