I’m on the porch and it’s 6:40am. This month Greg and I hit ten years married, in Steamboat Springs, with zero gifts (unless you count a vacuum and a house renovation, which we absolutely do). I slept in two beds and a couch, did not open my laptop for ten days, and I would like credit for that. Oh, and it’s my 37th birthday tomorrow.

I’m also up to ten pills a day, and my #1 goal this month is to sweat more.

Ten pills. We’ll get to it.

Here’s the deal with this thing: once a month I write down what I did, made, paid for, and broke. What I’m into, what I’m not. No affiliate links, nothing in here pays me. If you love it, tell me. If you never open it, tell me that too. And if it’s not your thing, there’s a button at the bottom to update what you get from me, where you can uncheck “Play by Play,” and I’ll be fine. (I’ll be a little sad. But fine.)

Committing to it through December, then I’ll look at what you tell me.

Here’s July.

1. I fell off my e-bike. Like, bad. Rory (my 5-year-old) was on the back. He came out without a scratch, not a bruise, nothing. Thank gawd for the cage on the back, this one specifically. I busted my knee open, bruised both palms, got some road rash. Damn lucky. We were both back on the bike a few days later, because I still cannot get enough of that thing, it makes me feel like… well Superman. Now I just watch for gravel on the turns like a hawk, and we’re adding this cage to our home bikes.

2. We’re $35,000 over budget on the renovation, so the furniture and finishing touches are getting thrifted, sewn, and scraped together. We’re behind on the timeline too, and that’s on me, I switched designers the week of demo and I’ve been sloooow on every call. But I feel weirdly good about it, because I padded my own head with a $50k buffer and two extra months from the start. So we’re actually under my number and right on time for the deadline I actually believed.

3. The one I actually regret from the reno isn’t a purchase. It’s that I didn’t sit with my design style longer. Normally I would have. The baby years did something to me, my style is moving, I stopped pinning to Pinterest, and I’ve second-guessed basically every choice in this house. In short, I don’t fully trust my own taste right now, which is a strange thing to admit out loud at (almost) 37 when I’ve always thought of myself as someone with good taste. Cheers to the Pinterest revival. Mine’s here. And thank god for my designer, Maddie Collmus at Well Made Interior, I couldn’t have done this without her.

4. $20 for two frilly teal striped twin comforters with that perfect worn-in softness from a neighbor, my only thrifted find this month (after basically buying a quarter of someone’s moving sale last month). The plan is to sew them into one big quilt for Dottie’s big girl bed. I’ve watched four YouTube videos, and I am no closer to starting. Every comforter in this house is thrifted except one, the Schoolhouse quilt I splurged on for our bed last year. That one I’d buy again and again as it also has the worn-in softness feel.

5. We did my son’s 5th birthday at the Trillith movie theater (Minions and Monsters), thanks to July in Georgia and a poorly timed sickness. I texted his friends 24 hours out, snuck goodie bags in inside a birthday gift bag like a criminal, and over-ordered popcorn. Turns out nobody cares if your 2-year-old wanders the aisles for half the movie. $12 a kid, $15 an adult, plus $7 a bag of popcorn. Then we hit Barley Garden, sat out back while the kids soaked themselves head to toe in the super cool stream, and by some miracle we all packed changes of clothes.

6. My bloodwork came back, and I’m not crazy. Whew. I went to STAT Wellness after six months of feeling just dang off, mostly the week of and before my period, plus acne in the weirdest places (under my ears, my forehead, my back). Turns out my testosterone is double a normal woman’s, and my progesterone, magnesium, and vitamin D are all low. Orders: sweat, drink an electrolyte daily, eat cruciferous greens, take some supplements. I saw Nurse Practitioner Elise Hettenbach out of Peachtree City, and she was a gem. All virtual except the blood draw. $742 all in so far: $389 for the first appointment (a full hour on my history and lifestyle), $199 for the second (30 minutes reviewing results and the plan), and $155.82 on supplements from Fullscript I’ll refill monthly till I-don’t-know-when. But dang, it worked, and fast. I forgot I could feel this good.

7. The pool between 5 and 7. Everyone’s gone home to make dinner, so we eat ours there, usually out of one Tupperware with a dish towel and a few shared forks. Best hour of the day.

8. I’ve made art a weekly thing now, for no reason except I love it. It’s where I drop into flow, and I’ve learned to treat that as a sign to do more of it. Still on a watercolor kick with these Emily Lex Studio books I found at Typo Market (five deep), and this month I turned an old canvas, a watered-down paint sample, and some oil sticks into a bouquet. I found the kids’ washable paint sticks first, fell for how smooth they glide, and promoted myself to the grown-up oil version. Love love love.

9. $26 on Thrive tubing mascara my sister loves. Regret. Great concept, doesn’t run down your face in the pool, but eight hours in my eyes itched so badly I was washing my face by 4 pm. The hunt for the perfect mascara for invisible blonde lashes continues. Their auburn brow gel ran too dark too, so I’m back to my Anastasia and Glossier brows. Although I just had them freshly dyed at my last haircut and you can’t beat that. I just can’t make myself go get them dyed every month. Someone said try mustache dye. As a redhead I’m both horrified and considering it. Tell me if you know something I don’t.

10. More fairy smut books. Finished three of Raven Kennedy’s Plated Prisoner books this month, on audio, free from the library on Libby. Good, not Fourth Wing good, not ACOTAR good, and I stayed irked the whole time that the heroine keeps doing the opposite of what any reasonable person would do. Wouldn’t quite recommend it, clearly couldn’t stop. On the kids’ side: five years old is not too early for Harry Potter. My son loves it and I love it more. The giant illustrated version is 100% worth it, and The BFG is going down well too (both a little scary, my kid apparently has the tolerance for it).

11. Trying to watch less TV, going about as well as you’d expect in July. The kids are feral for Grizzy and the Lemmings. I’m genuinely all over the place, House of the Dragon to Little House on the Prairie to Pulp Fiction, in a single month. The one I bailed on: The Curse. It made me squirm and I tapped out.

12. Reading/listening on substack lately. Mostly supporting my friends and neighbors creating on here: , , , , , . + Substacks that inspire and push me as a writer: and and

13. First time in maybe ten years, since my honeymoon, that I didn’t open my laptop for over a week. Ten days. Proud of that. And also quietly sure I should be further along with this business I chose on purpose. I’m working on that one. It usually finds me at 4pm before I shut my computer.

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Coming up: a free live webinar next week, The Career Gut Check, with . If you’ve been asking “is this the right path,” come. The next free Playdate (my walking club) in Serenbe is the first Friday of September, sign up here. And I have two 1:1 spots opening in August, which always start with a free 30-minute consult to see if we’re a fit.

My August goal: break a real, dripping sweat three times a week. Sauna, hot yoga, or a hot walk. I’ll report the count next month.

Two things before I go. Tell me the worst thing you bought this month, hit reply, I read every one, and the best goes in the next issue with your first name (with your okay). And if you want the full first-timer home reno breakdown once we wrap, real numbers, over-budget and all, reply and let me know so I know to write it.

Next month: the renovation wraps (god I hope), and the rootball I’ve been drying in my basement for four years finally goes on the wall. I know. I can’t explain it either.

See you on the trails,

xx Gina

I’m back and feeling fresh (other than 2 sick kids) from a 10 day vacation in Steamboat Springs CO, where Greg and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. whew! Hard to believe how fast that went. And in my time away from the computer, I had some time to think about where I want to focus my energy the 2nd half of the year (highly recommend carving out some time to do that if you haven’t). Which leads me to this:

I'm running something new for six months. Six issues, then a verdict. In January I'll tell you whether it worked, and if it's dying, I'll kill it in front of you rather than let it get quietly worse in your inbox. And I want to tell you exactly what it is before I do it, so you can leave now if it’s not for you. No hard feelings. There’s a button at the bottom of every letter where you can click “unsubscribe” to update what you subscribe to of mine, today there are 3 sections:

• The heart of Life at Play: essays/interviews etc

• Around Here: a round-up for locals, visitors and the Serenbe/Chatt Hills curious

• and now this…

Once a month, on the last Sunday, I’m going to sit down and write what actually happened.

Not just the good parts. The whole account, in order, including the fumbles.

What I bought and what it cost, thrifted or new, with the number attached. What I consumed (read/watched) and whether it was worth the time. The new thing I’m poking at (currently: waking up at 5:30am, and a lettuce grow garden I almost killed while out of town). The thing I screwed up. The lesson, if there was one, usually delivered as a note to whichever younger version of me needed it. And what I’m working on next, offers and waitlists and all, so you are never guessing what I’m up to.

It’s called Play by Play.

A play by play is not a highlight reel. That’s the whole reason I picked it. A highlight reel is what I would write if I were trying to look good, and I have already spent fifteen years doing that professionally.

Here’s what it is not

There are no affiliate links in it. No ads. No sponsorships.

Nothing in Play by Play pays me, and nothing gets into it by paying to be there. If I tell you that $20 of thrifted bedspreads or an $800 lamp was the best thing I bought this month, I’m not making a nickel on it, and neither is anyone else. That is the entire reason to trust it, and the moment I break it, you should stop reading.

I could make some money doing it the other way. I’ve run the numbers. It’s not very much money, and it costs the only thing that makes this worth reading.

One exception, and I’d rather tell you than let you find it: Around Here, my local Serenbe and Chatt Hills letter, runs small ads for local businesses. They’re always labeled. That’s a different letter with a different job, and I’ll never quietly slide one into this one.

Here’s what I promise you

Every issue has at least one thing I got wrong and paid for. If a month goes by and I can’t find one, it means I didn’t look, and I’ll say that instead of faking it.

Every object comes with a price. A recommendation with the price hidden is usually an ad in disguise.

I stop before the bow. I’m not going to drop you into something hard and then rescue us both with “but then I realized.” Some months I won’t have realized anything. That’s the month.

It ships on the last Sunday of every month.

The money, out loud

Everything I write is free. All of it. Essays, Around Here, Play by Play, the guides. Paid subscribers do not get more. They never have, and I have no plans to change that.

Today, Life at Play makes $5,278 a year from paid subscribers.

Paying doesn’t buy you anything except this continuing to exist + deep, deep gratitude from me. That’s the deal, and I know it’s a strange one.

And the real answer to “how does she make money,” since we’re here: it isn’t this. It’s people who hire me for one-on-one support, or who join a cohort, or come to a day, or a workshop. That’s the business. It lives on this page on my site (which needs to be updated and given some love… another day)

This letter is not a funnel. It’s the front porch. Some people sit on it and never come inside, and that’s completely fine by me.

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Two more things

I’m hosting 2 free things in the next few weeks: 1 virtual and 1 in person in Serenbe.

Jul 30 | The Career Gut Check. Are you where you want to be? | A free live webinar session with one of my greatest teachers over the past two years, Christina Trifero. Think learning how to hear and trust your Intuition and your career path. It’s going to be fun. Save Your Seat

Aug 7 | Playdates (for grown ass women) | First Friday of the month we meet up IRL for a walk in the woods of Serenbe (and sometimes other fun gatherings. Join the club

And if you are looking for deeper support in pausing and planning out the next chapter of your life I have two 1:1 support slots opening in August. These always start with a free 30 minute consult to see if we are a good fit.

First Play by Play lands Sunday, July 26.

See you on the trails or in your inbox,

xx, Gina

P.S. If you know someone who’d like this, pass it along. That’s how the best things get found.