I am forever jumping the gun before spring and fall, obsessing over one warm and rainy or cool and breezy afternoon and rushing to the market for fresh flowers or pumpkin butter, depending on the coming season.

The other day the sun came out on a 65 degree afternoon and I peeled my sweater off in the driveway, rolling the windows down in my car and feeling the sun on my bare arms. I immediately started listening to music from this playlist and it brought me right back to springtime of my junior year of college, when I ran every day and had just started dating a tall boy named Rob Peterson.

But then more recently it was rainy and cold as I stepped into rain boots on my way out the door early on a Sunday morning, a hot latte in hand. Rob was in the kitchen, feeding our daughter eggs and sliced strawberries as she babbled happily to him in her almost-15-month-old way, and I couldn’t help but think that while warm-weather college nostalgia is still so special to me, there’s something truly magical about being present in a moment that you know will become a rainy-day memory, complete with songs to bring you back to it every time.

Here are some songs I’ve been listening to that I love, no matter the weather.

• Shake, The Head and the Heart: for me this was one of those songs that pop up on your Discover Weekly or Daily Playlist and make you pause to take note of it the first time you hear it. I love it.

• If You Ain’t Got Love, Mason Jennings: a song that used to remind me of the ex-boyfriend who first introduced me to it but now just makes me so incredibly thankful for the life and family I ended up getting instead.

• Step, Vampire Weekend: this one made it onto my “most played 2018” list.

• 60 & Punk, Death Cab for Cutie: one of my favorite songs on the new album, and one that I really loved hearing live in late August when my brother was visiting.

• Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: reminds me of living in Minneapolis and driving to Wisconsin for a music festival and planning our wedding and snow and spring and my friends and s’mores over campfires and basically everything good.

What are five of your favorite songs?

We’re back! It’s so nice to be home—we had the best time in London and Dublin and I have so many thoughts on taking a big trip like that with a little one, which I’ll share in a post a bit later. The time change still has us a little off and our house looks like a luggage and laundry tornado ripped through it, so we’ll be spending the weekend unpacking, folding, cooking, cleaning, catching up on work, and maybe doing a little napping too. I teach two classes on Sunday but other than that I’m really looking forward to spending some time at home after a week and a half away.

Before I sign off and get to it I thought I’d share some links with you:

• I’m really into these shoes—just wishing they came in black or nude.

• This piece on the purity movement really spoke to me, having grown up in the Catholic church.

• I’m still on the hunt for the perfect black raincoat—this one might make the list of potential candidates.

• Gordon Ramsay on Hot Ones made me laugh so much.

• I started using this “natural” deodorant a few weeks ago and I’m still not sure if I like it or not—I’ve been using Secret for such a long time but keep wanting to clean up some of the products I use daily. Does anyone have an aluminum-free deodorant they love?

• Sophie has a pair of these and now I feel like I want some to match.

• The photo above is from Brother Hubbard in Dublin—we went for breakfast one morning and it was so good! They also have the dreamiest little retail space, which is where all these plants can be found.

PS Have you signed up for my newsletter? I loved hearing from so many of you after I sent out my first one in January! I’m working on another right now and hope to get it out soon! And while we’re at it, be sure to check out my new e-book if you haven’t seen it yet!

This post contains affiliate links.

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Sophie and I are off to London to meet Rob (he’s there already for work) on Sunday, so I’ll be a little absent from the blog for the next week and a half or so. I’m hoping to still post on Instagram a bit while out of the country, so definitely follow me there if you’d like to tag along on our adventure!