Category: monthly updates

Life is interesting in these parts. Means I don’t always have time to get to things I would like to, but at least I’m never bored. The kids were on break last week, and we took a couple of days in New York to see friends and get a break from routine. We visited the aquarium and Central Park, and did a little shopping. The botanical garden is amazing! The photos are in no particular order.

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Writing – Got a half-hearted start on Camp NaNo and immediately stalled out again. I think I have figured out why this plot isn’t working, so now I get to start over again. Writing is like that.

Knitting – I am close to done with the current project (which is going to be a gift, so no pictures yet). Not quite sure what will be next in the queue, but there will definitely be something.

Reading – I basically abandoned my goals for the month in favor of continuing to read about Welsh monks. I am up through #7 in the Cadfael series. On one of our spring break outings we went to a lovely bookstore in Newburyport, so now my TBR pile has new additions.

My creative project for the month was photography. While I would love to learn more about it and should continue doing so, I confirmed that I default to using my phone even when I have my other camera with me, so it would be silly to buy anything better at this point.

The garden is prepped, but it’s raining today, so plant shopping will have to wait another week. In the driveway the peas and Swiss chard are popping up.

We’re going to be moving this summer, so things might get even more sporadic for a little while as we figure out a plan for that. At least the weather should be nice. Onward into May!

An improvement over February–not a high bar, but one I’m happy to have cleared after all the stress of last month.

Writing – Nothing. April is Camp NaNo, so I’ll try to get back on the horse. Book sales: zero.

Knitting – I finished the socks! They are comfortable, although a bit big. I learned a lot from making them, and look forward to more in the future.

Reading – This went well, although a few were not toward my supposed reading goals.

• Book club – The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. Hated it.
• Graphic novels – Deadendia: The Broken Halo and The Watcher’s Test.  I liked the graphic novels better than the TV show. Also read Awkward, which was cute.
• Books about food – The Sweet Life in Paris. This was just okay (although the recipes sound good!)
• Classics – The Picture of Dorian Gray. Amazing, glad I revisited it.
• Bonus reads – The Dawnhounds (a lot of neat ideas poorly executed), Monk’s Hood (Cadfael #3, pure comfort in book form as usual), and I got a jump on April’s book club and classics list with The Woman in White (really enjoyed it).

I’m at 22 for the year so far! Other pursuits have fallen by the wayside for the moment, but I hope to get back to them in April. The weather will be better, and with luck the chaos will continue to settle at the office. Garden time is just around the corner as well.

After an upbeat start to the year, this month was a hot mess. My job did a substantial layoff with no warning on Feb. 1, and the stress and higher workload that resulted from losing one third of my team dragged everything else down. We had to get the car’s exhaust system fixed, not cheap. I ordered a monitor for my home office, which the delivery company immediately lost track of. And somebody stole my bike out of the driveway.

Continue reading “February Wrap-Up” →

So much for the idea of posting more often! Perhaps I will give it a go in February. January went by with startling speed, but I feel pretty good about the month; I’ve done some physical and mental decluttering, and I think that’s helped a lot. The weather has not been conducive to getting out much, but, well, it is January.

Writing – 17k words into the new novel. At 500 words/day, I am taking my time with this one and not stressing myself out. Sales of existing books have been nonexistent this month.

Continue reading “January Wrap-Up” →

It’s a couple weeks early, but I don’t have anything else to talk about right now. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this year. We did a lot, tried some new things, made some cool memories, but I seem to have run out of oomph at some point. On to the wrap-up.

Continue reading “2022 Wrap-Up” →