February – wow. First, I was leveled by grief over the deaths of my uncle and grandma. Then, supply chain issues made Girl Scout cookie season extra special (and I was the cookie chair!) And then, I ran the book fair – which was AWESOME, but needless to say, February was a blur of chaos and feelings.

March was better on the grief front, but still busy. So here I am, mid-April, checking in on my Twenty-two in ’22 Projects.

1. Knit Christmas Stockings: Still haven’t started or thought about picking a pattern – but, I have started sewing more and strongly suspect I’ll whip up stockings on my sewing machine instead.

2. Catch Up On Family Photo Albums: Still yet to finish one.

3. Set the Kids Up With Their Own Bedrooms: This mission was accomplished in January. I could never have tackled it in February.

4. Paint the Kitchen Cupboards: Excuse me while I laugh hysterically. Though seriously, I think this will eventually happen – but first, I want to paint our living room.

5. “Finish” Decluttering: I RECLAIMED THE GARAGE. This. is. huge. The garage looked like it had been ravaged by a tornado. Just this morning, I hauled a trunk load of office and craft supplies to Remainders, Pasadena’s arts and crafts thrift store.

6. Deep Clean the House: I want to finish decluttering first.

7. Publish My First Novel: My editor finished her review of my draft and sent me a note with suggestions at the end of February and my novel is in excellent shape. Revisions are well under way. After I finish revisions on my end, I’ll hire a cover designer. Not sure how long that process will take but my first novel should be published by Labor Day.

8. Write the Rough Draft of My Second Room Mom Novel: I am not going to do this until the first is fully revised, but the way revisions are going, I expect I’ll get this done over the summer.

9. Go Boogie Boarding Five Times: This one’s for summer.

10. Get a Ping-pong Table: Now that the garage is decluttered, I can actually do this!

11. Read 100 Books for Myself: According to Goodreads, I’m two books behind schedule. I’m flying to Michigan on Thursday for my uncle’s belated funeral, and suspect I’ll be on track by the time I get home.

12. Cook with Mushrooms – try twelve new recipes: I don’t know why I have a mental block against cooking with mushrooms, but I do. In March, I got through the block and sautéed mushrooms for dinner using a Mark Bittman recipe in How To Cook Everything. It was simple and delicious. Then I tried a recipe for a sausage and mushroom pasta dish from Milk Street’s Tuesday Nights (my favorite cookbook) so I’m on track.

13. Use My Button Maker: This happened! It was so fun! I have lots of schemes and dreams for my buttons.

14. Get A New Enamel Pin Every Month: I have being doing and loving this. So far, I have collected Golden Girls (January,), Forget-Me-Nots (February), a sloth (March) and sewing machine (April).

15. Learn How To Play The Super Mario Bros. Theme On The Piano: I got the sheet music and played it once. Not going to beat myself up.

16. Create Another Graphics Heavy Book: Maybe during the summer? I hate to force a project, so I’ll see what my muse wants me to do.

17. Learn A Tap Dance Routine To Footloose: I actually tapped a bit in March but instead of Footloose, I was learning a fun routine to a Bruno Mars song. (Damned if I can remember which…)

18. Decorate With Pompoms: First, I want to finish decluttering.

19. Go To Hogwarts At Universal With Pippa: Not yet, but my sister and I keep talking about it. I think May is our month.

20. Study Carl Jung: Ooh, forgot about this one completely, but I should bring the book with me to Michigan.

21. Put Family Photos in Seasonal Frames: Yeah, I need to finish decluttering before I can tackle this.

22. Get A Posh Trash Can For Our Kitchen: Still haven’t done this because I’m cheap about these things and inflation is so bonkers and seriously, how can I think about an expensive trash can when the plastic one works and gas prices are insane??

I probably won’t finish all these projects, but my momentum is going strong and that’s the whole point. Onward!

p.s. Way too lazy to proofread this so apologize for spelling and grammatical errors.

I have not posted since mid-February, and since I always feel self-conscious after a long blog absence, I thought I’d dive in with an omnibus update about all the happenings, musings and shenanigans that have happened since my last post.

On The Novel Front:

I hired an editor in early January, sent her my manuscript and received her very helpful comments at the end of February. Long story short: my novel is in awesome shape! I spent March working on her substantive suggestions, which mainly involved some character development and fixing a minor plot issue.

Now I am working on a “language pass” to clean up my writing. I have often heard about ProWritingAid on the Creative Penn podcast and decided to give it a whirl. IT IS FREAKING AMAZING. At the end of my one week trial, I happily signed up for a year subscription and now I’m about 30% through my language pass.

When I’m done with this revising pass, I’m going to take a break from my novel for at least two weeks, maybe more. My editor suggested I get out of my writing brain, so I’ll probably use that time to paint something (definitely the living room, possibly the kitchen cupboards, and there’s a wall in the garden screaming for a mural).

Then, I’ll read my manuscript again for proofreading.

Hire a cover designer.

And publish my first novel!

WHICH IS SO EXCITING I COULD DANCE BUT I’M WRITING THIS AT AN INDOOR PLAYGROUND SO I’LL CONTROL MYSELF AND JUST USE ALL CAPS EXCESSIVELY!!!

Sports Mom Life:

My life as a sports mom began last fall with AYSO Soccer. I was a referee for Pippa’s team. (Julian insisted he didn’t want to play until two weeks into the season.) I thought soccer was intense. Rookie mistake.

In early January, both kids started YMCA basketball and had a lot of fun. They both wanted to play baseball in the spring, so I signed Julian up for tee-ball and Pippa for softball. I assumed these sports would start in March after basketball.

Nope.

Pippa had softball try-outs in mid-January and had her first practice at the end of January. Julian’s tee-ball coach started practices in early February. So for the month of February, we were a two-sport family with practices for basketball, softball, and tee-ball, and Saturday basketball games. Pippa’s softball team usually practiced twice. It was intense, I was already worn out with grief after my Uncle Pete’s and Grandma Shirley’s deaths, and I resented tee-ball/softball for intruding on basketball season.

But we made it. Basketball season ended, and now the kids are “just” playing softball and tee-ball. Pippa’s regular season actually ends this Sunday!

I could write a lot more about sports mom life. I’ll probably eventually write a sports mom spinoff from my room mom series. Just one school year has given me SO MUCH MATERIAL.

Book Fair:

Last summer, before I knew I’d have kids playing basketball and softball/tee-ball in February, I volunteered to be our elementary school’s book fair chair. I ran many book fairs at the kids’ preschool and felt called to this work.

This book fair was extra special because it was the first time I got to volunteer on campus in nearly two years. It was over a month ago, and I still get chills remembering how good it felt to be on campus and see children running around.

Oh, the kids. The kids LOVED book fair.

I’ve already agreed to run next year’s book fair. Who cares if it coincides with double sport season?? So what if between set-up, previews, closing and the actual fair, it takes two weeks of my life? IT WAS EXHILARATING. I am a writer and a bookworm, and my two weeks running book fair were utterly intoxicating.

Other PTA Stuff:

I’ve been the Room Mom Chair at our school this year which has been a lot of fun. I volunteered to be on the Nominating Committee to fill the slate for next year’s PTA. The work for this committee happened in February – and I am starting to see why I stopped blogging in February. Basketball and baseball, book fair, PTA… But I had fun with the other two moms on the committee, exchanging memes as we begged, cajoled, and harassed parents to join the PTA.

I also volunteered to be the VP of Volunteering. I guess I should admit to myself that I love volunteering at school.

Hot Yoga:

I only made it to three hot yoga classes in January and then did not make it to a single hot yoga class in February. BUT I AM BACK. January and February were intense and I was almost always congested. I missed hot yoga, and I am so glad to be attending classes again.

In fact, that reminds me to sign up for class next Monday…

Climb Out of the Darkness:

The Climb Out of the Darkness is an international event that raises awareness about maternal mood disorders. I led Team L.A. several years ago but then backed away from the commitment because #MomLife. Then I realized that with my kids getting older, I actually have the brain space and energy to lead another Climb Out of the Darkness team. So this year, I’m spearheading Team Pasadena.

Operation: Reclaim The House:

I made a lot of progress decluttering. There is still plenty of work to do, but I’m enjoying the journey.

Girl Scouts:

I was the cookie chair for the 2022 season, which ran from late January through mid-March in Los Angeles County. It was an epic season, thanks to supply chain drama. I enjoyed the work, but I’m not going to do it again next year.

Because I’m going to be a troop leader.

Yep, that’s right: I am going to be one of the leaders for Pippa’s troop. Officially, each troop has two leaders. The leaders who have been running the troop are burnt out (hello, pandemic!) so I’m jumping in as the main leader. One will retire (she deserves a break), and the other will be there to back me up and support me.

I am so excited.

I loved being a Girl Scout, Pippa loves being a Girl Scout, and this just seems like the natural next thing for me to do. As I mentioned above, the kids are getting easier and I have more brain space for these sorts of activities.

Also, my momentum just gets more and more powerful the more I do, and I’m finally accepting the fact that I thrive when I have lots of different projects and activities.

Okay, I do believe that’s enough updating for one post!

Next, I need to record a podcast episode and get back into that routine as well.