It’s been a minute! And heck, I might just delete everything I’ve written here so far and start fresh. Hi! The Orthodox New Year starts on Tuesday, September 1, so I’m sitting down and officially officially planning out what I want this coming year to look like. With, of course, the aid of Best Laid Plans here next to me.
Initial Thought-Vomity Stuff About the Year
Here’s everything I’d like to see happen:
- Get a job (wooooo unemployment)
- Organize the basement
- Do a trip on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad
- Visit the Christmas Story house
- Do all the fall stuff at a farm
- Ditch my smartphone
- Start using our DSLR as my day-to-day camera & sort through/upload photos on a regular basis
- Start a garden
- Write in here on a daily basis
- Write an actual full novel and start querying
- Create a freezer system that works for me
- Create a lunch system that serves our family well
- Listen to 100 new/not-new albums!
SHU Writing Prompts: 5-10 Year Zoom
What do I look and feel like? I’m in the best shape of my life, obviously. Down to 135 and stronger than I’ve ever been. Rocking perimenopause, so sometimes I don’t feel great but I feel way better than I otherwise would.
Who do I spend the most time with? What are my relationships like? I spend the most time with the family, of course, and we are as close as ever. We love playing games, watching movies, being active outdoor, and just having fun. I also have a group of mom friends I’ve become close with from the kids’ school. We go out for coffee dates and lunch dates, and often meet together to do work. (???) No wait! We have fun rotating evenings where we play games and host dinners. Yeah!
What do I do for work? For fun? I bounced back and got back onto the software engineering train. I’m a senior engineer now and have been through a few rounds of layoffs, but I know this is standard. (Or: I am still at the same company that hired me a month after AS canned me, and loving it.) For fun I still love baking, gardening, singing in the local community choir, games, outdoor stuff, lifting weights. Life is full!
Where am I living? Still in our Maple Heights house, but there’s a lush garden out back, the hazelnut bushes and raspberry bushes and grape vines are growing well, and the beds in the front of the house are full of beautiful, thriving peony bushes.
What am I most proud of? I’m the most proud of the kids. Ambrose is rocking high school at some incredibly exclusive, bougie place and is about to learn to drive. Theda is just starting her final year at HMS, and Liesl is the oldest of the Upper El classroom. I’m proud of Jarrod for shepherding the church into a new, thriving era. (Though that was all God!) I’m proud of myself for how far I’ve come, personally. I’m proud that I’ve also managed to get a few books published!
What am I most excited about? I’m most excited about Ambrose learning to drive!!! And terrified. I’m excited that my third book is out on submission.
What does a typical day look like? On a typical day I wake up early and do my morning stuff, then get the kids out the door. When I come home I do a quick workout in the gym and then log on to work. Work is full of meetings, but I love what I do anyway, and love the flexibility it affords. Toward the end of the day I pull dinner together. Jarrod gets the kids from school. We all sit down to eat together and have a blast sharing about our days. After dinner the kids do a bit of homework and practice their instruments while I sit down to do some writing. The evening is relaxed and chill. We all pray and get ready for bed, I tuck my phone in downstairs, and read a bit before bed. It’s been a lovely, full day.
SHU Writing Prompts: One-Year Zoom
What do I look and feel like? I’m in the best shape of my life, obviously…hah. Down to 135 and continuing to work on my strength. I feel great — and feel great about my body, completely having moved past obsessively weighing myself and thinking about food.
Who do I spend the most time with? What are my relationships like? I spend the most time with the family, of course. Our daily rhythms and routines keep life running smoothly. I have joined the community chorus, which is a blast, and am starting to make some friends at the kids’ school.
What do I do for work? For fun? For work, I’ve found another position as a software engineer, thank God! We have health insurance! For fun: lifting weights, cooking, singing, gardening. Everything I imagine doing in 5 years is the same as now, and the same as one year from now.
Where am I living? Still living in this ol’ house. But this year, we’ve planted our garden and it gave us a great yield for the summer! We put in hazelnut trees, grapevines, and raspberries. I am looking forward to watching how they grow.
What am I most proud of? I’m most proud of bouncing back and jump-starting my career after a bit of time off. I’m also incredibly proud of the fact that I wrote a whole book and got an agent in the span of a year. Wowza! And all while managing to write one blog post each day!
What am I most excited about? I’m excited for my book to go out on submission. And excited for our family trip to Iceland! (Or…is it the trip we just took this summer? Hmm…)
What does a typical day look like? Wake up. Do stuff. Get kids to school. Exercise. Work work work. Do some household stuff as needed. Make din-din. Homework and maybe music practice. Prayers. Bed. Reading. Lights out.
Which routines served me the most? Definitely getting my workouts done in the mornings. Getting the kids’ lunches packed immediately after school. Coming up with lunch plans for them. Fixing our freezer situation. Before-bedtime screen-free routines.
Which events felt most memorable and worthwhile? Getting to know everyone at church through pierogi pinching and fish fries…it was a lot of work, but worth it for the relationships I built! Attending all the kids’ school stuff. “Take your parent to work day”!
What was my greatest challenge, and how did I face it? My greatest challenge was, of course, finding employment after the Great Layoff of August ’26. I faced it head on, with confidence and optimism. And what happened? I conquered it!
What did I let go of? NOTHING, I LET GO OF NOTHING. JUST GOT MORE BOSS BABE-Y AND GRITTY AND LEANED IN HARDER.
Reflecting on the Past Year
What went well this past year? Well, I mean. Jarrod was ordained, and we moved to Ohio! It was a little wild n crazy there for a minute…or…60 days’ worth of minutes. But we settled in and have started making our lives here. Oh, and we found an incredible school for the kids, that’s definitely something that went well!
What were my favorite experiences of this past year? Pascha is obviously a good one. Going to Cedar Point with Jarrod and nearly killing ourselves on exactly 6 rides! Flu Month…haha, or not. Oh! All the blizzards we had! Super fun. The dance recitals and art shows the girls put on. Amazing. Chili and ice cream and everything else out on the deck. Riding bikes & rollerblading with the kids.
Who did I spend the most time with? How did those relationships feel? The kids and Jarrod, of course. All other friend relationships feel strained and unnatural. Something I need to figure out how to change. Bleh. The kids are growing up and it’s been a blast hanging out with them — doing puzzles, playing games, going on bikes and hikes. Instead of just yelling at them to shower and cutting up their food 🙂 Everything with Jarrod has been fine. I think our marriage has grown a lot this past year.
How would I sum up this past year in once sentence? One word? A joyous and jammed final year at seminary, culminating in a move to Ohio and the loss of a job. “Endings”, I guess, would be the one word.
What do I most regret doing or not doing? I regret not visiting the Untermeyer Gardens! I regret not writing more, I guess. I regret slacking off in my job. Bleh.
Which habits and routines worked for me? Which did not, and why? Definitely the evening close-down routine of cleaning up the kitchen, making lunches for the next day, sweeping, getting coffee set up was a great way to set things up well for the next day. And I always love my morning routine, but now that I’m being held hostage by Jarrod each morning (don’t worry about it) it’s a bit different. Hopefully I can get back to the early wakes. Schwalks were great, but a thing of the past, of course.
Which goals did not serve me? Is there anything I’m ready to let go of? No! I am holding on to this dream of being a writer while also being a software engineer!!!
Domain-storming
Work:
- Get a job!
- Do a personal project that involves React and actual deployment
House Projects:
- Create compost
- Plant hazelnuts/raspberries/grapes
- Set up container garden in spring
- Get some indoor citrus trees
- Peonies!
- TACKLE THE BASEMENT
Family:
- Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad trip
- Farmer’s Market Saturdays
- Friday night game nights/Sunday night movies?
- Cedar Point trip (maybe overnight at resort, water park one day, park second day)
- Fall farm visit
- Get the kids in swimming
- Get the kids in piano
- Get the kids in strings
Health/Fitness:
- Keep going with CGX
- Get down to 135 lbs one way or another
Creativity:
- Start using DSLR exclusively for photos, get into rhythm of uploading
- Listen to 100 albums (50 new/50 re-listens)
- Write a full novel
- Get an agent
- Blog every day
Adventures:
- 6 mini-adventures
Habits/Rhythms/Routines:
- 4 habits per year (1/quarter)
- Freezer rhythm
- Seasonal meal plan rhythm
- Lunchbox rhythm
- Weekly system planning
Next step…refine these goals, stick ’em in my 2026-2027 page, and plan the Fall Quarter ahead!