2022 Reflection

Well, 2022 is coming to a close. I'd say it was a mixed bag. There were a lot of things I didn't get to do. I would have liked to have had more adventures and outings with my family and my writing goals didn't quite pan out, especially in the past couple months but there was a lot of good that happened this year as well.

First, and most important, Peanut started preschool and a new speech therapy program and her vocabulary has just EXPLODED! She's even saying short sentences now! She repeats absolutely everything so we really have to watch what we say around her. (She recently started repeating a phrase rhyming with "cram it" and I just hope she doesn't say it at school)

She's a little social butterfly at school. When I pick her up, she says goodbye to everyone and I've only gotten 2 reports of misbehavior- usually after a night where she didn't sleep well.

She loves her therapist and I think that is a big reason why she’s progressed so much. Nothing against the therapist at the Clinic. She was very nice and did her best but every week was a battle to get Peanut to cooperate. Connected with her right away and looks forward to speech every week.

I'm published now! (Like, not just serial fiction that nobody sees because the platform is so poorly advertised) In August, I compiled the first volume of “Misadventures of a Mom Author” into a paperback and e-book. I published it on what would have been my dad’s 70th birthday. He was one of my biggest cheerleaders for my writing so that launch date was obvious. It took a little extra time to get the paperback to go through but that was a big chunk on my part. My friend Charlie helped me set up the cover in Canva and I think it came out great!

I have some big plans for that series for the coming year. I’m still going to have it on Kindle Vella until volume 2 is complete but then I’ll be pulling it from that platform and I will have it over here in a new section of the newsletter. It’ll come out 3 times a week or paid readers until volume 2 is complete and then I’ll scale it back to once a week so I can keep up with it. And, I’ll still release every 50 entries into a book.

The other story I published was the first in my “Witches of Coolersville series,” called “Welcome to Coolersville.” (Available in paperback and e-book, including Kindle Unlimited) Once again, the brilliant Charlie helped me with the cover. They created the character model of Tara and then we finished the full layout in Canva. I was so happy with it that I ordered a poster version of the cover and sent one to Charlie to show my appreciation and I hope we can continue working together on more books.

Some of my favorites from Ohio Ren Fest 2022

I crossed off an item from my bucket list this year as well. My best friend, her oldest, and I went down to Dayton for the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It was amazing and I can’t wait to go back in 2023! And, we put a little more thought into our character costumes so it was like stepping into another world. I have ideas on how to try and “level up” my costume little by little each time we go.

I started bullet journaling! In the last half of 2022, I bought a bullet journal notebook and actually kept up with it! I had been struggling with the Happy Planner and keeping up with it and decided to change it up. (I’m still using the Happy Planner stickers as much as I can because I have a LOT collected over the years) I’ve started making videos about each month on my YouTube channel. They’ve been surprisingly popular and keeps me at least somewhat consistent with content there. If I do get more stickers, I try to make a point to get them from artists off Etsy. There are a ton of writing related stickers all over Etsy and I’m following multiple shops. I’ve even done unboxings and haul videos so I can shout out those businesses.

My physical health was up and down. I went off of one of my medications because it’s ungodly expensive and pain flared up in my hands with all the writing I’ve been doing. But, I’m trying to get back to it in 2023 because it’s what helped me the most. It’s just that $5000 for 2 doses is highway robbery. And the assistance programs available cap out at a certain point.

With the roller coaster of my physical health and other stressors that popped up throughout, my mental health was also up and down. So, I’m going to be calling after the new year to see if I can make an appointment with a therapist.

So, that’s an overview of the year. I’m hoping 2023 has more ups than downs. I have big plans that I’ve talked about before and will definitely go into more detail in future. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll subscribe to this newsletter. I have a ton of stuff planned. Thanks so much!