Big Announcement (GIF of Ron Burgundy doing a cannonball)

Cannonball! And also, I’ve decided to hang up my freelance hat (picture a newsies hat, but more professional) temporarily and spend the summer doing some other stuff, including:

• Playing with my kids: you know, doing cannonballs in Grammy’s pool, playing silent Marco Polo at Oma & Opa’s pool, working on our tennis, building up our LEGO neighborhood, competing in Who Can Balance On Their Tube The Longest (we’re working on a catchier name) and playing Butts in Space (which is an actual game, not some kind of creepy role play). But since my kids will be at camp for several weeks this summer (shout out to Tenacity, Ultimate Day Camp, and Bridgerton Bridgton, which sadly, has nothing to do with the Duke of Hastings), I will not be switching over to One Summer at Home except maybe for an occasional post.

• Teaching Rocky not to become Cujo at the first sight of another dog on a leash, while I yell, “He’s really very friendly!” over the sound of my shame, his barking.

• Chilling in Maine – This is our third time spending an extended period of time in Maine. I can’t quite explain why I love it, but I feel like I’m a better person here. More outdoorsy, more adventurous, more of a farm stand supporter. And while some very bad things happened last summer in Maine, it’s still “the way life should be,” just like the license plates say.

• Running a half marathon (special shout out to my training team, Team TéMaSaNaLy, a subset of Team Power Within)
• Figuring out how to actually keep our house clean, even though it’s been a lifelong struggle
• Learning not to click on those “articles” that are like, “22 Things You Need on Amazon,” although I still maintain that my mini strawberry-shaped desktop trash can was a great purchase.
• Writing a book. I’ve already written a bunch of stories for it and I’ve had the title since 2017. It’s one of these.
• Figuring out how to actually write a book. I mean, I know how to write, obviously. I just wrote this sentence. And this participle. But I need to figure out how to take my collection of mortifying and shameful stories of mom fails and turn them into a funny book. Needless to say, I will be sharing inspirational stories like this one:

• Getting my book published
• Building up a “platform” so I can get said book published. This is the platform, by the way, so if you don’t “follow” this blog, please do. I currently have 68 followers and would like to have about 3,000. Totally doable, right?

Did you like how I said “getting my book published” like it was one of the bogus things I put on my to-do list like, “return library books”? If you’ve written a book and gotten one published, I’d definitely love your advice. Special thanks to my friend Alison Hammer, who just published her second book (!) and published author and glorious broad, Maryjane Fahey, creator of Glorious Broads, who were both incredibly generous with their time.

Thank you to everyone who follows me (I mean, online, not in person like a creep, cough cough, Rocky and Rosie), comments on my posts, and encourages me to write. I cherish each and every one of you.