Friday miscellany: Peak leaves

Just a hodge podge today. The news is mostly terrible, but life continues, and things have been moving in a positive direction around here. This week I have been grateful that two sources of stress last school year involving two of the kids (separate issues) have eased up considerably. I apologize for the vagueness but I write under my real name and my kids are real people too. Suffice to say, there’s a lot to the mantra that “this, too, shall pass.” Now if only the 3-year-old would get past the stage of waking up at 3 a.m. and wandering into our bedroom…

I got studio portraits of all the kids done in September, and they are really good! We’re doing a few large framed pieces and a gallery wall. I will try to get permission from the kids to post some on Instagram.

I am re-reading Hamlet. I read the play as part of my Shakespeare project last year, but figured it was worth a re-read when I finished my Jane Austen project early. I will also re-read MacBeth, and possibly As You Like It and Twelfth Night before the new year.

I am still planning a Bach project for 2024! I want to listen to all the works of Bach. I’ve been listening to some of the greatest hits in my car in preparation. This is definitely going to require a bit more planning than reading through an anthology – both finding recordings and figuring out the right pacing (I don’t think there’s a neat division of Bach’s work into 365 chunks…). If anyone else wants to play along let me know!

Speaking of big projects…I will not be participating in National Novel Writing Month. However, I will be doing “NoBoProWriMo” — National Book Proposal Writing Month, which I just made up, but is the more pressing need around here. I recently signed with a new agent and we’re going out with a new proposal around the new year to potential publishers so I need to write my sample chapter and a few other things. I’m excited. I’m pretty sure the sample chapter will focus on time tracking and how it actually makes you more satisfied with your time, so if you’d like to chat with me about your time-tracking experiences and any huge epiphanies you had as a result, you can let me know about that too!

(Btw, I always welcome emails — feedback, updates on schedule changes, sharing stories, etc. You can reach me at laura at lauravanderkam dot com. I read all of it and respond to the vast majority of things.)

I can see a lot of trees from my office window and right now they are absolutely magical. Myriad shades of red, orange, and yellow. When I drove the middle school kids down to the bus stop this AM with the sun coming up the colors were just other-worldly. I am trying to get outside as much as possible. On Tuesday I went for a run around the loop at Valley Forge, and on Thursday I went for a bike ride along the river. This, too shall pass — so good to make the most of these colorful few weeks!