I spent a lot of time this week editing my next book manuscript. This was a bit of a challenge because when I am deep into editing, I like to have big, open chunks of time. For various reasons that was hard to come by this week. I did manage to clear Tues/Wed/Thurs of a lot of work stuff by cramming everything into Monday and Friday, and then ignoring a lot of stuff until late in the day. But multiple kids are around. I had driving duties in the middle of the afternoon. I am very efficient but occasionally I daydream about not needing to be efficient! I spent an hour on Wednesday editing with the sound of a music lesson in the background and sitting near the 5-year-old playing something on Roblox loudly because he insisted I had to be in the same room. It’s a far cry from being up in a tower…
I still haven’t figured out where we’re going for Christmas (the other big topic I’m hashing out) but I have some leads.
In the meantime, I’ve been taking the younger kids in our backyard pool basically every night. Between this and day camp this limits some of the amount of time spent on screens. For the little guy at least he’s on for like 30 minutes after dinner, then we go in the pool and get out shortly before bedtime. Usually by mid-September it starts to get too cool to go in during the evenings so I’m trying to enjoy this! I am currently in the market for a better pool vacuum. It’s always something.
In the meantime, lots of content this week…
Best of Both Worlds was talking all things extended family management.
At Before Breakfast, I interviewed Erik Fisher, host of the long-running podcast Beyond the To-Do List. I also talked about a very simple way to get a healthier diet — “Add an apple” — and why and how one might “Take a working vacation.” If you have the sort of job where it’s possible to work remotely and work flexibly, doing a little work while you’re traveling can make a lot more travel possible.
At Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote that we should “Beware of round numbers.” A lot of times, people are just guessing. I talked about how to “Make good habits effortless.” Behind the paywall, I wrote about “9 lists you might not be making (but could).”
Thanks for supporting me and my work. Tonight I have the fun to-do of helping a kid pack and label everything for summer camp!
We’re just about to head out the door to collect our two from sleepaway camp and I know there will be something missing, despite lots of labelling on my part.
Last year it was my best beach towel (which my daughter swindled me into letting her take and she promptly lost) and my son lost ONE Blundstone. Not two. Just one. One shoe is absolutely useless and it pained me, but I finally threw it out a few months ago. I left no stone unturned trying to track it down, but someone out there inherited an extra Blundstone at camp last year. And yes, they WERE labelled.
@Elisabeth – I know – I figure things will get lost no matter how much labeling I do. Fortunately he isn’t taking anything too valuable with him. My daughter is only going for a week so she won’t have the camp laundry black hole to contend with….
I feel this so much. I am getting line edits on my book as soon as we get home from vacation. My kids will be ther at loose ends. August is going to be a month.
@Gillian – yep. I can do a lot of things in bits and pieces but some things no. It is rough.