The world is feeling very green right now. My husband and the 6-year-old planted a garden inside a deer fence this year with various things like sunflowers, blueberries, and corn. It is amazing the volume of plant matter that has been generated by sun, water, and soil! And all from little seeds. I know this happens all the time, everywhere, and is the reason we can exist on this planet but…it’s still something of a miracle.
I am not getting much done on this summer Friday…I did cross some things off the personal list though. I went to the library this morning and got my card renewed for three years. And I checked out 8 books, including several ridiculously-sized coffee table ones (like we’re talking The Gardens of Bunny Mellon…). I went for a bike ride along the river, which was lovely. It’s too hot and muggy to run outside mid-day, but biking generates its own breeze. I have also been crossing things off my annoying task to-do list. I have my Global Entry interview next week. I am eagerly awaiting my PA background check certifications to submit those so I can volunteer at the schools (I filled everything out, and one certificate came back instantly, but the other can take up to 2 weeks. I have done this twice before, but the clearances only last 5 years.).
My daughter finished up a babysitter certification program this week. I was impressed. They taught her child and infant CPR and first aid, but also stuff like dealing with common disciplinary issues, setting wages and working conditions, advertising safely, etc. I was talking with her and a friend about the challenges of charging dollar amounts that aren’t easily divisible by units of currency, and the friend said her mom told her everyone would pay by Venmo. Which is probably true — so you could charge like $17.37/hour if you wanted. I felt kind of old and out of it!
(What do teenage babysitters charge around you? We will probably focus only on families in our neighborhood where she can walk to/from the job, or families of her little siblings’ friends.)
This week’s content…Over at Before Breakfast I interviewed Nick Epley about how to be a little more social. We had a snafu with the sound – if you automatically download Before Breakfast the day it comes out, you might want to refresh and re-download as the tracks are now fixed, but it was bad at first!
In the short episodes I talk about why you might “Drink your coffee outside” and how to “Make holidays work for you.” In that particular episode I talk about a Mother’s Day chat thread for people with pet-babies, and a “Jesus is Risen Hot Dog Roast” for clergy people too tired after multiple services to do a full-on Easter dinner.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I note that “All tasks take time.” The time needs to be accounted for somewhere. This is one of the upsides of time tracking — I see what fits in a day and what doesn’t. Speaking of which…behind the paywall I’m talking about “9 lessons learned from tracking time” and why I am still at it 11 years later.
The Best of Both Worlds Patreon community has had several great threads this week (in addition to our super secret special episode — released this week and available only for members). We’re talking about singers/performers we’ve seen live or want to (48 comments on that!) and sleep patterns + disturbances. Please come check it out. Membership is $9/month and it’s pretty easy to cancel if you decide it’s not for you.
Thanks for supporting me and my work!
(Also…the scams keep going. If you get an email purporting to be from me, from something like “Laura Vanderkam blogger” or “168 hours blogger” — and they seem suspicious…please report it. I tend to write short emails, and these AI-generated ones are long. And I never ask for money to be on a show or a newsletter. It’s so frustrating but it keeps happening.)
