Friday miscellany: Sassy the elf returns, a soft Vanderhacks launch, etc.

Friday mornings are a bit disjointed around here. My husband or I take the little boys to school (8:40 departure). They are often awake by 7:30 or so (which is when all the big kids are gone by) and it doesn’t take that long to get them ready. They can play/relax/have screen time so it’s possible to get some things done during that hour, but not anything focused.

So I’m sitting here at the kitchen table knocking a few things off the list. First, in an update that I’m sure everyone is incredibly excited about, Sassy the elf has returned. Sassy came into our lives on December 14, 2013 — yes, ten years ago. I suggested that perhaps that auspicious date meant that maybe Sassy could return every year on December 14th, that is, only 11 days before Christmas, but that was vetoed and so December 1st it is. The 3-year-old moved his Christmas list from the kitchen to the Christmas tree, which is where Sassy made her appearance (I think her…that seems to be the consensus). We’ll see what kind of notes get written to Sassy this year!

We will be having breakfast with Santa this weekend. I am hoping this will be fun for the whole family. At least the tickets were less expensive for this one than the Neiman Marcus one last year. I don’t think my kids will be willing to wear nice Christmas outfits. Actually, I’m not sure anyone even owns nice Christmas outfits. Maybe the food will be good?

In the meantime, I did the world’s softest launch of “Vanderhacks” over at Substack yesterday. The plan is to do short every-weekday-morning productivity tips, somewhat like Before Breakfast, but for people who prefer to read their productivity advice. I’ll likely make 1-2 posts per week free and the rest behind the paywall. I had been hemming and hawing about how to do a proper launch and then I decided to just go ahead and start publishing as a way to figure out how to use the site. Don’t worry, I’ll keep blogging here and will keep publishing a free newsletter through Mailchimp most weeks, but I also figured…why not try it?

Anyway, if that sounds interesting, feel free to go subscribe (as a free or paid member. Everything will be free for the next week or two as I build up content and then I’ll add the paywall for some of the days).

Now I need to construct the family activity schedule for next week. Most things are the same week to week but it is never entirely the same. For instance, next week the high schooler has a later start two mornings because of a standardized testing schedule. And his choir makes a brief appearance in a band/orchestra concert. And my husband is likely not here one of the messiest nights which means that either swim or fencing will get skipped. Which will it be? Such suspense…