Today is my birthday. I used to make these lists – one small goal/aim/direction for each year. And for a while I completed them. I made five new soups. I taught myself flash. I shot for a whole month with the widest lens I had. I baked each month. It was really pretty fun. I haven’t done them in a few years partly because those numbers kept getting higher and higher.

But here it is, today, and it seems like it’s been a whole decade since it was here last. It feels like it’s a completely different planet. So where do we go from here? I’m not usually prone to the doom-scroll or general dread, but as I sit down to write to you here, it’s hitting me.

But, I’ve been doing my days. I’ve been doing them, and I’d love to share a few things that have let me wrap myself up in them lately.

Anne Bogel and her What Should I Read Next? podcast. I found it by way of a recommendation from my podcast app, and dove deep on a recent 8-hour road trip. Do you love chatting about books, hearing about new titles you may not have otherwise encountered? Do you love snooping into what others love – and hate! – to read? Do you pull inspiration from the things you imagine while reading? I definitely recommend you give this one a try.

My ever-growing stack of checked-out library books. Is this a direct result of my massive increase in listening to the above podcast? Yes. Absolutely. Am I sad about it? Nope. In fact, I feel like I’m actually making more time to read than I have in a very long time and it is filling me up and pushing me to feel and think in ways I’ve felt too busy to in many recent years.

Fall is my busy season, so I’ve been scoping out a whole lot of new areas to bring clients. This brings me a lovely amount of walks in the woods with my kiddos, them obliging me in the “hey, check out that little pocket of light over there!” requests that I throw at them.

And baking. Gathering up all sorts of less-often-used ingredients, frantically getting everything into the mixer at just the right time, getting things to just the perfect temperature, and then adding that last finishing touch. And even though it doesn’t always look exactly like it does in the cookbook, it still tastes like magic.

They come and go, these paralyzed sort of moments. And for now, I’m making forward progress, generally. And today, today I’ll take my kids, masked and distanced, to the science museum, we’ll get some decadent desserts, and celebrate with people we love.

All the best,
Alison