Around Here

What I’m reading this week:

Coaxing out the Magical Cookies (Susan Dennard): I’m (slowly) making my way through CK2 and keep feeling stuck. I’m refreshing myself with Susan’s tips on making sure every chapter — every scene — has magical cookies that keep readers coming back.

Goal Setting & Creating Archieve (Elise Joy Blaha Cripe): Elise isn’t blogging regularly any more (sob), however, I still find myself visiting her blog at least once a month and just doing a deep dive into all her old posts. Yes, I’ve already read them, but still. They are golden. My favorites: Inside my Behance Action book, The 3 Things Concept, and Tips for Productivity.

Human Library (Upworthy, Instagram): I love the concept of a human library! Now. Would I be brave enough to sit and talk to someone for half an hour? (Also, the story ideas are flowing!)

What Writers can Learn from Runners (Jane Friedman): Loved this article on what writers can learn from runners. My favorite quote I’ve been mulling on (especially this week), “I need to go places, as a writer, that I’ve never been before, places that have always been just out of reach, and I have to stretch my intellect and my imagination and my emotions in order to get to those places, and, yes, one of the results is that I’m likely to feel drained or exhausted.”

I’m also about half way through Morgan Matson (queen) The Unexpected Everything — when I really get into a writing rut, I like to binge Morgan’s books. I love the way she writes and the fact that she’s writing every day stories (sometimes the books just cover a weekend) in books that end up being 400+ pages just blows my mind. She is a queen. I’m also planning on diving into Atomic Habits. It’s a book that has been on my wish list for a while and I literally did a happy dance in the middle of the GoodWill when I found a used copy.

What we’re eating this week:

Monday: BBQ Chicken, Ruffles, and pickles — This is an easy crockpot meal. I let the chicken cook (putting it in around lunchtime) and then about half an hour before we’re ready to eat, I shred the chicken and dump in a bottle of bbq sauce. The kids eat it on hard rolls, while Andy and I eat it on a baked sweet potato. I always have to eat bbq with a tart dill pickle.

Tuesday: Tacos. Yep. Taco Tuesday. I was a little uninspired this week, but tacos are always a win in this house.

Wednesday: Spaghetti. Another easy meal that everyone devours. Pairing with green beans and garlic bread.

Thursday: Meatloaf. I spiced up the family meatloaf recipe my brother-in-law passed to me as a wedding gift. My kids can’t get enough of it. My oldest even requested we forego a cake for her birthday and just have a giant meatloaf. Who knew?

Friday: Eggroll Bowls. I might be the only one in my family that totally crushes over my eggroll bowls. This week I’m just doing straight eggroll bowls with ground turkey. Sometimes I get fancy and add in shrimp as well.

Summer activities this week:

Lots of swimming (in between downpours) this week. The apartment pool was finally able to open and my kids are so here for it.

Moving to a new city this year means we were introduced to a new library and summer reading program. My kids are super excited about reading the needed books to get a medal and a cool coupon book that include stuff like a water park day pass and tickets to a baseball game. They even have an adult summer reading program and you know I’m joining in as well.

Living in an apartment (and therefore not being able to send my kids outside when they need to get energy out) means lots of park days.

Projects this week:

Last week I shared about a fun and scary thing I did — still waiting to hear the results of that. I promise to share when I can!

The latest episode of the podcast is up! You can listen to it here.

Working on getting shots of the latest build for a construction company I run social media for. This proves to be a challenge when it’s been raining almost every day for two weeks. Yes, it was muddy. Yes, I was still wearing my birks.

Still making headway with CK2. The first draft should be finished by the end of the month and then it’s revision time — it’s such a mess. I’m a little nervous about the upcoming edits!

What about you? What are you up to this week?