How are we halfway through this year already?
I mean, sure, we’ve had a lot going on this year for the last ten months but still, July?!?
I’ve actually been quite happy to flip the calendar, this year, as each month has gotten a little bit easier after managing the death of two mother’s, a surgery here or there, dropping our youngest off to college, playing along as our eldest dropped us out of her life, a job change, and a few partridges in a variety of rotten pear trees.
I know there’s more, but I’ve reached my “Block It Out” era. It’s not my best coping mechanism, but sometimes, it’s my favorite.
June is when I like to do my mid-year check-in with my employees and, geez, I almost missed it. Fortunately, I am my only employee so HR is pretty in-the-loop on why the typical cadence of the work year has been a bit off in 2025. As I was doing that mid-year check-in, I realized we are also at the halfway mark of our son’s summer break, so I thought I might include a few of his goals. His goals? Do they count as “his” if he didn’t know about them?
If I’m being honest, I was prepared to open my “2025 Things That Would Be Cool” list, relabel it to “2026” and move on. With all the shite thrown at us this year, this list hasn’t taken up a single parking spot in my brain because sometimes, less really is more. Turns out, I was plugging along without even trying. I’ve also checked off a few other things that weren’t even on my radar six months ago.
- ✅, Learn to Sew: I added this to my list as a replacement for “learn to embroider” which sat unaccomplished for several years. Have I learned to sew? I mean, I’m not making wedding dresses or anything but I did make a friend a cute little bag. I used a pattern and everything. So, I think we’re good.
- ✅,-ish, Book Two, Print and Audio: My second book, Sparent, published on February 15th so yay! I’m currently recording the audio book so am fairly confident that it will be published sometime this year. I say that knowing that I have no idea what the rest of 2025 will throw our way. Sparent did not get the push it deserved as my mother passed just a week after it was published but…we’re getting there! I just confirmed my much-overdue book-signing with Hanover Mercantile for August 12th! Come on out!
- ✅,-ish, WTEWYWE, Switch Publishers: This may be total jargon but when I self-published Sparent, it made my life a lot easier. What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting currently sits under a publishing house’s umbrella and I decided a few months ago that I want to bring it under MY umbrella. It’s a bit of work but it is in-progress and I feel confident that it’ll happen in the coming months. The hardest part has been not recreating the wheel. I’ve been tempted to re-write and revise but am doing my best to just let it be.
- ✅,-ish, Love Those Who Love You!: Absolutely, yes. I have reduced the amount of free rent in my brain that I was offering so many that didn’t deserve it.
- ✅,-ish, Places to Pitch: Every year I come up with a list of places I’d like to see my writing. I’ve been really lucky the past few years to land some articles in Today Parenting, Grown & Flown, Funny Pearls and others. This year? Striking out at every turn. I’m not that surprised as I went a bit bigger this year (for example, Huffington Post, Free Press, Reader’s Digest) but there is still time, right? In the meantime, I’ve got space on my wall for those articles whenever someone does pick them up.
- Places to Pitch II: On the flip side, I also thought I’d get started on travel-specific submissions. I do have plans, down the road, to publish a book with some of my travel stories so it would make sense that I start with some magazines. I have not actually pitched anything yet. Work in progress, just like my travel schedule.
The Bonuses?
- ✅, That Dang Knee: I did not start the year thinking I’d have the second half of a cartilage replacement in my knee but, today, I’m twelve weeks out from this bonkers procedure. The first six weeks were not my favorite and I’ve still got a ways to go, but I’m getting there.
- ✅, Travel Sales Galore: Booming. I exceeded my 2025 sales goal by March and am now approaching the stretchiest of stretch goals. Will you be the one that pushes me over the top? Are you still not using a travel planner? Either way, we must talk.
- ✅, The Big Goodbye: I suspected that I would lose my mother in 2025, but I also suspected that in 2024 and 2023. It was 2025. There is a lot of gre-lief in finally knowing how that end will play out and how I will move forward. In some ways, I’m doing much better than I thought I would. In others, that grief-shit sneaks up on you!
- Ukulele: Ever since we returned from our Hawaiian cruise last September, I’ve been kicking myself for not taking the shipboard Uke lessons. A few weeks ago, my son dug far under the depths of his bed and pulled out his long-forgotten Uke, handing it over to me. Let the music begin! “Music” may be a stretch for a while.
This week marks the halfway point of the year and the halfway point of our youngest’s summer break. This child is truly a delight to have home–which is why I was so surprised to find myself shifting a bit in the joy of having him here as we reached that halfway marker. He really has done nothing bothersome at all. Whenever he arrives home, the transition is incredibly smooth as we shift from an empty-nester village to one with roommates. He is helpful around the house. He is happy to join us at the dinner table. He works hard as a lifeguard. And, this summer, he’s got an amazing sidekick in a girlfriend that we adore.
So why am I starting to feel ready for his return to college? I don’t want to feel this way. Is this just a coping mechanism to make the sadness of the end of summer a little less gloomy? Would it help if I took a peek at his summer goals to remind myself that this man-child really does still need me? I mean, sure, since you asked.
- Laundry: I’m not sure if laundry was even a goal for our college kid this summer, but I’d like to announce that he has explored the laundry room once and only once since arriving home six weeks ago. I suspect the next load will be loaded in the days just prior to his return to school six weeks from now. Remember above when I said this child is a lifeguard? It’s been 147 degrees here, for the last three weeks. His lifeguard apparel smells a bit like…it should be buried six feet under.
- ✅, Car Inspection: Shortly after he arrived home for the summer, we realized his car’s inspection sticker had expired in September of 2024. Whoops. I suppose it was an easy miss as said car did not make the trip to college. Still, it was well-used on each of the four breaks throughout the academic year. No shocker that our push to “Get that taken care of ASAP” was brushed off. Parental advice, after all, is not nearly as welcome as that from a ticket-producing sheriff. Lesson learned? Doubtful but, as of a few days ago (and five more weeks later), the car is legal again.
- New Glasses: Upon trying to order a new pair of sunglasses for the summer, our giant lifeguard discovered that he hadn’t been to the eye doctor in enough years that he was unable to order anything without an exam. Whoops. No problem, he said, I’ll just go to one of those walk-in places when I get home. We assumed he meant this year but, as it is July, perhaps we misunderstood. Ironically, while at the shooting range last week my husband noticed the kid could not see a target to save his life. Was that enough to push this 19 year old to schedule that illusive eye exam? Of course not. Because, at 19, he knows more than any of us about how eyeballs work and a three-year-old prescription is definitely not the problem.
- Sour Milk: We’ve had a 973-ounce jug sitting on the workbench in our garage since May 13th. It landed there directly from the pile of items brought home from the dorm and was the only item that did not make it inside. Why? Because it has sour milk in it that needed to be washed out sometime in the spring semester but was forgotten and it has now become a science experiment that nobody signed up for but, hey, I’m sure he’ll get to it someday.
There is much to look forward to in the second half of 2025, including a bucket-list trip to Alaska’s Inner Passage, Denali, and the Arctic Circle. And while I stand by my “No Resolutions” rule, I’m happy to continue adding to those “Things That Would be Cool” lists as they do give me some focus on days when I retreat to age six and simply cannot find anything fun to do.