Back when I started this tradition of listing my discoveries throughout the year (one for each year of the birthday I was celebrating), I was twenty-six. Compiling this year’s post left me thinking, “I’m at the age where I probably need to split this into two parts.”
With that said, in no particular order, here are 18 of 38 things I learned or discovered in the last year:
1. My Hydroflask Mug
This mug was a Christmas gift and I use it nearly everyday. It’s my go-to cup for iced coffee because of how long it keeps the drink at the exact temperature that I want. On the flip side, it also keeps hot drinks super hot, which isn’t ideal if you want to be drinking your coffee NOW but you don’t want to burn yourself.
2. Joy is challenging
My word for 2021 was “joy.” I wanted to experience more joy, look for joy, and basically do all the joy. While I’m not bad at joy, exactly, we had a very challenging year as a family, and I struggled a lot to keep my joy-soaked perspective. I guess that’s why we have that phrase to choose joy, which implies it ain’t the easiest.
3. I heart Thai food
One thing that brings me joy? THAI FOOD. (Especially “extra mild” Thai food.) We have a Thai place close to us that I really love, and I’ve tried to make some Thai food at home. Which led me to:
4. InquiringChef.com
When I was looking for Panang curry recipes for my Instant Pot, I ended up at InquiringChef.com. I also really enjoy her Easy Pad Thai recipe. The pictures are beautiful, and her food is tasty! If you’re into food, she’s also a great Instagram follow, and I was surprised to find she’s a fellow Kansas Citian.
5. How to make coffee in a percolator
Because we’ve been camping a lot more this year, I looked for a way to make coffee on a stovetop and landed on using a percolator. It took me a little practice to get the ratios right, but I love it!
6. Sleep masks and fans help me sleep
Why did I spend so much of my adult life not using sleep masks when I travel and not sleeping with a fan on? My resistance to sleeping with a fan on (like one of those floor fans that provides white noise) had previously been that I wanted to be sure I heard the kids if they woke up in the middle of the night. But at ages 13, 11, and 6, they’ll come to my room if they need me.
But seriously, a sleep mask and the low white noise hum of a portable fan has earned me some extra hours of sleep in the last year, and that’s a win for everyone who interacts with me.
7. The organization power of an old school clipboard
As much as I love Google Keep and digital systems, I still frequently jot notes on post-its or do my brainstorming on loose leaf paper. This year, I’ve started keeping a clipboard at my desk, and I’ve loved having it. I can stick important post-its to the back, and then my various papers get clipped to the front. Currently clipped there are notes for our kitchen remodel, a list of my long term goals (which has helped me to frequently review those and stay on track) and story notes for my work in progress.
8. The Lazy Genius podcast and book
This is one of my favorite finds of the year. Kendra’s philosophy is to be lazy about things that don’t matter so you can be a genius about the things that do. I love this concept because it’s a quippy way to sum up how I’ve built a career as a writer alongside raising my kids. I prioritized what mattered and stopped doing what didn’t.
If you find the podcast helpful and relevant to you, be sure to check out the book The Lazy Genius Way because it’s great too.
9. Opening and closing ceremonies
This is a Lazy Genius concept that I really like and am working to apply it to more areas of my life. The idea of having opening and closing ceremonies comes from, as you might guess, the Olympics. Having the Olympics without those two ceremonies would feel incomplete, and Kendra makes a good argument for building rhythms into seasons, days, etc. to help us transition. She has a two podcast episodes on this relating to the holidays. Here are the links:
The Magic of Closing Ceremonies
10. Bath Towels vs. Bath Sheets
The last time we rented a house in Lake Tahoe, the bathrooms had these enormous bath towels. I loved using them and discovered they were actually called bath sheets. Basically, they’re the size of beach towels but with the thickness of a bath towel. They’re very cozy, and I was really excited to receive two as a present this year!
11. How to make apple fritters
Ben and I both love apple fritters, and our favorite donut spot for buying those closed down a couple years ago. I had never made donuts before but tried my hand at apple fritters, and they turned out really good! I could use a little more practice, but I don’t think anyone at my house will complain about that!
I used Ree Drummon’s apple fritter recipe.
12. Baking Bread for Beginners
One hobby I picked up this year was bread baking. (I learned about this book from The Lazy Genius podcasts, so here’s yet another way that resource has influenced my year.) Bread Baking For Beginners is a great book for learning how to make bread if you feel a little intimdated, and now that we’re back to cooler weather, I’m hoping to pick this back up. I learned bread baking in the hot summer months isn’t as fun as it was back in February when I started!
13. The Truly Devious Saga
Looking for a YA mystery series with lots of twists and turns and snarky humor? Definitely pick up Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. This series was my favorite fiction find of 2021. You can learn more about the books on the author’s website.
14. Flocked hangers in the coat closet
You know how sometimes you have those problems in life that you just live with? For us it was jackets that slipped off hangers and ended up on the floor of the coat closet. Until one day I thought, “Surely there’s a solution to this.” Next time I was at Target, I bought twenty “flocked” hangers. They’re fuzzy so the jackets don’t fall off. (And if they’re fleece jackets, they don’t even really want to go ON the hangers.) Problem solved!
15. “Before we leave” list in Keep
Because we’ve been traveling more, we’ve been on the hunt for ways to make travel more effortless. There were always tasks that needed to happen before we left town, and I would remember about 75% of them.
I created a list in Keep of things like trim kids’ nails, charge devices, put a hold on the mail, return or renew library books, put bread in the freezer and alllllll the other tasks that need to happen when you’re going to be gone for a week or two. I check everything off as I do it, and then once we leave town, I click that handy feature in Keep of “Uncheck all items” and boom. My list is ready for next time!
16. Check for the large print book
Here’s a weird library hack for you. If the wait list is long for the regular book, check to see if there’s a large print edition. I did that several times this year, and one time it was the difference of being number 56 in line and being number 2 in line.
17. Effortless by Greg McKeown
This is the book that I skipped the line by reading the large print. I’m so glad I did, because it was wonderful. While I read and enjoyed McKeown’s first book, Essentialism, I already felt like I had hacked away at my to-do list as much as I could and was still running on empty. Effortless is about the impact on your life if essential things become easier. I took pages of notes and started applying his principles to life situations right away. This is on my list of “books to buy if nobody gets it for me for my birthday or Christmas.” (Also, anybody else use the library as their personal try-it-before-I-buy-it system?)
18. Agatha Christie
I had never read an Agatha Christie novel before this year. Did you know that she is the number one selling author in the world aside from the Bible and Shakespeare? Isn’t that amazing? Currently I’m only reading her works that came out before 1927 because of research for a current novel I’m working on . . . and I wouldn’t exactly say I love them. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is good with a fantastic twist (avoid spoilers before reading if you can!) Once I’m done with my current writing project, I’ll move on and read some of her later works, about which I’ve heard great things.