This is part two in my annual birthday tradition of making a dorky list of things I discovered over the last year. Looking for part one? Find it here.

19. Kayaking

We have two inexpensive inflatable kayaks (the Intex Explorer K2 if you’re interested) that we started using this year, and that’s been really fun! We’ve mostly just tooled around on lakes in our area, but it’s nice to do something different as a family. McKenna worked hard to save up for a SUP, so this way we can be out on the water with her.

20. Get Out Of Your Head by Jennie Allen AND Winning The War In Your Mind by Craig Groeschel

The reason I listed both of these books in the same place is that they have very similar objectives, and you probably just need to read one. (Though I do feel like I walked away with different tools from both, so . . .) 2020 and 2021 were great years to be reading books about thoughts and how they impact us. Both books provided helpful tools for managing my mental overwhelm.

21. Old Navy’s Elevate leggings . . . which are now maybe called PowerSoft?

I LOVE THE ELEVATE LEGGINGS. I love how they feel, how they fit, and how my phone fits in the side pocket. They’re expensive, but I’ve found them on sale a couple times for $20-$25. When I went on the website to grab the link, I could find them anymore, but these PowerSoft ones match the description of Elevate. The peachy soft feel and how they stretch are my favorite features!

22. My new normal

My youngest started kindergarten this year, which means this is the first year that all three of my kids are occupied 5 days a week in full-time school. Since mid-August, we’ve been adjusting to a totally different family routine and it’s been mostly good. There have definitely been some bumps, but generally I think we’re all pretty happy. This adjustment has translated to more writing time for me, which has been really great.

23. Saturday basket

Saturdays tend to be our “get stuff done around the house” days. I’ve put a basket in my office and throughout the week if school stuff or mail comes in that needs my attention but not before Saturday, I stick it in there. That way I deal with it all at once. I got this idea from the Before Breakfast podcast, which was on a “things I discovered list” several years ago and continues to be a valuable resource!

24. Popovers

When we went to Maine last summer, I had my first popover. I didn’t really know what to expect, but they’re flaky and mostly hollow. We ate them with butter and strawberry jam, and it was a really fun experience.

25. How to create covers for highlights in Instagram

When you work for yourself and your only employee is you, you frequently have to turn Google into your coworker. When I noticed that other authors had pretty cover art for their highlights on Instagram (see bright teal circles in the photo below), I had no idea how they’d done that. I did some Googling and found this article to teach myself how to do it. I created them for both Stephanie Morrill and Go Teen Writers Instagram accounts. It hardly took any time at all once I knew how to do it!

26. Blowing out birthday candles is a very old tradition

While writing a historical, I looked it up because I’ve learned the hard way that it’s not safe to assume things. Did people blow out birthday candles in the 1920s? Absolutely. Blowing out birthday candles can actually be traced back to the Ancient Greeks, who lit candles on round cakes to pay tribute to Artemis, the moon goddess.

27. How to camp in a travel trailer

We picked up our first travel trailer last December 21st and 6 days later, we left on a week long trip from Kansas City to Florida. For two people who had never even spent the night in a travel trailer, much less hauled and cared for one, this was a pretty intense way to launch. We’ve taken four trips now, ranging from a weekend at a lake that’s forty-five minutes away, to hauling up to Maine for two weeks, and we’ve learned quite a bit. This is Eli sitting in the doorway the first night we brought it home:

28. Weekly Check-Ins

For the last year, every Friday afternoon I check-in with my best friend and fellow author, Roseanna M. White. We share what we accomplished during the week and what we hope to do the following week. Since writing can be pretty lonely, this provides a natural way for us to keep each other informed about what we’re working on and trade ideas. Often I’m feeling discouraged Friday morning because of my week . . . until I make my list of what I got done. Then I realize I did more than I realized. It’s also a good personal discipline for planning out the week ahead.

29. Decomposition notebooks

I love these notebooks. They have pretty, sturdy covers. The spiral never unwinds. The paper is nice to write on, not like some recycled paper. I usually get them at Target, but I haven’t seen them there the last couple times I checked.

30. Poutine

Have you heard of poutine? I hadn’t until a couple years ago. Traditional poutine is french fries, gravy, and cheese curds. I think that sounds weird . . . but also like something I would probably like. I like all those foods.

I still haven’t had traditional poutine, but while at one of my favorite barbecue places in Kansas City, Q39, Roseanna and I found a KC style poutine. It was absolutely delicious and we ate every bite.

31. Telephone books are older than I thought.

Would you have guessed 1878? I sure wouldn’t have! According to Wikipedia, “The first telephone directory, consisting of a single piece of cardboard, was issued on 21 February 1878; it listed 50 individuals, businesses, and other offices in New Haven, Connecticut that had telephones.” Considering the phone was invented in 1876, I was shocked by how quickly directories followed.

32. How to buy and sell on Facebook Marketplace

My friend, Anna, has Facebook Marketplace super powers. I had always been intimidated by the idea of using it, but because of her this year I both bought and sold something. And what we sold was actually something we thought we’d have to pay to get rid of (our old fence) so that’s an extra bonus!

33. The Marco Polo app

Thirty-seven appears to be the age where you start giving new apps and social media platforms some serious side eye. I now think things like, “Don’t we have enough already? Why do we need something different?”

But I’m very happy that I overcame that and gave Marco Polo a try. If you’re not familiar with it, Marco Polo is basically video messaging. I love using it to connect with my non-local friends.

34. Castle Panic board game

Castle Panic took over our lives in early 2021. This is a cooperative play game. Basically there’s a castle in the middle of the board that you are trying to protect and monsters keep arriving that you have to figure out how to defeat. We’ve had some long games and some very short ones, but it’s nice to have a game where we all win or all lose.

35. Adding a white board to the kitchen

In March, we added a whiteboard to our kitchen. It was mostly so we could have a place to write down chores that the kids could choose to do if they wanted to earn money, but I also started writing down what we were having for dinner and what the schedule for the day was. That way, I’m not answering those questions three different times for three different little people.

36. The joy of McKenna discovering my contemporary series

I say “little people” but McKenna is actually an inch taller than me now. I’ve really enjoyed her being thirteen. One fun part of her being this age is she’s now old enough to read all my books. She’d read my historicals, but in the last year picked up the Skylar Hoyt series and the Ellie Sweet books. She read all of them in a week, which delighted me. I’d given myself the pep talk of, “McKenna doesn’t need to like these. She’s my daughter, not a fan.” But fortunately, I didn’t need the pep talk.

37. A lot about volleyball

At the start of the year, I knew very little about volleyball. Basically, I knew the object of the game and that was it. McKenna played for her middle school team this year, and it was FUN to watch. Eli especially loved going to her games, which was really cute.

38. What Stephen King’s house looks like

While in Bangor, Maine we detoured briefly to take a picture in front of Stephen King’s house. It was a beautiful street of old homes, and both times we were there (um, yes, we went twice) there were other people taking pictures too.

If you ever want to come take a picture in front of my house, you’re welcome to 😉 Though, I’ll warn you that I do have a neighbor who basically stares out her front door all day long looking for ways to report people, so the police might get called. I’ll vouch for you.

Thirty-seven was a year abundant in change and growth, but lovely in so many ways. Aging is a privilege. As James S. A. Corey puts it in Tiamat’s Wrath, “Growing older was a falling away of everything that didn’t matter. And a deepening appreciation of all the parts that were important enough to stay.”