 February 2024 Musings What’s for Dinner? Happy February, friends! I hope you are giving and receiving much love this month! Valentine's Day is fun, but my very favorite moment in February comes every year when the first Daffodils bravely push their way through the hard, frosty ground. The cheerful yellow flowers will open by the end of the month and seem to trumpet out the good news that we have indeed made it through another winter, and spring is on the horizon!  If romance is what you like best about February, then you may love the sweet romance between Shanna and Free in my debut YA contemporary novel FREE SINGS THE SEA, coming this September! A cover reveal, ARCs, and preorders are happening very soon. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to be an ARC reader and join Shanna on her journey to freedom before anyone else, or you can always reach me through my Linktree and socials. #FreeandFawn4Ever !  This month I also attended a YouTube Livestream YA Author Book Talk Q&A with my good friends and fellow Monarchs, Rebecca Wheeler and Sandy Green. We had a lot of fun talking all things books and our love of clean reads! You can find it along with many other inspiring videos for authors and readers such as our virtual book birthday for Diane Blue Brooks Britt’s precious picture book SIMON THE SNAKE on YouTube! You might remember from January that this year I am going to focus my monthly musings on tips and encouragement for writers who are also single moms. Our subject for this month is simplifying meal planning and preparation so you will have more time for, well…writing! Imagine for a moment you are lost in your story, living and breathing what your characters do, and real life has faded away. Perhaps the clash of battle rings in your ears as two armies face off in the final fight for good over evil, or your protagonist has just found her first love after years apart, and your heart beats faster as he pulls her into his arms for the embrace she has waited a lifetime to feel again. Suddenly a cry echoes through the house, wrenching you away from your other world… “Mom! What’s for dinner?”  Ugh. That pesky question that comes to pester you not once or twice, but every single day! But don’t despair, I have a couple of ideas that may help. We love our characters, but we love our children most of all. Here is a way to prioritize your family, while still finding time to write yourself back into your fictional world! I could write a book on all the tips that could be helpful here (and may do just that!), but for the sake of not letting this newsletter turn into a novel, I will mention three now. The bottom line is— organization is your friend. I can hear the groans from my friends who are more free-spirited and resist structure, but a little goes a long way, and it will help you be more free in the end to live your passions and dreams! 1: Take a few minutes each weekend to meal plan. I have a simple grid I make copies of and fill in with spaces for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of the week.  It isn’t as daunting as it sounds, especially if you have set meals for certain nights, so you only have to be creative for a couple of meals each week. Children love knowing what to expect! Once you have filled in your meal plan, your mind will be at ease because you can always answer the what’s for dinner question quickly & slip right back into your writing world! You can also post it on the fridge, and even little ones will have fun looking to see what’s on the menu. It will also help you utilize your leftovers for lunches or for an easy dinner so you will have more time for writing! 2: Now you have your meal plan, and it will be easy to create your grocery list from it. This will help you with the second tip which is— minimize trips to the store! Only go once a week, or better yet, use instacart! Every second that you spend running to the store is a second you could be writing. And let’s be honest, would you rather spend that hour with canned goods and cranky fellow customers, or on a beach or in a fabulous fantasy world with your characters! 3: One last idea for writer moms to consider is morning prep. I know mornings are stressful. Many of my writer friends are teachers and have to be at school at the crack of dawn. This last tip might not be easy, but it will reward you at the end of the day when you are the most exhausted! Simply do everything you can for each night’s dinner in the morning. Chop all veggies, thaw all ingredients, set out any canned goods you will need on the stove and ready to go. And as a busy mom, the crockpot is your best friend! Imagine being weary at the end of a busy day and your whole house is full of the delicious smell of chili, soup or spaghetti sauce ready for you to simply scoop out and serve! Being a mom is hard work. Writing is hard work. But both are also joy-filled, meaningful callings that will enrich your life beyond measure! The trick is in the balancing. I hope these tips will be helpful to someone this month— please let me know in the comments if something works for you, or if you would like to share other ideas! Join me next month as we talk about finding time for our writing while still tackling that meddlesome little item on our to-do list called… housecleaning! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac 
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
RSS Feed
Proudly powered by Weebly
