Of course, as we hit the last 100 days of the year, this means I’m nearing completion of this year-long project. Which leads to the question…what should I do next?

In 2021, I read War and Peace at the rate of one chapter a day. In 2022 I read all the works of Shakespeare (at a pace of about 3-4 pages with small type per day). In 2023 I read all the works of Jane Austen (at a pace of about 10 pages per day – I finished in September since it turned out I miscalculated on this one). And this past year I’ve been listening to approximately 30 minutes of Bach daily.

Whatever I choose for 2025 needs to fit a few criteria:

*It needs to be worth doing (as I believe all the previous projects have been!). I want to read or listen to work that is generally seen as classic and important.

*I need to be excited about it (I’m just not that into Mozart…sorry!).

*It also needs to be doable. Some people’s lifetime works might actually take more than a year to consume at a sustainable pace. I can probably read for about 20 minutes a day. Listening is a little easier to do more since I can have it running in the background (like in the car). Obviously there is some ambiguity here as I could have listened to performances of Shakespeare’s plays but…anyway.

So, I welcome suggestions! You can post or can always email me (laura at lauravanderkam dot com). My timeline for a decision is the Best Laid Plans Live retreat in early November, as I try to have a rough draft of next year’s goals by then…

In other news: We celebrated my 2nd kid’s birthday this week! He turned 15. After he finished a 5k in a cross country meet, we had his favorite foods for dinner, which included lobster tails, a caprese salad, and mac and cheese. He asked what time exactly he was born, and it turns out it was 10:07 p.m. (per the birth certificate). That reminded me that the same doctor delivered him and his older brother. After kid #2 was born, she congratulated me and told me “I’m so happy I could help you complete your family.” Haha. Of course, this was in NYC where the maternity ward was so crowded (we were 9 months after Christmas…) that the baby and I wound up staying in a room in the urology ward where they posted a guard in front of the door (as there was no other security, as there is in the mother/baby unit). It was like we were famous. Memories! It’s been fun watching him become a runner. He’s definitely faster than his mom.

But, as it turns out, this has not been quite as lengthy a project as one might imagine. True, I had the kids put many toys, books, etc. in plastic storage bins that can either be shoved aside for photos, or put in the attic (or in the garage at the new place) for the sale process. We dumped obvious trash, but we certainly could have culled a lot more than we did. The aim here was a quick and serviceable job. I employed the same process in my office.

The result: see the photo above. Now, to be sure, this office scene is fiction. To record my podcasts, I have to reconstruct my sound wall and drape blankets everywhere — something that is going to make the desk look cluttered no matter how clean it is. Also, you’ll note: no waste basket. This is one of the funniest aspects of staged photos. There are never things like that (or, say, shampoo in the shower) that you’d obviously need to have there.

On the other hand, getting to this pristine state only took a few hours. I would estimate we have put in about 20 household hours, all told. It’s curious to think that all this time we were only a few focused hours away from a pretty cleaned up house. My daughter’s room in particular was a disaster of plastic Barbie pieces, American Girl flotsam, and tiny erasers shaped like food (don’t ask). I put in two solid hours and it now looks shockingly decent. We’ll see if the photographer agrees, but hey.

I suppose there is a lesson here for other big projects. Sometimes things seem daunting. But it may be fewer hours to “done” than you realize. People who do National Novel Writing Month (write a 50,000-word draft in November) often write for about 2 hours per day. Maybe 3. That’s 60-90 hours to a book draft. A lot, but not infinite. Doable, with a focused push.

In other news: I am currently looking out the window in this photo, watching my husband throw grass seed on the back lawn. There are a few bare patches, especially from where we removed the old swing set that was destroyed in the derecho of June 2020. Every time he throws seed, it rains — and the storm is more intense than the sprinkle the weather forecast called for. I think this is attempt number five. Seeding the lawn has become his own white whale.

Our daughter officially turned ten yesterday. So I now have three kids in double digits! We took a trip to Target to spend some birthday money (though given the small plastic pieces described above I was a bit worried about what would come home). She didn’t see much she liked though, so I guess we will try again.