What I did on my newsletter hiatus
Lying in bed eating bonbons watching "All My Children"
Hi, it’s been a little over a month since the last Evil Witches! Thank you for your patience while I took a break from publishing. The regular season of baseball is now over. And guess what: playoffs started this week. Playoffs always start like the sun always rises, even if your team has lost every single game. Why do the playoff games not get scheduled ahead of time along with the rest of the season? These are not things we ask. We just accept it like a cliff accepts the waves that buffet it.
Since my last issue, I have been up to these things:
Baseball. It’s been a pleasant season. My older son’s team lost every single game last spring and then his team just lost one game this spring. He’s young for his grade but got a few hits, so yes, it is possible for your non-redshirted summer birthday child to enjoy sports. My younger son was on a team that lost a little more than half its games, but he had a lot of highlights. It all felt extremely fair and less fraught than in the past. They’re old enough to pack their own shit without our help (if only they could lace up their own cleats competently as well.) It’s nice that the parents in this league are pretty chill, although one parent did notice I didn’t attend my kid’s games regularly—more on that next week for the paid subscribers.
JV Boys Volleyball Games. Regarding kids’ sports that favor me, the parent, I loved volleyball this season. Compared to baseball, where you might be sitting out in the cold/drizzle/gritty wind for three or more hours, volleyball is indoors and moves fast, and it doesn’t involve face-to-face competition (like hockey or basketball), which favors my 6th grader’s style. Also, it’s a light lift in terms of equipment. 1 This reminds me I’ve never washed my son’s kneepads, though 😬.
Added tags to the newsletter and updated the landing page. This project is ongoing, and I’m figuring out how to title one or two final categories, but I wanted the various issues of the newsletter to be a bit more discoverable.
Went away to a renovated barn in Wisconsin for my birthday. Some people have a party, but I wanted the opposite of one. I had been dreaming about this for months: several days off from taking care of or speaking to anyone, no opening up my Google calendar. I didn’t want to do much except read, watch TV, and eat snacks. The biggest treat was going during the week. Shout out to my husband for doing everything while I was away and not being like, “Wait, you’re leaving me to do all the childcare so you can eat Nerds Gummy Clusters and watch Below Deck??” It was really nice to come home relaxed, not thinking about all the things I meant to do but didn’t get around to.
Freelanced for 12 clients. Among the assignments I worked on, I interviewed this impressive young lady graduating from Yale this year. Talking to people like these makes me feel like someone competent might eventually be in charge, and that gives me hope.
Vegan cooking. I profiled Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life for Harvard Magazine and made some recipes from her new vegan cookbook as part of my research. They were delicious! Admittedly a wee bit more time-consuming than I normally go for, but I enjoyed cooking so much more when it felt like it was “for work” and not the grind of tedious choices and actions that it is. My family even ate some tofu (which is unusual for them). It made me ponder how I would eat differently if I lived alone and not with two basic kids and one picky man2.
Sweat. I’m in my sweating era so I put a lot of time into changing shirts these last few months. I am pretty good about finding things to bitch about, including working from home, but I have woken up and realized how lucky I am to be able to change shirts whenever I want to and to have a washer and dryer in my home. I won’t complain again.
Do some school volunteer shit. Lame! But it was still a few extra hours of emailing people, updating a spreadsheet, and texting/talking on the phone about which committee said what.
Interview other newsletter writers. In addition to this newsletter, one of my other gigs is writing about newsletters for Inbox Collective. The newsletter market can be an intense place, especially if you’re an indie creator. You start off goofing around/writing the things you wanted to see out in the world, and then all of a sudden, you’re worrying about conversion rates and remembering to acknowledge everyone on the growing ways people can engage with your newsletter and whether your platform is too problematic and you’re like this: 🫨 Anyway it’s good to talk to other publishers and remember everyone in this world goes through some version of it.
Adjust to medication. Earlier this spring I upped my antidepressant dose which I recommend going for if you’re on the fence about it. I feel like with the year ahead, you won’t regret it. I have some family stuff going on that has made me extremely happy I have increased my ability to deal with shit without spiraling over it. But it did take time to adjust, and going through that + perimenopause sometimes was rough. Then, I got a sinus infection. I eventually got antibiotics for that and got some probiotics so my tummy wouldn’t get wrecked. Can I just say? The effects of the probiotics may have done more for my mood than the extra 25 mg of Zoloft.
Backyard badminton. Still fun. Recommend if your kids are big enough.
Celebrated my son’s 9th birthday. On Instagram I saw an ad for a tee that pops a whiffle ball into the air and ordered it for him and was very pleased that it worked, both functionally and in terms of occupying my kid. If you have outdoor space nearby + an ADHD kid who stims with sports (or just a kid who likes baseball) get them this air tee thing!
Started a new guitar ensemble session. I started taking lessons when I turned 40 in 2019. Now, I’m in a group that plays contemporary music, and this week, I just plugged in with an electric guitar for the first time. I’m always annoyed about leaving the house for an 8 PM weeknight class, and, of course, I’m always glad I went3.
My to-do list expanded to fill the allotted time, and I am grateful to everyone who was kind to me about taking time off. We’re all transitioning from seasons, from school to out-of-school, so I hope over the last month and a half, you’ve been able to say no to or take a break from something to make space for all your own things, even if that means doing nothing.
~Claire
End credits
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One witchy thing
What kids’ activity do you like because it’s easy/pleasant for you?
How would you eat differently if you lived alone and weren’t eating with a family?
Have you been able to work on a new or old hobby since your kids have gotten older? Sorry for all these footnote questions; it’s just been a while, and I’ve been wondering about these things.
Can I just say something, as a former reporter and someone who consumes like, A LOT of substacks: No one else is paying attention to your pub schedule. No one else is setting your deadlines. That may be problematic for deadline driven folks, but seriously, I enjoy reading the various substacks I read, whenever they pop into my in box. Deadlines and pub skeds are a by-product of being accountable to advertisers and print delivery mechanisms and I wish the many self-employed or at least self-supervised writers I read who all seem SO unnecessarily apologetic when they take time off would realize that. I don't know what day it is, never mind what day I'm supposed to get what substack. The real hard truth I want to say to ALL of them: I am glad you're back, but I can't say I like, noticed. I get way too many emails for that, but I did, if it softens the blow, immediately open this one when I saw it this morning!
I only have an answer for #2. I would formally name my living quarters The House of Cheese and Crackers. I would only eat cheese and crackers - all different kinds, all different brands, there is enough variety in both categories to keep me happy for years.