Hi there Reader,
According to the people who took my survey, emails twice a month are the sweet spot. So, I'm popping in here for the second (and last) time in February. Thanks so much to everyone who took the survey - it's given me some good ideas!
Of course, there are some conflicting ideas. One person wants shorter emails, while others want "more tips" (what kind of tips, I wonder?), "meal ideas", "more pictures", "inspirational quotes", "writing tips", "more about your normal family life", and "anecdotes about your children". By and large, people want "more", so here you go!
However, if I tried to do all of those things, I would create mishmashy emails that quite a few of you probably wouldn't like. But I'm going to try incorporating some of those ideas, and you're always welcome to reply and give your feedback! (Or take the survey, if you haven't yet.)
I've been thinking about my $.99 prices and how since the United States is no longer making pennies, I should probably raise prices 1 cent to the nearest dollar. So that will be happening some time soon. If you're a literal penny pincher, you can order from the catalog, where prices will remain fixed until the end of 2026. Of course, if you do that, be sure to order at least 79 books, because of the 78 cent stamp you'll have to put on the envelope. If you do that, you will have saved one penny! Buying 80 books will save you two pennies, 81 books will save you three pennies... you get the idea!
I'm participating in a reading challenge this January and February. It's been interesting to try to find books to fit the categories, which has had me reading books outside my normal genres.
One of the hardest ones in January was "read a book about an event in history your parents lived through." I'm sure my parents have lived through many interesting events but I simply had no books on my shelf about them! I finally decided to count the book Olive Plants Around My Table because at the end of the book it discusses the sawmill explosion that happened in the 80s. I figured since it ended up in a newspaper, that's a historical event, right? It's a good book to read if you feel overwhelmed by your children - Mattie had 15 children in 13 years! However, on the flip side, I had to wonder how she got it all done. I don't have cloth diapers to wash or cows to milk like she did. Or maybe that's why her children had so many accidents, like falling in ponds (don't worry, nobody actually drowns!). Either way, it's an interesting read!
For February's challenge, I'm reading The Education of Hyman Kaplan for a book with humor (it certainly delivers the humor!), Pollyanna for a children's favorite book (I forgot that the setting was Vermont, where I live!), Formerly Known As Food, and a number of other books. It's been fun!
As far as writing, I haven't been doing much of that lately. However, submissions from my beta readers are trickling in, so I've been making some changes to the book. It's amazing how many typos there are! "It" for "is" and "gone" for "done". The funny part is that our eyes are so good at filling in what it's supposed to say, most of the test readers are missing most of them! Read this: tock tick. Did your eyes flip it around to tick tock? Did you know that there's a reason "tock tick" sounds so weird? It's because vowels in series like that should follow this pattern: i, a, o. (Or if it's two words, it's i,a or i,o.) Why? Because high sounds come first. The phrase "tick tack toe" may help you remember this. Interesting, right? (This is called ablaut reduplication, by the way.) Now you know why we play tick tack toe and not toe tack tick. Some other ones I thought of are "flip flop", "big bad wolf", "live laugh love", and "ding dong". See how many you can come up with!
Another interesting one is how all adjectives have to follow a specific order. In some languages, like Spanish, adjectives follow the noun. But not in English. The order is strictly opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose, noun. If I were to tell you that I had a wooden nice table or a round big table, you'd look at me funny. But "nice wooden table" and "big round table" sound perfectly fine. So weird, isn't it? I haven't come up with a good phrase to remember this (maybe "nice big old round brown Canadian wooden sitting table"??), but thankfully our brains usually know if something sounds funny about the order! Anyway, that's a bit of a ramble, but some people did ask for writing tips in the survey, so there you go!
Lastly, I'm in another bundle that lasts till the 21st. You can get my Show Your Love Bundle for free in it. The bundle is love-themed and I can't vouch for all the products (I'm not into the "self-love" idea), so be warned. If you'd like to get my freebie without signing up for the bundle, you can do so here.
Until next time,
