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To be fair, I’m writing this on October 23rd because I want to write it up and not put it off until the last minute.  Figure anything big can be added later, but at least I have some kind of reflection.

To be honest, this year started off really rough and stayed there for a while.  Last school year was crazy both as a TA and a parent.  It was the first one that was primarily normal after covid, so a lot was going on.  Pushed my body way too much and triggered a few chronic issues.  For anyone who remembers, I talked a lot about my IBS flaring up, which triggered other issues.  So, it was a good year in regards to health, but I managed to get things under some control.

Parenting-wise, I spent the majority of my time helping my son with schoolwork.  It helped him get an overall average of 95 by the end of 7th grade and start off strong in 8th grade.  Yet, I did want to spend more fun time with him.  We got that over the summer and I threw him a big 13th birthday party.  His Halloween costume was a success, so a lot of good memories were made.  Only thing I wish we could have done is a trip, but it was either that or the birthday party.  Figure we can do a father/son trip next summer once we figure out the overall plan.  He’s now too old for most camps and I was hoping to work the summer session at school.  Any camp he can go to is fairly expensive.

A big event from work was that I got tenure.  That’s a big milestone that many teachers look forward to.  Makes me feel more relaxed and calm when it comes to stability.  Funny thing is that my anxiety and shoddy self-esteem still makes me rather numb to the weight of it all.  I’m proud, but I don’t like dwelling or even reveling in things like this.  I just start looking at the next goal or the work in front of me.  Guess spending most of my life getting very little recognition means I don’t know how to handle it.  Oh well, I’ll have to work on that issue.

Writing was touch and go with nothing new getting published.  I started the year thinking I could start in on writing the second Darwin book.  Instead, my son’s schoolwork and my health issues made it nearly impossible.  It wasn’t until June that I got to start in on that project.  My summer goal was to write books 2 and 3, which got jostled by me catching covid at the start.  It wasn’t a bad case, but the brain fog afterwards forced me to write less than I had hoped.  Ended up finishing the 3rd book in early October.  That’s why I decided to start preparing the outlines for books 4 and 5 starting in November.  This way, I can dive into the books after new years.

Nothing else really happened beyond surviving.  Still got the same friends and I don’t really go out.  Trying to eat better when it comes to lunch, but exercise is routinely an issue.  I get into it and then something happens.  For example, I was doing great and then covid hit.  Made it hard to keep a constant schedule, so it was whenever I could and then never.  Almost got back into it and then I developed a sciatica.  Maybe I should take the hint and stay away from the exercise bike?

Blogging went rather smoothly with me never missing a day.  Even started the animal posts, which people seem to like.  Gives some variety here, which is good because I’m running out of teasers and writing topics.  I need to figure out what to do about Tuesdays since I can only post so many teasers before I’m giving away most of a book.  Spoilers are an issue too.  Maybe I’ll repost the old ones that were popular until I figure something else out.

Anyway, that was my 2022 in a nutshell.  Some excitement, but mostly nothing to write home about.  Maybe things will change after I write this post and I’ll add something on at the bottom.  Maybe midterms will trigger a big event and society will collapse.  Maybe someone will want to turn ‘Legends of Windemere’ into an anime or graphic novel.  Who really knows what will happen in the next 2 months?  Guess we’ll see.