The Lily Cafe Digest, No. 1

I’ve been wanting to do a newsletter for the past year, but I’ve wanted to neither list my address nor rent a P.O. Box, so here I am, creating The Lily Cafe Digest for all of my lovely readers! This year, I’m doing a 6+1 blogging schedule of 6 weeks blogging followed by a one week break. This means there will be a new Digest every 7 weeks. Enjoy, and thank you so much for following!

A Look Back

The past 6 weeks have really zipped by. Sometimes I think I’d like to post more than 3 times a week, but, at the end of the day, I’m just glad I get the 3 a week done.

Mother Mondays

This year I’m focusing on what motherhood is like for me. It may be different from what so many moms say, but it’s my mom truths. For one, I sit and eat chocolate quite a bit. Daily, actually. I should go see my dentist. For another, I’m one of the “lucky” ones who bounced back after both babies. But it’s hard to feel lucky.

I read an article a few weeks ago about millennial parents singing fewer lullabies than previous generations. As a lullaby singing mom, I was shocked. Of course, their research wasn’t perfect, but still. Music is so important in my life, I have a hard time imagining other parents not singing, but everyone is entitled to their own choices.

My son is going into Kindergarten this fall and we find ourselves with several choices on our hands. We’ll have to enter him into each school’s lottery system, but we’re sincerely hoping to put him in a school that’s better than the one he’s zoned for. Unfortunately, the number of schools where we live is mind boggling, but we’ve narrowed down the elements that are most important to us.

More personally, my menstrual cycle started up again 20 months after my daughter’s birth. With it came some very unexpected feelings.

Raven

With the start of a new year, I started posting chapters from an old story. Originally written during a National Novel Writing Month, it still has a special place in my heart, so I’m sharing it. It’s also not finished even though I know the ending and only sort of edited it. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Needle City runs on feuds. Almost every family has a feud with another, or two. But instead of sullying their hands and risking trouble with the law, they turn to the Thief Lords. Raven is the only female Thief Lord, and arguably the best. But when she gets caught between routine assassination attempts by her fellow Thief Lords and a routine feud that goes awry, she’ll be stuck paying the price.

Chapter 1|Chapter 2|Chapter 3|Chapter 4|Chapter 5|Chapter 6

Free For All Fridays

I hadn’t meant for Fridays to be so eclectic, but it’s times like these that I’m glad I declared The Lily Cafe a lifestyle blog. I love reading and baking and learning new things.

Over the past 6 weeks, I reviewed 3 books courtesy of NetGalley. Many of the books I’ve reviewed recently have been from there because I got a little request happy. But I’ve also read a number of self-published books. I am planning on writing and posting reviews, but my life between the pages doesn’t allow much time for reviewing. Sadly, the reviews just keep stacking up.

Reviews: St. Paul’s Labyrinth|All That Will Burn|Here and Now and Then

I’ve longed for a kitchen scale for awhile. My husband surprised me with one for Christmas, and I’ve been putting it to more or less delicious use. Ratio baking has been quite an adventure. Meaning I’ve been eating a lot of chocolate cake. Good thing I can never have too much chocolate. Or cake. Definitely need to see the dentist…

Looking Forward

After my week-long break, I have plenty of posts planned, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Or will write them.

Mother Mondays

Continuing with the idea of sharing my mom truths, I’m really in love with my upcoming post about mom tribes. It might be a little unexpected, and may not even get many views, but I’m proud of how that experience has shaped how I parent.

I have a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology, so I’m really excited about starting an ongoing series I call Parenting with Psychology. So much of what I do is informed by my educational and professional background in psychology and with kids, so I want to share it.

Raven

Not much to say on this section, but chapters 7-12 will be posting on Wednesdays. Let’s get to know how Raven operates a little more, shall we?

Free For All Fridays

More book reviews! Of books courtesy of NetGalley. I swear I’ll get to the self-published books! There will be more Adventures in Ratio Baking because I can’t decide if I love books or baking more, and I always have something to bake. And read.

Favorite Posts From Around the Blogging Community

Mostly because I feel self-centered about writing a whole post about my own blog, but also because there are so many lovely blogs I enjoy and want to share them with you. Here are some of my favorite posts from the last 6 weeks. I do hope you check them out and give them a follow.

January Whizzed Right Past by Jennifer M. Zeiger: If you’ve been following for awhile, you may have noticed I talk about Jennifer more than any other blogger. For good reason. I’ve known her the longest. But she’s also an incredibly beautiful soul. Her middle grades book The Adventure was a huge hit with my 4 year old. She’s open about her early struggles with literacy, which led to a love of choose your own adventure stories, which led to her writing The Adventure. And now it’s taken her into the development of a literacy and creative writing workshop! Follow the link to find out more and get your own copy of The Adventure. It’s awesome for kids! My son will attest to that.

Not All Mothers Are Created Equal at The Eureka Diaries: This mom speaks to my heart. I don’t accept that struggles in motherhood exist and I just have to get used to it. Neither does this mom. She doesn’t shame moms for struggling, but she does encourage moms to use them to reflect and grow to become better.

Why Do I Have a Blog? by Quirky Quip: This wonderful lady speaks to my soul so much! She’s honest and authentic and doesn’t want to be the kind of influencer who makes you want to buy things. She shares a piece of her soul and really tries to get at what is important in life.

Are You Lost Princess? a short story by Nopoodles: I may not read as many writers as I used to, but I still enjoy them and can never pass up a story by Nopoodles. A runaway princess story with an ending that puts a smile on my face. And if you’re looking for LGBT fiction, be sure to hop on over and browse for awhile.

My absolute favorite? Thousand Sunny Queen is done from Mike at The Association of Merry Makers: A trio of writers collaborating on one blog, Mike is one of them and will have a book coming out soon. I gobbled up the teasing bits he posted last year and have been sitting on pins and needles for far too long for it to be finished. The wait is almost over.

Thank you so much for reading!

With much appreciation, kat