Jennifer Lyon


Monday, January 2nd, 2017
Weekend Roundup

Our New Year Day Eve was fun but dinner was a disaster. Wizard and I have made steak and lobster together easily more than a dozen times. Somehow this time, we failed. The steak was supposed to be a rib eye, but it was dry shoe leather. The lobster wouldn’t cook correctly and I was afraid to eat it. I think it had been frozen too long, or at some point, frozen, defrosted and refrozen. I had no desire to test my difficult stomach with questionable seafood :-) But I’d bought some fresh French bread and that was delicious! So we ended up mostly sipping some good wine and eating excellent French bread. Then we hung out and watched movies.

I got up early New Year’s Day to work, which I did for an hour. But around 6:30 I decided to make cranberry sauce to use later for Baked Cranberry Brie Appetizer. I’d already made chocolate chip cookies because two out of three kids were supposed to stop by for a few minutes. But I had a feeling I was going to need more than cookies. Apparently, I was making enough noise to wake up Wizard–he stumbled into the kitchen but I didn’t hear him because I had my headphones on, listening to an audiobook and cooking. Finally he yells out, “What are you doing?”

I jumped, took off my headphones and answered, “Making cranberry sauce.”  I mean Duh, why else would I be grating orange zest into a pan of cranberries and sugar?

He shook his head. “Seriously? At six thirty in the morning?”

I looked at the clock. “It’s six-forty-five now.”

He shook his head and laughed. “Oh well now it makes total sense.”

I decided to ignore the obvious sarcasm and asked, “What did you think was going on?” I was curious why he got up. It’s not like he hasn’t heard me doing stuff in the morning before. I usually write but once in a while, I’ll decide to cook or prep something in kitchen.

Wizard answered, “I heard banging and thought you found ants. I came down to help.”

I forgave him for the earlier sarcasm. Guys, the mornings for Wizard are rough with his herniated disc. I mean, it’s hard to watch how much pain he’s in. It literally took him 10 to 15 minutes to work his way out of bed and down the stairs, but he did it because he thought I was battling ants and was going to help. I know it’s not technically romantic, but moments like that take my breath away. Wizard knows how much I hate ants in my kitchen. And no matter how much pain he was in, he was going to help. That kind of love is not something I’m going to take for granted even after all these years. And FYI, his surgery for the herniated disc is only weeks away now. (One of his doctors last week reinforced how much he needs this surgery too, which is good. Surgery is not something we’ve jumped into lightly, but there’s really no option at this point).

So, as it turned out, my intuition was right. Around 10am New Year’s Morning, I got a call that all six kids (my three sons and their mates) plus Baby Jett were coming over for lunch and to hang out. I had the baked brie appetizer and cookies, and one of the boys stopped and picked up pizza on his way so it worked out great (if a tad unhealthy, LOL). We had a very kick back afternoon. I think Jett can demonstrate our energy level perfectly:

jett-new-years-day

It was Jett’s first time at our house. He wasn’t interested in the pool, but loved exploring the backyard and side hill. Inside the house, he refused to go up our stairs to the second floor. He goes on stairs on his walks at the beach all the time, so that was interesting. But Jett’s a six month old puppy and while he’s a pretty confident dude, he’s still learning and mastering the world. This just wasn’t his day to take on the “inside” stairs for some reason. He’s so young that I’m betting next time he comes over, he’ll race up the stairs. Otherwise, Jett had fun playing, but as you see from the picture, he’s also happy to chill out and take a nap on his travel bed.

My year is starting off well. I’m behind where I wanted to be on the book, but that’s okay, I’m working now! And this year, I’m starting off determined to believe in myself and the books. I know what I want to accomplish this year, so it’s just matter of fingers on the keyboard and trusting my story over the shrill voice of self-doubt in my head.

How was your weekend, and how’s your new year starting off?

NOTE: Next Monday I’m planning to write a post reviewing my 2016 goals and talking about 2017. And I want to talk a little bit over the next weeks about the state and business of publishing. 

6 comments to “Weekend Roundup”

  1. B.E. Sanderson
    January 2nd, 2017 at 6:57 am · Link

    Happy New Year! Sorry your dinner was bad. I hate when that happens. Aww, Wizard’s such a good hubby. And, aww, Jett is such a cutie. I’m glad you had a nice day with the family. You’re gonna rock this year!

    It was a quiet weekend. I got my business spreadsheets all set up for sales in the new year. :fingers crossed: Did a little editing work. Made scalloped potatoes with ham for dinner and it turned out this time. (Last time was a fail.) Watched football and the new shows on Investigation Discovery. =o)



  2. Silver James
    January 2nd, 2017 at 10:02 am · Link

    Wiz is such a guy and we all love him! And Jett is such a cutie-patootie!

    We’ve been watching a lot of college football. The real OSU won their bowl game against Colorado. The fake OSU got schooled by Clemson. OU plays tonight.

    I made dinner rolls for Only to take to a New Year’s Eve party. She can make them but why when she can con Mom into doing it? :lol:

    As for LG and I, we were laid back. I’m under crazy deadlines so I wrote. We went out for BBQ New Year’s Eve and I was in bed by 10:30. I managed to stay awake until the ball fell in NYC and then I snoozed. Good thing because I was up and down all night. Stupid insomnia. Yesterday was a hard writing day. I had a problem in the current WIP (which I need an ARC for by Wednesday *flail*) but I got it figured out and the problem sections switched and rewritten. I’ll finish it today–I have two scenes left, get it edited well enough for the ARC, and then send it to my editor for the hard stuff. It goes up for a Jan. 17th release (Kindle World). Then it’s diving into the next project. Yippee.

    Happy New Year, witches!



  3. Viki S.
    January 2nd, 2017 at 4:05 pm · Link

    Happy New Year!

    Oh no, sorry about dinner. Thank heaven for wine :).

    Sounds like yesterday was a nice relaxed day. Having pizza is always good. Jett looks so content. Has he found lizards to chase?

    Wizard is a true gem. You’re right, him making his way to help you (with ants ;)) even though he’s in agony is real love. I bet you’re both marking off the days until he has the disk taken care of. To be without pain will be sweet.

    I cooked all day yesterday. Made a standing ribs roast and fixings. Also a berry pie. Middle son and lady didn’t come over. It was busy but everything tasted wonderful.

    I hope your afternoon is a good one :).



  4. Jenn
    January 2nd, 2017 at 4:50 pm · Link

    B.E., yay on your spreadsheets! Wizard just set some up for me today :-)

    Love scalloped potatoes but I never make them. I should try it! Glad yours turned out, they sound yummy :-)

    Let’s both rock this year!!



  5. Jenn
    January 2nd, 2017 at 4:54 pm · Link

    Silver, thanks on Jett. He’s a lovable guy, like all the dogs in our family.

    LOL on the dinner rolls! You’ve made those for years, you can’t break the tradition now. Plus our kids know exactly how to get us to do things for them :-)

    Sorry for the insomnia night. I’ve had a few so I really sympathize.

    Your deadlines are brutal, but you can do it! We both can! I’m butt in the chair and working today too.



  6. Jenn
    January 2nd, 2017 at 5:01 pm · Link

    Viki, there weren’t any lizards out yesterday so not yet on Jett. But he’s content to just smell and looking for sticks. I thought it was interesting that he barely noticed the pool, he was much more intersted in exploring the scents and just went right around the pool. We’ll see what happens in the summer. I want one dog to love the water, LOL!

    After surviving the holidays, it’s easier to wait for the surgery now that it doesn’t seem soooo far off if that makes sense.

    Your dinner sounds delicious! Don’t you love it when the meal all comes together? Sorry Middle son and lady missed out. Happy Monday!



Comments are closed.





JenniferLyon.com