So, we’re a week in to the school holidays. The weather’s been basically horrible, but the sproglet and I have happily found a bit of a rhythm (that involves more screen time than I’m really happy with, but gah, it’s the holidays).

This morning’s been taken up with mother-daughter Minecraft; we created a new world, moved in to a poor, unsuspecting village, raided everyone’s chests, and proceeded to build ridiculous houses on the hill overlooking the town. I enjoy sitting side by side with Leila and playing games with her; it’s interesting seeing things through her eyes, and we have more than a few laughs together.

Apart from the Minecraft world we’ve also done quite a lot of Stardew Valley-ing. Always interesting to have the conversation with your eight-year-old about who you want to marry and why.

Some other stuff this week:

I’ve managed to get in some writing (actual writing, not just bitter scribbling in a tiny notebook), including finishing the first draft of the anthology story, FINALLY.

I’ve also been busy organising my digital files, finally settling on a Johnny Decimal system for an Obsidian vault. If you’re new to Obsidian or don’t know it at all, I recommend searching out some intro youtube videos (or take a look at the features list on the main page). There is a LOT that Obsidian can do, but I’m mostly using it as a second brain. There are some great plugins though, including one that syncs your vault to a GitHub repository, and another that can turn your markdown file into a kanban.

What else? I’ve put my sweater knitting on hold, just for a bit while I have started knitting up a whole lot of cotton washcloths for the kitchen. We have all of these ratty microfibre ones that I am really keen to get rid of. I got some good colours (bright red and green, navy blue) and as much as a washcloth can bring some cheer to the kitchen, I’ve been rather chuffed using them.

Oh! And Leila and I have signed up for mother-daughter karate, starting in a couple of weeks. I’ve never done a martial art before but I’m really curious and I think we can both do with the extra exercise (LOL).

I also just found out this morning that I’ve been invited to be a volunteer reader for Utopia Science Fiction. It’ll be my first time working as a reader, but I’m really looking forward to learning heaps about the process of producing an online journal and getting a glimpse behind the scenes of a slush pile!

Anyway, the weekend looks to be pretty crappy so we probably won’t get out much this weekend either. At least it’s not as freezing as it has been over the past few weeks. Just lots of low cloud and that damp drizzle that’s hugely unenjoyable.

Adios!