Happy birthday, happy break! Honestly, every time a woman I admire says no (even to me!) or otherwise draws a boundary, it's such a gift and I reminder that we can do that, too!
Happy Birthday! Every time your email pops up in my account I'm like "Ooh a FunEmail!" with absolutely zero (like, less than zero?) thought of the amount of time it's been since the previous. I'm sorry substack puts the grind-metrics-machine-monster front and center to make you constantly freak out but no one else notices.* Probably because of their kids sports schedule but my kids don't do sports so I don't even have that excuse.
*I'm stressing about this sentence for two reasons: 1) obviously unsure if the asterisk goes inside or outside the period but don't have the will to check in another tab and 2) I don't want to imply that I don't care because I enjoy getting FunEmail and I am a paid subscriber but if you asked me how many emails you sent last year vs. how many I expected, I would stare at you like you asked your children what they wanted to eat. [blankly, as if no one had every thought to pose such a question].
Happy happy birthday and welcome to 45 (I'm 45 too)!! I so respect your decision to take a Substack break. Thank you for your candor about it. I've been going through some mild midlife mental health crap and what with also trying to write another book I've been struggling to keep up motivation here too. It's SO helpful to see you listening to and respecting your needs, values and priorities. Enjoy your time off and I hope it's not all spent driving to and from baseball!!!
My anxiety spiked 250% just looking at that baseball schedule, Claire. So I am thrilled you're taking a break and I hope you get what you need out of it times ONE BILLION. Your subscribers, paid and otherwise, will be here when you get back.
Happy birthday! And taking time to recharge and renew is the witchiest thing ever. You cannot create magic from an empty cauldron! We’ll see you when you return. Enjoy that cabin!
Happy birthday, and enjoy your well-deserved time off. I love Evil Witches and appreciate how hard you work to create excellent, relevant content for us people who happen to be mothers. Your work is inspirational and useful - a tricky balance. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Happy birthday, and enjoy your break!!! No guilt for any reason.
The tween and early teen ages of sports or any activity requiring time and travel are SO VERY TIME CONSUMING. They aren’t rookie babies so they “can handle” earlier/longer/later games in worse weather, or longer drives, etc. - but YOU STILL HAVE TO TAKE THEM EVERYWHERRRRRRRRRRE. You’re not in the locker room or fretting quite as much about all the bits and bobs of equipment (or at least your kids can take their own lumps if they’ve forgotten something), and you can drop them at warmups and go get gas/coffee/a car wash/some alone time, but you’re still out and about. It’s a LOT.
No advice. Just a bar of Fels-Naptha soap raised in my fist in solidarity.
I’m just here to commiserate with the baseball schedule. Holy shit it’s 4x a week through June and my husband is an asst coach. Luckily I just have to show up and cheer loudly, but damn it’s the axis upon which we turn for the spring…
Your birthday plan and willingness to draw boundaries are honestly inspirational. Enjoy!
We are also starting the big kid/tween activity craziness and as a result I've been pulling back a little more at work as well because I've just decided like every other phase of parenting it only happens once and in the grand scheme of things not for a long time so I just decided it's more important for me to show up, even if it's with a book/New Yorker to get me through the boring parts. No reason to make ourselves crazy doing all the Things!
PS! I didn't even say Happy Birthday!! You deserve a birthday of whatever makes you happy. Also - it gets easier- post-peri ... my 50s were so much easier than my 40s on hormone/emotional front.
Happy birthday, happy break! Honestly, every time a woman I admire says no (even to me!) or otherwise draws a boundary, it's such a gift and I reminder that we can do that, too!
Happy Birthday! Every time your email pops up in my account I'm like "Ooh a FunEmail!" with absolutely zero (like, less than zero?) thought of the amount of time it's been since the previous. I'm sorry substack puts the grind-metrics-machine-monster front and center to make you constantly freak out but no one else notices.* Probably because of their kids sports schedule but my kids don't do sports so I don't even have that excuse.
*I'm stressing about this sentence for two reasons: 1) obviously unsure if the asterisk goes inside or outside the period but don't have the will to check in another tab and 2) I don't want to imply that I don't care because I enjoy getting FunEmail and I am a paid subscriber but if you asked me how many emails you sent last year vs. how many I expected, I would stare at you like you asked your children what they wanted to eat. [blankly, as if no one had every thought to pose such a question].
No worries!! I’m just glad my kids are not athletic lol, our extracurricular activity is therapy.
Happy happy birthday and welcome to 45 (I'm 45 too)!! I so respect your decision to take a Substack break. Thank you for your candor about it. I've been going through some mild midlife mental health crap and what with also trying to write another book I've been struggling to keep up motivation here too. It's SO helpful to see you listening to and respecting your needs, values and priorities. Enjoy your time off and I hope it's not all spent driving to and from baseball!!!
My anxiety spiked 250% just looking at that baseball schedule, Claire. So I am thrilled you're taking a break and I hope you get what you need out of it times ONE BILLION. Your subscribers, paid and otherwise, will be here when you get back.
Happy birthday! And taking time to recharge and renew is the witchiest thing ever. You cannot create magic from an empty cauldron! We’ll see you when you return. Enjoy that cabin!
Happy birthday, and enjoy your well-deserved time off. I love Evil Witches and appreciate how hard you work to create excellent, relevant content for us people who happen to be mothers. Your work is inspirational and useful - a tricky balance. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Happy birthday and thank you for running this newsletter AND taking time off of this newsletter, I love it.
Happy birthday, and enjoy your break!!! No guilt for any reason.
The tween and early teen ages of sports or any activity requiring time and travel are SO VERY TIME CONSUMING. They aren’t rookie babies so they “can handle” earlier/longer/later games in worse weather, or longer drives, etc. - but YOU STILL HAVE TO TAKE THEM EVERYWHERRRRRRRRRRE. You’re not in the locker room or fretting quite as much about all the bits and bobs of equipment (or at least your kids can take their own lumps if they’ve forgotten something), and you can drop them at warmups and go get gas/coffee/a car wash/some alone time, but you’re still out and about. It’s a LOT.
No advice. Just a bar of Fels-Naptha soap raised in my fist in solidarity.
I’m just here to commiserate with the baseball schedule. Holy shit it’s 4x a week through June and my husband is an asst coach. Luckily I just have to show up and cheer loudly, but damn it’s the axis upon which we turn for the spring…
Your birthday plan and willingness to draw boundaries are honestly inspirational. Enjoy!
We are also starting the big kid/tween activity craziness and as a result I've been pulling back a little more at work as well because I've just decided like every other phase of parenting it only happens once and in the grand scheme of things not for a long time so I just decided it's more important for me to show up, even if it's with a book/New Yorker to get me through the boring parts. No reason to make ourselves crazy doing all the Things!
dude never ever feel guilty for sending less email. your work is golden and it's always a pleasure and who in their right mind is like MOAR EMAIL?!
PS! I didn't even say Happy Birthday!! You deserve a birthday of whatever makes you happy. Also - it gets easier- post-peri ... my 50s were so much easier than my 40s on hormone/emotional front.
Tomorrow is my birthday!! Happy birthday, fellow Aries witch.
happy birthday! reclaim your time.
Happy birthday and enjoy the break! We understand!