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🍉 Sweet Summertime

July 15, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing

Greetings, Orange Peeps!

My family is entering a rare period of the year where we don’t have any youth sports or activities. It only happens twice a year – In Christmas and late July.

My oldest daughter’s softball team just wrapped up their season by taking third place in their state tournament. Woo hoo! #ProudSoftballMom

My youngest daughter is finishing up her dance intensives this week with hopes to join a competitive dance line next year. Fingers crossed! #ProudDanceMom

Youth sports definitely has its not-so-glamorous moments that almost always resides with adults. Take your pick- Parents screaming at umpires over a call, or seasoned dance moms glaring at the incoming kids who are just hoping to make the team.

Despite this, I find that there are some pretty spectacular lessons that can be learned from kids in sports. For instance, my daughter’s softball team was one of the youngest teams in their class. After winning all of their games last year, they were bumped up as a ‘C’ team in the next class. The girls would get so deflated every time we would lose against a B team.

“We lost because they were a ‘B team’.”

But then one tournament, they beat a B team. From that moment on, they didn’t let the letter matter to them.

You should have seen this team battle through their state tournament. One game went into triple overtime and I had to pinch myself to remember that these little humans are only nine years old.

Similarly, the day before my daughter’s dance intensives, she decided she no longer wanted to go through with it. I was shocked! I said, “What are you talking about? You love dance!”

She explained to me that she was nervous. “I’ve never danced Jazz before, Mom!”

I reminded her to just have fun and show the instructors the things she knew from ballet and tap. And that’s exactly what she did. That little firecracker danced her heart out and her love for dance was practically seeping from her pores. I could not have been more proud.

Reminder you are more than the category people place you in, and you truly love something it will always shine through. ❤️

Our sport-free period will consist of lake time, beach time, boating, golfing, bonfires, and (hopefully) some writing. Can’t wait!

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Decision Paralysis as a Busy Momma Writer

May 16, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as BusyMom, Mom, Momlife, VelrcoPuppy, Writer

It’s a quarter to seven on a Sunday morning. The house is quiet. I’m up before my family. It’s just me, my velcro-puppy, and the birds chirping outside my window. There are no sports today which is a STARK contrast from the daily rat race of fastpitch softball, dance classes, obedience training, talent show practice, Girl Scout meetings, birthday parties, house work, and the job that actually pays me.

But today I’m up early and this time is mine. Sure, I contemplate getting in a morning work-out, taking aforementioned velcro-puppy on a walk, or making a nice breakfast for my family.

Today, writing wins.

Which of my writing projects should I work on? Sometimes this decision is so easy, but today it is not. Typically, I select the book that is speaking the loudest to me. I can hear the characters talking to each other, just waiting for me to start typing their conversations. But today, no one is talking. That would be way too convenient!

I make my coffee and settle in on the loveseat in the living room. My favorite non-ergonomic writing spot. Velcro-puppy claims her rightful spot next to me.

Indecision joins too.

Should I open that finished children’s book (the one that I hadn’t planned to write) and work on edits?

How about Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please the sequel? Am I feeling like a rhyming qween this morning?

Oooh, maybe I’ll work on my romance novel?

Side note- Total rookie mistake but I not-so-accidentally wrote the second novel of my four-book series before writing the first novel. Whoops!

The second novel is talking. No! That one is done. It’s edited. It’s waiting on book one! Let’s write book one!

Moon rhymes with spoon! DUH! Of course moon rhymes with spoon! It’s a nursery rhyme ya dummy!

I finally click into book one of my romance series and I’m ready to write. I navigate to where I left off and place my hands on the keys, just as the door to my daughter’s room opens and small feet start padding down the hallway.

I tried, I lie.
Goodbye!

Damnit.

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More Variety

April 16, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as ChildrensLit, macandcheese, Variety, Writer, writerslife, writing

I am happy to report that our Girl Scout cookie hustle has wrapped up for season. Hopefully now I can stop giving mental space to Thin Mints and Lemonades.

Unfortunately, Sprinter continues in Minnesota. Actually, we’ve experienced all four seasons this weekend. On Friday, we had 83 degrees and sunny. Today we have 30 degrees and snowing.

Sometimes variety isn’t such a great thing.

I had a bout of sneaky creativity recently. I sat down to work on Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please the Sequel (working title) and I ended up finishing a completely different children’s book that I started years ago. Like, M&CPPP it’s a rhyming story about food.

As a children’s book author, I wish that rhyming came a lot easier to me. The truth is that I struggle when I’m trying to rhyme. My best rhymes come to me usually when I’m not trying or even writing for that matter. It’s typically when I’m crawling into bed after staying up waaaaay too late binging Love is Blind on Netflix, or when I’m mid-shampoo in the shower. So frustrating!

Anyways, I finished a book! Yay! Now I get to start the wonderful journey of editing and self-doubt. So fun! I also need to find an illustrator – Hoping to collaborate with a fellow Minnesotan on this. The topic is very niche to Minnesota (hint, hint). Good vibes are welcomed!

Here’s a text that my husband received this week from a close friend of ours:

He’ll be happy to know that more variety is on the way. 🙂

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Real Talk.

March 16, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as Multi-tasking, parenting, snow, Thin Mints, Winter

Real talk rn…I have to give so much kudos to those of you that have mastered the multi-tasking of parenting, working full-time, and writing. I’ll fully admit that I’m not the greatest at it.

Last fall my youngest came home with a flier for the Girl Scouts. She waved that thing in my face and said, “Mommy, I want to do this!”

Being that both my kids are already enrolled in multiple sports, swimming lessons, and that she was just getting into the groove of kindergarten, I was a little hesitant. I’m so glad that I ultimately said yes because she’s truly found her tribe in this pint-sized troop, and it’s been a wonderful experience.

What I didn’t expect was that cookie season would be a FULL TIME SIDE HUSTLE!

I anticipated that there would be some time commitment, but let’s be real, six year olds are not equipped to manage the inventory and sales of this (at least my six year old isn’t). I can barely figure out the application used for online sales!! I had to create my own spreadsheet for keeping track of the cookie inventory that we’ll be responsible for if we don’t sell these things. For the love of Thin Mints, my sanity (and my waistline) is very much ready for cookie season to end.

Another thing that I need to end is the SNOW.

As I write this, Minnesota is experiencing our seventh snowiest winter on record. This miserable achievement is compounded by the fact that my husband injured his neck earlier this winter and I’ve been tasked with mastering the BEAST of a snow blower that we own. My husband is basically “Tim The Tool Man Taylor” and every motorized piece of equipment we own is unnecessarily massive.

Please send sunshine and red wine (It pairs nicely with Thin Mints).

man removing snow with snow blower — Photo by Александр Коновалов on Pexels.com

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More Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please

February 16, 2023 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as Children's stories, Childrens Lit, Mac and Cheese, teachers, writing

My eldest daughter was in kindergarten the year that I published my children’s book, Mac and Cheese, Please, Please Please. Her Kindergarten teacher and classmates instantly became my “M&C Triple P Fan Club”. I mean, it’s a rhyming book with easy to read words, repeated sentence structure and a memorable plot-twist ending… That has ‘Kindergartener’ written all over it! (Pun 100% intended)

As a lot of parents can relate, my daughter’s kindergarten year was impacted by the pandemic and her class moved to a distanced learning format to finish out the year.

Fast forward a few years and you can imagine our delight when my daughter learned that her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. K, would now be her third grade teacher! I was honestly feeling relief because after Mrs. K transferred to third grade, all I heard about was how my daughter hoped she had Mrs. K for third grade, and I was not prepared to deal with the disappointment had that not been the outcome.

When we went to open house at the beginning of the school year, my daughter quickly recognized that a lot of the kids from her kindergarten class were going to be in her third grade class too. When we pointed this out to Mrs. K she smiled and said that she had asked the principal if she could have as many kinds from her kindergarten class as possible so they could, “Finally finish the year together.”

Her words still make me cry. We are so lucky to have teachers like Mrs. K.

As it turns out, the kids in this class are still diehard Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please fans and they are straight-up demanding another book. So I started writing the sequel and I’m pretty excited about it. The only teaser that I’ll share is that my kids helped me pick the setting of the book, and as a result I’ve been watching A LOT of YouTube videos about space. Excited to share more updates soon!