December Reflections & Looking Ahead to 2026

Let's start this post on a festive note. The pictures above show food from the Thanksgiving meal that I prepared and our small Christmas Tree that we put up with some new ornaments this year. For our Thanksgiving meal that we did on the Saturday after, I would like to thank the New York Times Cooking app for some great recipes! I made a Pomegranate-Glazed Turkey with Brown Butter Gravy that turned out juicy and delicious. I made homemade Everything Parker House Rolls that I have made at least four times now and we always eat the dozen in about one day! I also made tarts for the first time: a blueberry and a cranberry tart. The curd ended up being perfect even though it requires time and patience! Everyone liked the blueberry one better. I also made a homemade pecan pie, but made some type of mistake and ended up being very salty; so that was a disappointment. Overall, the Thanksgiving meal ended up being a big success with most of it being homemade!

Then last week, I got Covid for the second time, which was unexpected and a nuisance. The first night was the worst, which was how the first time went too. However, the headache that I had was probably one of the most intense headaches I've had in my whole life that lasted about eight hours before it finally got better after I took some pain medication. Needless to say, I haven't been able to exercise for about a week now and haven't run in almost two weeks probably, which is okay, but at the same time I don't feel good about this. I am probably going to join the local wellness center in the community in the next couple of weeks, so that I can run on the treadmills since it is winter and already has been too cold for me to run outside.

In other news, I finally found out about the contest that I submitted my third unpublished novel to and unfortunately I didn't make it. I am slightly disappointed but I also didn't have high expectations either. The next steps include deciding to possibly submit it to some other publishing companies for review or to self-publish again. I probably need someone to read it through though and give some feedback or at least look over it for editing purposes. I still like to write and would like to be an author that does sell some novels. I have started thinking about a new novel, but I haven't gotten past writing the first couple of pages.

I am still seeing some sales in my two self-published novels on Amazon, but mainly The Zumba Class and also Betty & Clark. I actually recently hit a small milestone in total sales numbers, which gives me some inspiration and drive to keep writing!

Reading-wise, I am still reading East of Eden and have hit the halfway point. I would like to finish it before the end of the year, but things have been crazy with sickness, grading, and everything else. I know that my fifteen-year-old self didn't like it and probably read it very quickly, but now I am like, "there is so much here to think about and consider!" I feel like I should wait until I finish it to really try to put my thoughts and ideas into words about it, but the connection to the Bible and themes from the book of Genesis are illuminating on so many levels!

In other events, the semester is ending and I could not be happier as far as my writing classes with the community college are concerned. AI is very much in the forefront of my mind and realizing how many students are using it and are getting away with it because we can't as educators with our instincts and all the software out there really prove anything. I am afraid students are taking advantage of it, which is so counterintuitive in my mind for a writing class because the whole point is to work on and improve your writing skills. However, maybe writing skills are becoming obsolete, which is a fear of mine and thus, how much of what I am grading is basically work written by AI? And like I said, since we can't really prove students use of AI, it feels like a lot of this has become, "well, we can't really do anything about it and if they use AI, try to talk to the students about it, but if they deny it then you just have to take their word." Frankly, it makes me mad and it almost seems like a slap in the face when you tell writing instructors that you can't do anything and especially when the students go on the offense, then we just need to take their word for it and let them keep on keeping on with this new reality!

There have been a lot of other things going on as you might guess, but I am trying not to go overboard with this post. I am starting to think about 2026 more and goals and things that I want to work towards. Obviously, I am already registered for the marathon next year, so that is something that I will be working towards. I am seriously starting to consider studying and learning Hebrew or more specifically Biblical Ancient Hebrew. I want to complete another novel, possibly one that I have already started or a new one, but I am not sure yet as well as figure out what to do about my third novel. It is always important to have goals and think of new goals, which is what I am doing!