Dear Blog, Since it's Spring technically for a few more weeks, I figured it was time to update your look As always, this is a work in progress.  I realize I miss blogging, but as it has been since I lost my job in 2012, I find it hard to include it in my time management of the week. I need to get better at that, especially since I am publishing in the next few months. (I'll share more on that later.) I'm working on my social media strategy or pretending to when in reality I'm window shopping or on Pinterest. There's been a lot of goings on since we last chatted. Munchkin is 3 and a half. She's smart, kind, funny, sassy, and both me and Hubby are in so much trouble as she gets older. The White One and The Stripey One coexist with Munckin and while she loves Stripey, she has a love/hate relationship with The White One. I hope to keep this blog as light and as fun as it was when it was branded Slice of the Blog Pie, but I need to go with a little more professionali...

I love A Wrinkle in Time. It's one of my all-time favorite books. Yet, I never thought "I so need this to be a movie." So when the news came out one was being made, I got more than a little nervous. Credit Because of the fan contract, I went to see it over the weekend with Bestie Danielle. People I knew who saw it loved it, but the reviews in general were not good. This didn't color my opinion either way. For the first time ever I went into a movie with no preconceived notions and was just along for the ride. The movie wasn't a total aberration but it wasn't really true to canon either. There's a reason why they say "based on" and not "exact replica." Instead of a true movie reviewer style write up, I'll break this down by what they got right and was they didn't. What Was Right Charles Wallace. OMG, I loved Charles Wallace. He was precocious and adorable and slightly off just like the book version. The actor delive...

Ever since having Munchkin, I've struggled with clothing. This has to do with my post-preggo body which still has all the baby weight plus more fluff in the front than before. I wore a mix of leggings, maxi skirts, oversized shirts, and maternity clothes for the first nine months post-partum. Even now seventeen months after giving birth, I still have at least four maternity tops in rotation* and will wear leggings and a hoodie any chance I get. One of the normal post-partum styles for me Despite my post-partum outfits being comfortable, I felt frumpy. A lot of my clothes didn't fit the same exact way they did pre-Munchkin since the fluff shifted to different areas which made wearing my old clothes pretty much awful. If I went clothes shopping, I'd come home with more leggings and oversized shirts. I needed to change my style to something a little more in line with how I used to dress and find things that defined me. Enter Stitch Fix . What you should know: Stitch...

Lately I've been in sort of a rut. And what do you do when you're in a rut? You want to shake things up, of course. Now, I'm not the type who likes to shake things up or do anything impulsive* so I thought this through. I kept going back to my hair. I wanted to do something drastic to my hair. Ready to plunge in But what could I do? My day job is in a corporate environment so whatever I did had to work there. This really limited what I could do. I could do an edgy, professional cut but I'm someone who considers a messy bun as the height of hairstyle and the less product, the better. And I hate having short hair so that also limited what could be done. So a hair cut was out. That led me to color. I've been coloring my hair for years in the auburn and red zone for the most part but I wanted a funky color. Without bleaching my hair. I did some research and found the Splat Midnight series. It's technicolor hair dye for brunettes who just don't want to ...

Credit Rumor has it there are people out there who are called "optimists." I call shenanigans. There's more chance of me riding a unicorn than meeting one of these other cryptozoologic wonders. But as someone who has an impressionable child, it's my job to keep those horrible sarcastic, doubtful thoughts far away. So how the heck does this get achieved? Warning: Amateur hour advice ahead! Medicate. Medicate, medicate, medicate. Take a thousand uppers, have too many Frappucinos, mainline caffeine. Do anything humanly possible to stay upbeat.  Create a panic room. But not the kind you use for an alien invasion or an insane president. This will be solely for when you feel the need to spew out every negative thing in your brain but don't want anyone to hear. Make sure you have some wine in there as you might be in there for a while. Have a questionable agenda. It's true. No one will suspect you're planning world domination if you're positive a...

If you've been around for a while, you've heard me talk about mimes and a book with I refer to as SFLN. If you're curious to know more about it now's the time! What was called Scenes from Last Night is now up on Kindle Scout as SCAVENGER NIGHT. If you're not familiar with Kindle Scout, it's an initiative through Amazon that empowers the readers to select the books that will be published. Each book has a 30 day window where people can read a tag line, short blurb, and an excerpt. If you like what you read, you can nominate it and share it for others to nominate too. If you get enough nominations, you get a publishing contract and an advance for your book. Pretty sweet, right? Right! What's SCAVENGER NIGHT about anyway? It sounds like a horror book. It's definitely not a horror book. It's a YA contemporary with humor and mimes. For Leo, winter break always meant tearing it up at Chaplin Point’s annual Christmas scavenger hunt. Not this year. ...

Last year, my word for the year was strive . I felt it was a great word since I had a lot of changes in my life and it was a kind word which gave allowances if I backslid or did not succeed at something. Even now I still use this as a reminder to be kind to myself. Credit But strive was so 2017. We're well into 2018 and it's time to focus on the present. This year my word is "create." Create means to bring something into existence which has broad applications. I definitely had writing on the brain when I chose my word but it applies to other aspects of my life as well. Now I'm not consciously creating anything but keep this word in the back of my brain is enough to think outside of the box for solutions, for pursuing creative initiatives, for fostering a creative life in Munchkin. Do you have a word for this year? If you do, share it below and how you plan to incorporate it in every day life!

Happy Monday, Lurkdom! It's been almost a year since I last wrote and a lot has happened. Some of it great, some of it not so much. Regardless of what it was, I've been BUSY. Well, what the heck have you been doing? Parenting. A lot, a lot of parenting. Munchkin demands takes up a lot of time. But you know what? That's okay because she is the funniest, craziest, cutest Munchkin around. She loves the movies Trolls and Sing so much I can most definitely do monologues from both. She tells me to shush if I want to sing her to sleep and insists on eating apples in their natural, uncut, unpeeled form. With all of my time being consumed by my daughter I'm learning how to crunch in writing in different ways and that is an ongoing process. I'm trying to do more writing in the morning so I can spend my evenings doing things like watching movies with Hubby or crocheting or staring at the cat but I got to say this is a hard transition. I've taken up bullet journal...

The art of the daily blog has pretty much slipped away, at least for me. The scant time I have between the day job and raising Munckin* I use to focus on writing. It only makes sense. What good is an audience if you don't have a book? Of course, the same can be said for the other side of the coin. But I haven't forgotten about you, Lurkdom. Honest. I'm working real hard on trying to get it all figured out. So to help myself with this, I'm introducing a new feature. It's called Things I Haven't Told You. What in the Sam Hill are you planning? Well, it's not that hard to figure out. We've been in a relationship for nine years. There are things I haven't shared with you that I believe will entertain you. Perhaps even resonate with you. And what is blogging if not about connections?** Okay, Miss Smarty Pants. What haven't you told me? Glad you asked. I've talked about SFLN on here a few times. During those mentions, the word "mime...

The Lurkdom knows how much I'm anti-resolution and am more about goals. Being a new mom hasn't changed this, if anything I'm more pro-goal than before. Historically, I always fall short on what I want to achieve. That's why this year, I'm working a new angle. A lot of people are already on board the one word for the year bandwagon, but I'm new to it*. If you're new to it too, you can read about it here . (Disclaimer: I ignore all the happy-fuzzy God things for reasons that I will not get into here.) Credit This year's word? STRIVE. With all the changes in my life, this word is appropriate. It's a kind word, but filled with potential at the same time. I'll strive to be less anxious; I'll strive to eat better; I'll strive not to relate everything back to my daughter or cats. These are just examples because I should be striving in all things**. If what I'm reaching for is attained, great. If not, I don't need to be hard on ...

Dear Blog, I know it's been almost a year since I've been here and I'm sorry but life got in the way. I know, I know. You're going to say "that's not an excuse" but it is and it's real. Things that happened in 2016: the day job changed I became a mom But I miss you and hope to make time for you this year. Kissy kissy, Alicia

If you live in the Northeast, congratulations on surviving the coldest weekend we've had in a long, long time. According to one report, Boston had the coldest Valentine's Day since the 50s. But! Despite the arctic temperatures there's minimal snow, so I'm pretty happy. Especially since the day job changed their snow day policy to read as "we don't do snow days," the lack of snow is a blessing. Winter though has done a number on me. I can't get enough sleep. This makes doing things like anything outside of the 9-5 super hard. Unless you count re-binge watching Veronica Mars that is. How I Did Last Week Well, last week I had no goals because I forgot to do that. But I can tell you I did nothing.  Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week Exhaustion. There are no words for how tired I've been. This weekend alone I slept 21 of 48 hours. That's almost an entire day of sleeping. My Goals For This Week Bite the bullet and start the re...

It's February. I'm not sure how this happened because it seems like I just blogged about patience being my focus this year *. Hubby and I have done more adulting in the last two weeks than we've probably done in the 13 years we've been together, but it's all going to be worth it. Our cluttered apartment is becoming a pretty mature looking home bit by bit and hopefully it will clear out my brain enough to be able push through revisions, writing, and all things businessy. How I Did Last Week I rewrote the beginning of my new first chapter and then stopped again because the household stuff actually had to take precedence. Hopefully this week it will be different. Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week The adulting again. It really is a two-team effort. Plus, if we didn't continue with The Great Purge of 2016, we wouldn't have found a dozen cat toys hidden under the couch. My Goals For This Week Complete the new first chapter. Print out paperwork I ne...

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. How I Did Last Week I managed to complete both of my goals for the week. I did two read throughs for SFLN and wrote about two paragraphs towards my new opening. Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week Adulting. Hubby and I for Christmas decided we were getting a new couch and kitchen table, which we did purchase. They will be here by March. (Hooray!) But with the new purchase coming means we have a deadline to make sure we have room for the larger couch. So there was a lot of cleaning and organizing this weekend. My Goals for the Week Continue to work on this new first chapter. Even though I'm not happy with my writing progress, I am loving our almost 100% organized and clean kitchen. We f...

Just because I said my focus this year is patience , doesn't mean I can skip through the weeks without any weekly plan. I tried that in December and all I accomplished was playing lots of Candy Crush. So, I'll continue with the weekly goals. Just not as militant. For the upcoming week, I'm keeping my goals simplistic. They are: Complete another read through of SFLN. Begin drafting SFLN's new first chapter. Hope your goals and plans are going great!

Welcome to 2016! If you know me, you know me and resolutions aren't really friends. Probably because I don't know how to make realistic or effective resolutions. They are always like "drop three pants sizes" or "publish all the things" which is great, if I actually took circumstance into account when I make them. This is why I'm changing the way I approach resolutions this year. I'm not creating a list. I'm not creating a goal or goals. Nope. This year I'm only focusing on one word: patience. With Hubby's health, with my writing journey, with the day job--everything. I'm the type of girl who likes to be three steps ahead all the time and when I'm not, my anxiety grows. And over 2015 my anxiety knew no bounds. If I can take a seat back and just breathe, things will fall into place.

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. November is over. Or it will be tomorrow. I can't even think of words because all the words were used during NaNoWriMo. But, I can officially put up my tacky Christmas decorations now. So, YES to that. How I Did Last Week Write about 10K more on The SNI. Success! I've written over 18K this week. Leave the house by 5.30 during the week. Meh. Kinda sorta happened. Most days. Continue to take the stairs at work. Success! My Goals for This Week Complete The SNI draft at about 80K Read all the things. Walk up the stairs at work Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week Hubby's birthday was this past weekend so I figured I wouldn't get any writing in, but Hubby being Hubby m...

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. Well, we've entered Week 4 of November. It's a week of all the things at Chez Gregoire: Thanksgiving, continual writing, and a milestone birthday for Hubby. It's also been 4 years since The White One had that horrible surgery because we couldn't figure out what was wrong. (Note: we're still paying off that surgery.. Gladly.) How I Did Last Week Write about 10K more on The SNI. Success! I've written over 17K this week. Leave the house by 5.30 during the week. Meh. Kinda sorta happened. Most days. Continue to take the stairs at work. Success! My Goals For This Week Since last week's goals were attainable and still valid. Let's do a repeat of them, shall we? ...

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. How I Did Last Week Write between 10,000 and 14,000 words this week. Nailed it. 19K written this week. Write the Week 3 Pep Talk for NaNoBoston, the Boston region for NaNoWriMo   Done! Continue to wake up at 4 and out the door by 5.30 the latest. Meh... a little dicey there. Continue taking the stairs at the day job. Yep. I'm surprised I haven't died from all the stairs yet. My Goals for This Week Write about 10K more on The SNI. Leave the house by 5.30 during the week. Continue to take the stairs at work. Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week The day job. There, I said it. Something I Love About My WIP That I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. My world buildin...

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. So, it's November. It's NaNoWriMo . I'm lucky I know my name right now. I'm about 18,000 words into the SNI and I have a whole lot of work in store for Future Alicia, which you will undoubtedly hear about down the road when I talk about how Past Alicia did no prep work at all. How I Did Last Week   Well, last week I had no goals because I had no post. So let's look at goals from a few weeks ago: Send out SFLN to the two agents I promised it to. DONE Complete my plotting and preplanning for The SNI. Meh, I got *some* done. Most of NaNo is being pantsed this year. Stretch goal--> Exercise. I've been taking the stairs at the day job for the last week because we mo...