Silence is Golden

My little DIY clip art. Here's, um, to simplicity.

Happy New Year. I mean it. I wish all of you an amazing year. I've read many of my friends posts about kicking 2014 out with gusto, but I've got to say - 2014 was lovely for me. So much so that I simply wish 2015 to be a continuation of 2014, or the next phase of what was started in 2014.

That means I'm...

• Writing more (working on polishing picture books and continuing to write my YA novel)

• Launching our second catering & wholesale brand (Fresh Betty, here she comes!)

• Growing Smokin' Pete's BBQ catering (or in the case of 2014, keeping up with the growth)

• Hiring and training good staff to match the growth (training being my weakness, I intend to put more time and energy into this crucial part of owning a business)

• Working out a lot more (yes!) and eating mindfully (repeat after me: ribs are not a snack)

That's a whole lot of more on my plate, a plate piled high and spilling over already. It means I have to make some concessions. I don't know if it's possible to do less housework. Not unless I want to start knitting dog hair sweaters, and, ew, no, but I won't feel guilty about hiring help in that department.

I also am taking at least a year off from blogging for Char-broil. I've loved working with them - they really treat their bloggers well - but I fell behind on assignments, or was rushing to get them in on time - and that's not my usual modus operandi.

I'll also be posting less on She-Smoke this year. Yeah, I know, if wasn't like I posted a ton last year, but I need my already too-spare writing time for fiction projects. I have some cookbook ideas simmering on the back burner (snort, giggle, slurp...mmmm, scribble, scribble, scribble), but this year is the year of the novel, (and picture books, and the poetry I write when I'm stuck on the first two).

Hmmm, I didn't mean for this post to be a whole New Year's resolution thing, but the bulleted list really makes it official. Hello 2015.

And so, to circle somewhat forcefully back to the title of this post, when I'm quiet, it means I'm working on good things.

May your year be filled with good things too.

Cater, cater, cater...be careful what you wish for!

We've fed the crew working on the 520 bridge a few times this year. Looks peaceful here but it was on a barge surrounded by construction equipment. We wore hard hats and orange vests too!

It appears that all my scheduled posts for the past two weeks didn't post so I'm just doing a quickie until I can figure out what happened.

I've been a busy girl.

For example, how does one cater 1750 people one day and then turn around and cater 900 the next, departing at 6am? One does it with some difficulty. Add in eight caterings the next day down a few staffers, followed by two caterings by just the owners, because you have to give people days off but not yourselves, and, well...I'm sore.

But that's not all, dear Sally and Dick, no that is not all I can do. Because there was a tiny space in the schedule, I fit in a brown belt karate test in the mix.

Yep. I'm sore. And though I got some dirty looks by the ladies I hired to clean my house yesterday (like this lady can't even pick up before we come? And did you look at her fridge?) I didn't care because no one has managed the household for weeks and frankly after being buried by caterings, I just couldn't die by burial of dog hair.

Look for blog posts in the next day or so that will come before this one. First I have to get the kids up, make their lunches, drive them to the kids club, pick up the laundry for Pete's, run to work, help get the 95 guest catering out, then take the smaller delivery, then join the other catering, and come back to do the May books for the accountant. Then I'll see what's going on with the blog...