Year 9 Blogiversary

Nine years! How has that much time passed since I started my little blog as a side project? Post graduate school I had more time on my hands than I’d had since middle school to pick my love of reading back up, and the Critiquing Chemist was born out of the intent to build a personal archive I could reflect back upon if needed. Plus I wanted a way to capture the many theories my lab mates and I had speculated upon with titles such as The Game of Thrones. While my review style has evolved along the way, I always find it a good reminder of the start to revisit my first review, The Martian.

I’m beyond thankful and a stunned at how the Critiquing Chemist has grown beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Yes, I’m reusing much of my post from past two years but between a demanding management job and having two kids under four my time has never been in more demand. I’m sure you can hear them yelling, “MOMMA” through the screen. That said, my favorite part of starting this blog has been, and continues to be the platform it has provided to connect and network with fellow book lovers, authors, and bloggers. This blog would have likely passed into oblivion years ago had it not been for my new friends all over the world who have encouraged and supported me along the way. Thank you for helping create this community I’ve come to so thoroughly enjoy!

Highlights of the Critiquing Chemist over the past eight years would include surpassing the 5,000 follower mark, interviewing Peter V. Brett, and incorporating my love of traveling into this platform. Being a judge for Mark Lawrence’s Self Published Fantasy Blog Off for the past five years would definitely be another high. I loved seeing Brent Week’s new novel, Night Angel Nemesis, come to print with my name in the acknowledgements as a beta reader. That said, my absolute favorite reading moment of the past eight years has been receiving an advanced review copy of Dark Age by Pierce Brown. Really, finding any much anticipated advanced review copy in my mailbox has been a major source of excitement, ultimately fulfilling a bucket-list item that never quite seems to be sated.

Lastly, I’m thankful to all the authors I’ve met and grateful that you are brave enough to share your literary worlds with your readers. It takes courage to open up to the world anything you create, let alone when it takes the time and effort needed to produce a book.

Year Nine (July 2023-June2024)

Year eight was dominated by the sudden loss of my Mom. Year nine held much of its own devastation with the loss of my Grandma Lockwood after a short battle with aggressive cancer in March. In the subsequent weeks we found out my Grandma had a genetic mutation that we have discovered I share, which has lead me down my own path of doctor appointments and a double mastectomy coming this summer. The past year has been heavy to say the least.

That said, it has also been filled with an over abundance of happiness, paired with a proportional reduction in sleep with the arrival of our sweet Rhett Aloysius in August 2023. Rhett has been such a wonderful addition to our family with both him and Quinn giving us such joy. He is such a happy and sweet little guy who started walking just over 9 months and hasn’t slowed down since. Quinn has been a fantastic big sister and such a help for us. I’ve loved seeing her personality develop from her love of sports, especially football and gymnastics to her love of the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Narnia. While the lows this year have been extra heavy and overwhelming, Rhett and Quinn have given us the joy to counter the hard times.

We went on two wonderful adventures in year nine from a trip to Disney with Luke’s mom after her own difficult diagnosis, to taking the kids on a 10 day road trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Both trips were filled with memories and laughing. The kids did fantastic on the long road trip, with all of us falling in love with Newfoundland. Our last stop of the trip was at Cape Spear, the most eastern part of North America where we saw dozens of whales in the water around the fort. It was a core memory experience and the perfect way to end the trip. I’ll eventually get around to writing up a post about the trip. We did a new activity where we wrote a journal about our trip to capture the experience in real time and save memories and mementos.

Statistics

Reading wise it should be no surprise that my numbers were way down with Rhett adding a new demand on my time. I’ve often said though that I put no expectations on the number of books I want to target reading in a year. Every book I read is a joy and I don’t want to put pressure on not making a quota when I’m thankful to fit in any sort of reading with two babies under four and a full time job. I know I’m already on track in year ten to far surpass year nine.

SPFBO9 and SPFBOX

Year 9 encompassed the end of my fourth year and the beginning of my fifth year as a judge in Mark Lawrence’s Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). The last couple of years my good friend Jennie and I paired up with the lovely Lynn’s Books to judge. I stepped back the past two years with Rhett’s arrival by only getting Lynn to the beginning of the second phase. I’ve so loved this contest from being introduced to talented new authors to meeting wonderful fellow bloggers. That said, with two little demanding my time, I can’t see a sixth year in the books for me, though it will be difficult to fully step away from the contest!

Travel

Disney World, Orlando, FL

Burncoat Head Park, Nova Scotia, CA

Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, CA

Terra Nova National Park and Eastport Peninsula, Newfoundland, CA

Bonavista Peninsula, Newfoundland, CA

Cape Spear, Newfoundland, CA

Beekeeping and Farming

We have been spending most of our weekends on the farm with the kids who thoroughly love every new adventure we encounter down there. Rhett loves gator rides with Papa and demands tractor rides every chance he can. Quinn has been enjoying getting in her bee suit and going with us to visit our honeybees. We are also in the process of building our new barn on the farm right across from my Dad’s house.