An Entertaining “Best Of” for 2022

I’ve read many wonderful family updates during the last two weeks. I do love a good “round up/year in review” update, so here’s mine. If you just want the best-of list, skip down the page a bit. If you want the family update first, please continue…

The family update

In our corner of the world 2019 bought a punishing drought and wildfires on a scale that could be seen from space. 2020, of course, bought a plague that’s still wreaking havoc and sowing heartache. And the start of 2022 bought a flood. Not just any flood, mind you, but the worst flood this area has ever recorded—a true Noah event.

What happened in so many communities surrounding us in Feb 2022 was catastrophic, and Lismore, in particular, is nowhere near recovered. About three dozen families with kids at the boys’ school lost their houses and everything they owned. We were spared because we live up on a plateau, but as local grocery stores completely emptied, petrol stations ran dry, and the roads on every side of our little community remained flooded and impassible for more than a week, it was another sobering reminder of how vulnerable essential supply chains can be.

What else been going on for us?

Mike has been fully qualified as a coach for a year now, and is loving connecting with and encouraging people from all over the world who are navigating their own complicated journey through life. I’m loving seeing him loving it.

In the last couple of weeks Alex has finished grade three, collected an academic achievement award, and won a first place medal during his tennis camp competition. Alex’s two big loves at the moment are tennis and Harry Potter. His ability to read has skyrocketed this year thanks to JK Rowling. Alex got into Harry Potter so deep that he couldn’t wait to find out what happened next and read the third book himself before we could get there on audio (no small achievement given his previous reading had been mostly in the genre and difficulty level of The Bad Guys and Dog Man.)

Dominic went on a two-night overnight camp with school and it seems he was more in his element there–with ropes courses and campfires–than he is in the classroom. No big surprise. Given this, we are very proud of how Dominic continued to show up to school and work at learning during 5^th grade. His driving passion remains fishing. He went on three deep sea fishing charters this year, and has spent many afternoons and weekends fishing. Last week he landed a monster 80cm flathead in the Richmond River. It was 10cm over the legal keep limit, so he cheerfully and carefully released it again. 

Professionally, I’ve been busy with work for a wide variety of clients. My biggest professional “stretch and grow” this year has been in the area of psychological safety and coping when working with graphic and distressing content and misinformation. I am aiming to scale down work slightly during the first half of 2023 so that I can also work on my next book—a parenting memoir.   

So that’s a bit about us. What about the entertainment I promised? Here’s my “Best-Of” list in that arena for 2022. I’d love to hear some of your best-of as well. If you’ve written about it somewhere drop a link in the comments, or let me know your own recommendations.

 The Best-Of Entertainment in 2022

Best book(s) I’ve read: I really loved Phosphorescence: A Memoir Of Finding Joy When Your World Goes Dark by Julia Baird. I also really enjoyed How To Be Sad: Everything I’ve Learned About Getting Happier By Being Sad by Helen Russel, No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need To Hear) by Kate Bowler, and Wholehearted Faith by the late Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu. PS, Since my natural radar seems to be so tuned into books about the world going dark, I’m always on the lookout for recs for really good lighter reads. If you have some, please share! 

Best books read with the kids: All seven books in the Harry Potter series win here, hands down. We’ve been listening to the audiobooks on Audible and loving them. Jim Dale is a sublimely talented narrator.

Best book club discussion question: Ironically, this question was sparked by a book (Before The Coffee Gets Cold) that I just couldn’t get into. However, this discussion question was a corker. “If you could go back in time, knowing it would change nothing that happens afterwards, where would you go? Who would you talk to? Why?” So thought-provoking. Most of us sitting around the table ended up in tears answering this one.

Best podcast I’ve listened to: I’ve listened to a lot of really great podcasts this year. Here are just a few of the standouts:

• When Success Isn’t Success (Arthur Brooks In Conversation With Kate Bowler): Can we be more than the sum of our jobs? And what happens when the skills we develop during the first half of our lives stop serving us so well in the second half?
• Atomic Habits (James Clear in Conversation with Rangan Chatterjee): Do you believe habits are “good” or “bad”. This gives great insight into what habits are, and how to optimize them.
• Parenting a Child With PDA (Eliza Fricker in conversation with Debbie Reber): It’s taken Mike and I years to figure out that Dominic fits a PDA profile (Pathological Demand Avoidance, or Persistent Drive for Autonomy). In this episode, Eliza talks about her experiences of parenting a PDA child, and explains why individuals with PDA wiring tend not to respond to conventional parenting, teaching, or therapeutic approaches.

Best TV I’ve watched: There wasn’t much (any?) competition in this category. 2022 hasn’t yielded much space or energy for watching. But Mike and I recently watched From Scratch together and really enjoyed it. Great writing, complex characters, deep relationship arcs. (Also, however, should be noted that the world goes very dark in this series. You will cry.)

Best family TV we’ve watched: In this category, at least, I’ve lightened things up a little. We been watching Survivor: Season 43 together and the boys are hooked. This has led to all sorts of interesting discussions (not least of which is why women wear bras and sometimes struggle with incontinence—thank you advertising). We’ve also plowed through several seasons of How The Universe Works. Every single episode leaves me stunned and awestruck.

Best games we’ve played: Mike and I have played many happy games of Ticket To Ride (1910 Expansion) and Ticket To Ride (India) this year while the kids were having iPad at 5pm and dinner was in the oven. The kids, meanwhile, were often Minecraft together, or this truly strange game in the Apple Arcade store called Sneaky Sasquatch, which they both adore.

Best new dinner recipe: This online recipe for greek meatballs has become a family favorite. I make a double batch, roll them, and freeze 2/3rds for later. Shove a pan of butternut pumpkin and eggplant in the oven to roast, pan-fry your meatballs and make some tzatziki while you’re waiting, then wrap the whole lot up in tortillas or Pita. So delicious, but use fresh herbs and don’t skimp on the salt.

ALSO, though… as a hot runner-up, I have to mention the from-scratch Carbonaro recipe in this cookbook, Uncomplicated, paired with oven-roasted lemon-zested broccoli (also in this cookbook). Add sauteed mushrooms to the carbonara, because that totally negates all the saturated fat in the egg yolks, cream, and parmesan. Really.

Most “liked” post I wrote about the kids: Lots of you “voted” for this post I put up on Thanksgiving, making it my most popular post of the year

 It’s Thanksgiving in the US. It’s summer here. No one could be bothered to cook a turkey ++ so we marked Thanksgiving this year by going to the local tavern.

The meal had its highlights (sweet potato wedges, laughter, together time around the table) but it had its lowlights, too.

It started with Alex sitting at a whole separate table declaring he was DONE having a brother, he wanted to be adopted by another family, and could I please get that organized by Christmas.

The evening’s intermission included me walking home alone from the tavern because I was too cranky with the little beings in the backseat to want to get in the car.

And the show finale included me crossly ordering both boys into their rooms at 8pm, with strict instructions for Dominic to LEAVE ALEX ALONE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL OUR SANITY, only to have Dominic knock the screen out of his window, crawl out onto the roof, and bang on Alex’s bedroom window from the outside, cackling maniacally.

The boys took this photo at the tavern last night. They were playing with my iphone, trying to take the most ridiculous shots possible, and incoherent with collaborative laughter.

Alex had temporarily put his plans to place himself up for adoption on hold. Even as I was trying hard to restrain myself from reminding them for the 10th time to take their sticky fingers off the camera lens, I knew it was a sweet moment.

And all in all, I think the photo that resulted is sort of fitting for this year. Life has color days, and then it has black and white days. It has days when everything’s straight and level, and then it has days where everything is WAY off axis. Around here, it has many moments where one of us is managing to smile for the camera, and the other one is giving the kids a look.

One thing that rarely falters though, is my thankfulness for my partner in life & parenting – Mike. Love you on colour days and on black & white days. Love you when our kids are asleep and when they’re roaming around on the roof. There’s no one I’d rather take charge of the kids while I walk home from Thanksgiving alone, fantasizing about throwing both our iPads in the trash for at least a year. You’re the best.

On that note, here’s to 2023. May it bring many colour days, when things feel straight and level, when smiling comes easy, and when no one argues about screen time. May it bring love, in all its sweetest guises.

Happy New Year.
Lisa