For the past year, I’ve been working on a passion project, publishing a children’s book. I’m thrilled to share that I’m closer than ever. Why We Eat With Our Hands, a story inspired by my daughter, should be available in 2022.
Although children’s picture books are short, writing this book was a tremendous amount of work. Getting it finished is proving to be a tremendous amount of work too. There is so much involved but I am enjoying the process.
With everything on my plate, I decided to give myself permission to pause. Thus, I am pausing the blog and Money Checkup podcast until the fall. I’ll be back then with home renovation updates and, hopefully, more news about the book.
What Why We Eat With Our Hands Means to Me
I never really paid attention to children’s books until we had Nyla. While trying to build her bookshelf, I found it really hard to fill it with stories about different cultures that feature diverse characters.
It was hard to find books that Nyla can truly see herself in. So Why We Eat With Our Hands is a story about a little girl, also named Nyla, who learns something interesting from her grandmother about her Indian heritage.
I’m thrilled to be working with Modern Marigold Books, an independent publisher of own-voice children’s books, to bring this story to life. Shelley Seguinot is illustrating the book, and it looks gorgeous so far. I’m hoping to have it ready by Spring 2022.
How I Prioritized This Project
As a business owner, I am always busy. (Sometimes I’m a lot busier than I want to be — I didn’t take a vacation for three years after I launched FIT Advisors.) The same is true as a parent. Sometimes it can be really difficult to find time to focus on anything other than work and family.
But life and world events are impossible to ignore. Like almost everyone, the COVID-19 pandemic made juggling those two things so much more challenging, whether it was homeschooling Nyla or figuring out how to see loved ones or waiting for updates about our family members abroad who haven’t yet been vaccinated. We’re also in the middle of a home renovation big enough that we moved out of our house for the summer.
In the spring, it became clear that I did not have the time or energy to do all of this. But one of the good things about being a business owner is that I don’t always have to be growing. When my clients are taken care of and my business is where I want it to be, I can relax a little and focus on passion projects like this.
Thus, I’ve decided to give myself permission to take a break from my podcast, Money Checkup, and my blog. I’ll use the time this frees up to focus on my book to-do list and work on our home renovation. I will be back in the fall with new content!
In the meantime, you can still submit questions and guest suggestions for the podcast here.
