AK Month-to-month Recap: January 2023

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January goes to be a month of labor, I vowed. I’m not going to waste my motivation this 12 months.

I don’t learn about you, however I really feel SO MUCH MOTIVATION at the start of the 12 months. New 12 months’s resolutions, goal-setting, taking your small business to the subsequent degree.

January is a month once I need to buckle down, work onerous, and do little else. And I didn’t notice that till final 12 months, when Charlie and I spent January in Puerto Vallarta and realized that we had been spending our large work month in a rustic that’s all about play.

So this 12 months we determined to remain put — and it labored. We stayed in Prague, leaving solely to choose up our new classic desk in Olomouc. We cuddled with the cats, tried out axe throwing, went out for some good Georgian meals, went on a stroll in a snowstorm.

And with that month of labor behind us, we’re able to hit the street once more. And the timing is ideal. By the point February hits, you’re able to get out of the chilly!

Kate wearing a plaid shirt and holding a cup of tea in one hand and an axe in another in front of a sign reading "the house of axes" — Axe throwing with my mulled wine!

Table of Contents

Locations Visited

Prague and Olomouc, Czech Republic

Highlights

I’ve a model new child niece! One in all my greatest pals welcomed a brand new child this month, and he or she is BEYOND good! I’m so glad she arrived safely and might’t wait to get her a flower headband for my wedding ceremony.

Bringing dwelling a very cool classic eating desk. Final month I talked in regards to the classic chairs we discovered, and this month we introduced dwelling an superior mid-century fashionable desk, additionally designed for the 1958 Brussels Expo.

Getting the desk was a little bit of an ordeal. It was situated in Olomouc within the Moravia area of the Czech Republic. So we rented a van, drove three hours to choose it up, loaded it up with bungee cords, drove three hours again, introduced it upstairs, disassembled our present desk that weighed 1,000,000 kilos, introduced all the way down to the van, delivered it in items to a buddy of a buddy, then returned the van.

However the desk is SUCH a cool piece, it was a steal of a value, and we adore it!! And the cats love laying on prime of it.

We rented an elliptical machine for the winter. Do you know you may lease cardio machines? I had no concept that was a factor till not too long ago.

From spring by way of fall, I take a LOT of walks in Prague, but it surely’s onerous discovering the motivation to train open air when it’s miserably chilly exterior. This has been an superior means of getting low-impact cardio in 5 instances every week.

If you happen to’re lacking cardio however don’t need to go to a gymnasium, you must think about renting one for your self.

Axe-throwing and Georgian meals. One in all our most enjoyable nights this month was going out axe-throwing at a brand new spot in Prague, The House of Axes, plus Georgian dinner beforehand at SUN.DAY terrace.

I introduced my axe-throwing abilities from my lumberjack day in Nova Scotia, however very quickly, my pals had been wonderful at it. And the Georgian meals was SO GOOD. It was so good to eat actual khinkali once more.

Charlie standing in front of a fence on a very snowy day, in the dark — The fence that saved us locked out.

Challenges

Getting trapped within the snow. We had an enormous snowstorm in Prague this month — one which I had hoped for! — and that evening, Charlie and I had plans to go to this out of doors Alice in Wonderland-themed gentle present in Prague with our pals and their youngsters.

Properly, the present was situated between two tram stops. Our pals acquired off at cease 1. We had been there early, so we determined to get off at cease 2, have a chunk to eat at a pub, after which stroll from cease 2 to fulfill them.

Charlie and I walked into the woods, down a protracted, steep staircase coated in snow, holding arms and yelping, making an attempt to not fall. Lastly once we acquired to the underside and walked one other 10 minutes to the sunshine present’s entrance…THERE WAS A FENCE AND A LOCK ON IT.

Seems the “entrance” wasn’t an entrance — and also you couldn’t get there from cease 2.

So the present was a bust. The excellent news was that we discovered one other means again with out having to climb the steps, and the children had a blast and didn’t miss us. LOL.

A staircase covered with deep snow, in the dark. — The underside third of the snowy staircase in query.

Weblog Posts of the Month

This month I targeted on updating tons and tons of posts moderately than creating new ones. Not essentially the most thrilling stuff, however a lot better for the positioning long-term!

However listed below are a number of new ones:

Lewis the cat on top of a square vintage wooden table with a gold bar running around the edge. It's very shiny. — Take a look at the shine on that new desk!

This Month on Patreon

On the Adventurous Kate Patreon, I publish unique content material and never-told tales that you could entry for $6 monthly. We even have a personal Fb group and members get free entry to the E-book Membership every month.

This month, I shared with my patrons the plan for my model new web site — which I speak about additional down on this submit. It’s gone stay this month and already has 13 posts up!

I additionally shared a preview of a brand new free product I’m introducing (and are partly by way of creating). It’s a little bit of an ebook-like product, however might be free, and about considered one of my favourite locations.

Lastly, the larger submit was about our large change in honeymoon plans — Charlie and I had been planning on honeymooning in Chile and Peru in December, however the political unrest in Peru induced us to reevaluate issues. How a lot did we actually need to go to Peru?

The reply? Not that a lot. The brand new plan: Chile and Argentina! Extra mountaineering, extra wine.

Murray the cat cuddling around the edge of an iPad as Below Deck plays. — Murray, the iPad, and Beneath Deck.

E-book Membership This Month

Our subsequent E-book Membership will happen on Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 1:00 PM ET. We might be studying the brand new novel Scatterlings by South African writer Resoketswe Manenzhe.

“In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual activity between “Europeans” (white folks) and “natives” (Black folks). Those that break the draconian new legislation face imprisonment—for males of as much as 5 years; for ladies, 4 years.

Abram and his spouse Alisa have their share of marital issues, however additionally they have a cushty life in South Africa with their two younger women. However then the Act is handed. Alisa is black, and their two kids at the moment are proof of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state.

At first, Alisa and Abram query how they’ll be affected by the Act, however then officers begin asking questions on the women’ faculty, and their property is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to find out how to defend his younger household from the grinding equipment of the legislation, whose worst discriminations have till now been saved at bay by the household’s financial privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple’s bond is tattered.

Alisa, who’s Jamaican and the descendant of slaves, was adopted by a rich white British couple, who raised her as their baby. However as she grew older and realized that the prejudices of British society made no allowance for her, she journeyed to South Africa the place she met Abram. Within the aftermath of the Immorality Act, she involves a heartbreaking conclusion based mostly on her previous and collective historical past – and he or she commits her personal devastating act, one that may reverberate by way of their total household’s lives.

Intertwining her storytelling with ritual, fable, and the heart-wrenching query of who stays and who leaves, Scatterlings marks the debut of a gifted storyteller who has turn into a sensation in her native South Africa—and guarantees to take the Western literary world by storm as properly.”

You can sign up for the book club here. Hope to see you there!

A table full of Georgian food: kinkhali soup dumplings, stewed chicken, walnut and beet dips, a boat-shaped khachapuri, and pork shashlik. — We cherished the Georgian meals at SUN.DAY terrace.

Facet Tasks Replace

This part was once referred to as “New Hampshire Means Replace,” but it surely’s time for a change. Adventurous Kate may need began as a aspect hustle in 2010, but it surely’s my full-time job now, and new aspect tasks have come into play!

On my New Hampshire web site, New Hampshire Way, I revealed a number of new posts this month that you just may like:

30 Unforgettable Things to Do in the White Mountains — That is the submit I used to be afraid to jot down for the longest. I’ve been touring to the White Mountains my entire life. However I’m VERY happy at how this got here out and the way private it’s!
28 Fun-Filled Things to Do in Nashua, NH — Nashua isn’t an enormous journey vacation spot, however a spot the place lots of people stay, and is getting cooler by the day! Since my buddy moved there I’ve gotten to do some cool issues in Nashua.
New Hampshire Winter Festivals — Identical to my Christmas in NH submit, this submit comes with a calendar that you could get without cost once you join the mailing checklist!

Nevertheless it’s not nearly New Hampshire. This month I began publishing on a model new web site.

Why one other web site? I’m thrilled (and nonetheless in disbelief) at how briskly New Hampshire Means has grown, however truthfully, New Hampshire is a small, largely rural state, and its affiliate potential is particularly small. There’s solely a lot it may well develop till it hits a wall.

I feel I can moderately triple what New Hampshire Means is incomes now with Mediavine and associates, and that doesn’t embody the revenue potential of merchandise (which I need to do!), however New Hampshire just isn’t Paris, or Hawaii, or New York. I can’t develop it at this fee without end.

So I’ve determined to create one other destination-based web site. A vacation spot that I do know properly and is under-represented within the journey content material creation world (so…not Mexico), however has a lot larger long-term development potential than New Hampshire.

My Patreon folks already know all in regards to the vacation spot.

So this month I began publishing, and MAN, it’s been humbling! Its first 13 posts are up, and at first most of them weren’t even rating on web page 10 of Google. YIKES.

However I did get it from a DA of 0 to a DA of 4! Yay! (For comparability, Adventurous Kate is 74 and New Hampshire Means is 25.) Child steps. Let’s stick with it.