It's been a while!

Update + Life Tools + Cake Pop Tip

Hello!

It’s been a long time since I sent an email out!

So, what’s been happening??

As I mentioned in a newsletter last year, I got a full-time job! That was a big deal and a big change in my life. Also, we sent our youngest off to college. And then my husband and I MOVED. Packed up the house we’d lived in for 17 years and relocated to be closer to my family.

So, yeah. A lot going on. And as a result, I pressed “pause” on almost all of my cartooning.

But now that the big move is behind us, I’m figuring out where the cartoons and newsletter can fit back into my life. More to come on that!

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Life Tools

While I have you here, I’m excited to share a project I’ve been working on for the past several months.

I collaborated with the wonderful rani Jayakumar, who is a Certified Mindfulness Instructor, a Certified Yoga Instructor, and a music educator who specializes in South Indian Classical vocal music (Carnatic music). You can find her at okachiko.

She had been reading my Monday Motivation emails, and her work has a very similar focus. So we started talking about tools we could create for people.

In the end, we created five tools. Two are for kids, and three are for everyone. Check it out:

Here’s a closer look at each one. The link to download them is below.

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And here are the two tools for kids. They are based on this Monday Motivation email.

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Then we ask kids to fill out their own worksheet:

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You can download all of the tools here. You can print them and keep them on hand for when you need them. Or just save them to your device and refer to them. Oh, and share them with others, too!

rani and I wanted to offer these tools for free so everyone could enjoy them. If you’d like to leave a monetary tip (totally optional!), you can do that at this PayPal link set up by Prerana Jayakumar (rani) to support Hedger Humor and okachiko.

If you use the tools, let us know what you think! Thank you so much!

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Quick Tip: Cake Pops

Before we wrap up, I have a quick tip to share.

Have you ever eaten a cake pop? Mmmm. Delicious!

Have you ever MADE cake pops from scratch? My kids have, and I learned something important during the process.

Don’t add eyeballs.

You’ll immediately start picturing scenarios like this:

And just like that, your afternoon treat morphs into a total horror movie.

Oh, and Tip #2: Don’t name your cake pops.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoy those Life Tools! Thank you, rani, for the idea to create the tools and for the collaboration.

And thank YOU for reading my newsletter!

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Your fortune: Feeling adventurous and optimistic, you will volunteer to put on a “Seasonal Jamboree” for your entire town. Later, you will realize you don’t even know what a “Seasonal Jamboree” IS. Then, more bad news: City Council will inform you that your budget is $10. Meanwhile, word is already spreading and everyone is excited. So… good luck with that.