This week, I submitted the final draft of our new library website for review and testing to our team. I have been working on this project for six months - hand-coding almost all of the HTML and CSS, writing and editing the content, and testing out various visual images.

This project was the bane of my existence.

I hate coding HTML and CSS. I hate how much detail there is. I hate how one little thing can cascade and destroy other work that took me hours to finish. My loathing comes from the fact that I am not a trained coder and have to learn as I go. I never designed a persistent nav bar before... or a custom footer... or proactive chat. All of this was complicated by the fact that the base program we use complicates things and all this coding happens in two separate windows on top of base  system coding I can't touch. So, there's just a lot a testing... and sometimes the breaking of the existing webpage. (Whoops!)

But I kept at it and I am really happy with the results. Depending on what the team says, it should just be tweaking and written content changes left. Then we can go live and, hopefully, provide a much better user experience.

I'm so proud of myself for pushing through on this project. In fact, I was so proud of myself I threw a solo dance party in my office after I sent out the announcement email. I'm proud that I didn't give up. I'm proud that I followed my gut on design ideas. I'm proud that this will make a huge difference for our library and users. I'm just so friggin proud that I am done and this can be checked off my to do list.

What are you proud of?

Today, I am writing this post sitting on my couch, wearing fuzzy socks, and watching daytime TV. The kiddo is napping and the husband is out for a run. As an introvert, these few hours alone are how I recuperate. I'm grateful for the rest.

Here's what else was good in my week.

• Cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner together
• The kiddo following me around the house with her dusting brush as I used my dusting brush
• Counting out the pages in my bullet journal and discovering that I will have just enough to finish out the year
• Finding a nerdy movie that was so bad it was good
• The mindless cookie clicker web game
• Getting our family pictures back from the photographer
• Finishing my massive website redesign project for work

When we went to drop the kiddo off at daycare this morning, the roads were empty. I'm talking, felt like the beginning of a disaster movie empty. It was eerie. It was also nice not to have to battle traffic. Today is the end of the work week and, while it was a short week, I felt incredibly productive. 

Here's what I've been working on.

WORK

• About an hour ago, I sent off an email to my fellow library faculty. The subject: THE NEW WEBSITE IS DONE! By done, I mean that I finished the HTML and CSS coding. I also added and edited the content. We are ready for testing and I could not be more proud of myself. (I'll link the product when we are finally live.)
• I put together the draft plan for our spring webinar series. This one is going to target our faculty and will focus on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.
• At the end of last week, I submitted four proposals for funding to our University. Turns out there is more money up for grabs than I expected so (fingers crossed) we get at least one funded ask.
• I polished off the recordings from the Library Marketing and Communications Conference sessions I was not able to attend live.

PERSONAL

• We got our family photos back from the photographer. While there are some cute shots, I love that they also capture our kiddo's "I wanna do anything but sit still and pose" energy of the day. I shared the pictures with our family. The husband put together our holiday card and I gave it a thumbs up. Can't wait for those to arrive so I can send out some happy mail.
• Still potty training...
• Made plans for our holiday present purchases for everyone. I also went ahead and grabbed as many of the gifts as I could. 
• Decided to schedule a bunch of appointments including my COVID booster and the dentist.

"Stop putting books on your library holds list," she mumbles to herself as she adds more books to her library holds list.

I am a creature of habit.

I like my routines. I am a type A planner and I like knowing what is coming. That extends to Thanksgiving.

​On Thursday, we will be making our usual meal. And, by usual, I mean that some recipes have been on my plate for over two decades. One such dish is orange glazed carrots. My mom found this in an issue of Cooking Light and we've eaten it at almost every Thanksgiving since. I even made it when I went to visit my future in-laws before the husband and I got married. My mom made the mistake of trying to cut this from the menu one year and I puppy dog eyed it back on the menu.

As much as I am set in my ways, I am willing to make tweaks to the menu. This year, just like last year, there will only be three of us celebrating in our home. So, we're sous viding a turkey breast (again) instead of making a full bird. But, our sides are the same - those yummy carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy (from a jar),  green beans, cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, and the all important stuffing. We use the Pepperidge Farm blue bag mix and add butter sauteed onion, celery, and bacon. Shake in some Old Bay seasoning and, if I get my way, slip in some dried cranberries. 

My tummy is rumbling already.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

We're a little over a week in to potty training the kiddo. There have been more good days than bad. At this point, I think that's all I can ask for.

Here's what else was good in my week:

• Celebrating colleagues taking on exciting new opportunities
• Having a cozy lap blanket to use while I work from home
• Dark roast coffee
• Getting outside for  long walk to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather
• Managing to get a spot in our building's tiny parking lot
• Pringles
• Just tossing everything in the dishwasher making dinner clean up super easy
• Melty and cheesy quesadillas
• Living a block from the public library
• Slipper socks
• Our kiddo being super chatty most evenings

I'm doing a little dance right now because the coding issues I've been running into seem to have been fixed. Something in my code is breaking the back end editing functionality BUT it's fixed on the admin side so it's probably not my code. (*shrugs*) That means I can now focus on website content. Huzzah!

Here's where my attention is at.

WORK

• Just today, I managed to finish off the last bits of HTML coding for our new webpage. I still need to edit content and do some CSS tweaking, but I am SOOOOO happy to be done withthat part of the coding. Fingers crossed our plan to go live in January holds true.
• I'm waiting on the last details I need before we submit some funding proposals for a few projects. Everything is written, I just need to plug in some cost quotes. Then I get to cut and paste everything into the submission forms.
• Only one more session to go in our webinar series! Now I need to start drafting our faculty-focused webinar series for the spring semester.
• We've got two open positions at our library. I'm on the hiring committee for one. We reviewed the job description, tweaked the interview questions, and are working on finalizing all the stuff we need to submit to HR before they list the role.
• I submitted a proposal to speak at the 2022 CALM conference. My proposal is titled "Stop That!: Management Techniques that Need to Die." Title about says it all.

PERSONAL

• We are potty training our toddler. I think we're over the first hard days, but it's difficult to tell. It's going about as well as expected. Some days are harder than others, but we are seeing progress.
• Condo board elections and budgeting time. Yeah!

The Wrap looks a bit paltry this week. That's because we are potty training our kiddo.

This is one of those parenting milestones that I've dreaded. I built everything up in my head and, frankly, reading the internet about this does not help. There are more horror stories than wins.

We're only a few days into this but it's not as bad as I feared. (Take that anxiety!) Sure, we still have a ways to go but I'm no longer afraid. Accidents happen and big changes take time. We'll get through it. 

What thing have you dreaded doing that, ultimately, turned out fine?

​Share in the comments! I'm sure we can also use a list of wins to read.

We started potty training our kiddo yesterday. Yesterday was rough and exhausting. Today is much better. Something must have clicked overnight because we've had almost no accidents. I am so happy that things are going well because I had a lot of anxiety around this.

Here's the rest of the good from this week:

• Getting to enjoy a hot cup of coffee while reading email in a quite home.
• New cozy sweaters (with pockets!)
• Getting to catch up with a friend on the phone.
• I was able to hit inbox zero... for all over 24 hours, but I'm glad I at least caught up for a day.
• We got a sneak peek of some pictures from our family session and they are all fantastic.
• I married a great man who is an equal partner in parenting.
• Our kiddo's big, infectious smiles and laughs.
• The Adventure Zone
• Our kiddo was fine with the time adjustment

Tomorrow, we start potty training our toddler. *deep breathing* This is the only task I will be focusing on the next four days and, let's be honest, the next few weeks.

Here's what else I managed to get through since last week.

WORK

• I wrote up several proposals for internal funding from our University. We want to make several space/tech improvements and add some new things to our resources. Fingers crossed at least a few of ours get the go ahead.
• I installed a book display related to an author talk the University is hosting. I had to use materials I already had on hand, but I think it turned out well. Since we're getting ready to move for our remodel, I'm just going to leave this up until we need to start packing everything up.
• Had to debug some code for the new website, but it turned out to be an easier fix than planned. Now I'm working on adding proactive chat. Nearing the end of what I need/can do for this before we hit internal testing time.
• Working on developing a outreach and marketing interest group for our library's consortia. Got a few colleagues for other universities on board which is a plus.

PERSONAL

• We had the professional photo shoot for our family. Kiddo was not in to posing during the session and we were nervous we wouldn't get any good pictures. Happy to say we got a sneak peek today and there are some great ones in there. 
• The couch we ordered for our kiddo's room arrived. So, we had to rearrange a lot of things to make it all work. Still futzing, but we're mostly good with how things are right now.
• I drafted up and sent out this month's Green Committee newsletter for my condo. I focused on how to have a more eco-friendly Thanksgiving.