Welcome to my blog titled ‘Five Things’ where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. I’ll also share a quote I find meaningful as a point of focus for the week. For a photo gallery of our life on the road, our pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.

So here are this week’s five things, starting with the quote of the week…

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell
I just passed the 100k mark on my thesis novel, and I’ve got about 10k more to go before the end. The longest book I’ve written in my writing career thus far has been 85k, which equals about 320 print pages, so this new one is going to be a beast. It’s a good thing fantasy readers don’t mind an epic tome! I’m really excited to be writing the final few scenes, and I’ve been doing a bunch of writing sprints with my classmates. With a solitary endeavor like writing, it’s fun to find a way to build community and encourage each other as we race to the finish line.
At this time of year, I’m in the habit of reflecting on the past year, both personally and professionally. It’s a concrete way to take stock of where I’m at, celebrate my accomplishments, and begin to set intentions for the coming year. Sorting through all this, I realize how much life happens in one year! In this culture of hustle, taking time to breathe and reflect feels essential.
As we transition from our time as nomads to making our home in Pasadena, I find myself reflecting not only on this past year, but on the last three. Scrolling through the pictures on my phone, it’s a little disconcerting to realize how much I’ve forgotten already until I prompt my memory banks with a visual cue. I feel like we’ve seen more of this country in the last few years than some people see in a lifetime, and I am so grateful we had this unique opportunity. I’m planning to make a photo book featuring the highlights of our adventure, which I think will be a fun journey down memory lane!
For our final few weeks on the road, we’ll be heading to Indio, just south of Palm Springs, to celebrate Christmas, and then back here to Northridge as we furnish our new place in Pasadena and move ourselves in. One of the things I’m going to miss about our nomad life is waking up somewhere different, but still being in our home. I will miss the freedom and adventure of this lifestyle. At the same time, I’m really excited to make a more permanent home again. I know I already shared my ‘quote of the week’ above, but this one really seems to reflect my personal state of mind:
“Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.” - Henry Cloud

Welcome to my blog titled “Five Things” where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. In addition, at the end of the blog, I’ll keep a running itinerary of our travel plans. For a photo gallery of our life on the road, our pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.

So here are this week’s five things…

As 2023 draws to a close, it’s part of my practice to conduct a personal and professional year-end review. This particular year was unique. It was hard to know how to set goals, or even what realistic goals would look like, when our lifestyle was changing so dramatically. Would I still be productive during my favorite writing seasons? Would I manage to find a rhythm to my life and my work? Would I accomplish as much professionally as I hoped? Would I say the heck with it all, I’m going off the grid entirely and moving to the Colorado wilderness? Turns out, I’m not going off the grid, but I will be heading to Colorado this summer to start grad school. With so much uncertainty going into the year, asking whether or not I achieved my goals for 2023 doesn’t feel like the right question. I definitely didn’t write as much as I’d hoped, but I’d prefer to focus on the things I did accomplish and the amazing things we did experience this year. So, here are the top-three achievements for my professional highlight reel…
- Dreamwalker went out on submission with my agent. No results yet, but in my professional career, this is the project that earned me an agent, and it’s the first time I’ve wanted to pursue a traditional publishing deal.
- For the first time, I have several writing projects in process all at once. I’m in the middle of writing a fantasy novel (with dragons!), and in the middle of finishing the last three books in my alter ego Maggie Clare’s romantic suspense series. So, my accomplishment this year is that I have three half-finished books in my document files!
- I was accepted into graduate school. I’ve been circling the idea for a long while, and this year, I applied, paid my deposit, and set up my school account and email. I’m really excited to be part of an academic community again, and I can’t wait to get started.
I’m in the process of sorting pictures from the past year to make a memory photo book. As I go through them all, I realize how much we’ve seen and done in 2023. This lifestyle has afforded us the opportunity to experience, in one year, things that might have taken a lifetime. We’ve stayed in twenty states, visited nine national parks, dropped anchor in big cities from New Orleans to Albuquerque to Portland, and found tiny little towns we’d never have discovered otherwise. This highlight reel is too big for a post, but I’ve documented much of it in pictures, and it’s been fun to look through them all and remember.
The holidays are a little different on the road. For many years, we mostly hosted events at our home in RI, and we loved it. This year, we went out to dinner for Thanksgiving, and for Christmas, we’ve rented an AirBnB so our family can gather. This way of celebrating feels temporary, until our children begin to establish traditions of their own, but we’ll be together nonetheless. We’re taking dad to see the Star Wars exhibit in Disney, watching a local production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ on Christmas Eve, and cooking a meal together on Christmas day. The sun is shining, and it’s pretty warm outside, so that’s a little different, but enjoying each other’s company and celebrating together is what really matters, even if we’re outside barbecuing in December!
As the sun sets on 2023, and Ray and I reflect on our first year as nomads, we both agree that despite where we are in the country, we do have a home, we simply bring it with us. We’ve also realized our home is more than our physical space, although we were surprised at how quickly we made that our own… Home is being with each other and having our fur babies with us. It’s our little routines, like morning coffee outside under the awning, cooking dinner together, and planning our calendar together. It’s sharing this adventure every day with the person you love.
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” ― T.S. Eliot

Our itinerary, subject to change:

November 19 - January 3, 2024: Orangeland Park, CA
January 3 - February 2: Chula Vista, CA
February 2 - 16: Palm Springs, CA
February 16 - March 1: Las Vegas, NV
March 1 - March 5: Meteor Crater, AZ
March 5 - 15: Albuquerque, NM
March 15 - 17: Amarillo, TX
March 17 - 24: Oklahoma City, OK
March 24 - April 5: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
April 5 - 12: Fredericksburg, TX
April 12 - 19: Hot Springs, AK

“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Five Things - December 8, 2025

Five Things - December 18, 2023