Winter 2026 Syllabus for Overachievers & Multi-hyphenates
Including a fancy mocktail, 70 killer tracks, and some cozy interior art.
I learned a lot — some of it about realistic expectations for my seasonal syllabi 😅.
It’s been decades since I’ve read any Dickens, and I was clearly ambitious to think I could get through all of Bleak House in two months. I did, however, make it to 50%!
Since syllabi are designed for concepts to stack/build upon one another, I’m going to extend my reading assignment from Fall Term into Winter Term. But I’m also going to let it dictate some of my other assignments, creating a cohesive “lesson plan”.
Here’s what my Winter Syllabus is looking like.
Reading
Assignment: Finish Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Extra Credit: Read the most recent Annabelle Monaghan (It’s a Love Story) for Valentine’s Day
Art
Assignment 1: Dickens noun flashcards
Assignment 2: Continued “Cozy Interior” sketches (see below)
Extra Credit: Dickens Bleak House character map
Film/TV
Assignment: Bleak House (2005) BBC miniseries
Cooking/Baking
Most of these are carried forward because I did not make them in the fall, but am still interested in pursuing them.
Assignment 1: low-carb chili
Assignment 2: eggplant curry
Extra Credit 1: low-carb osso buco
Extra Credit 2: low-carb pastry cream (crème pâtissière)
Mixology
A new category of discovery!
Assignment 1: Orange and Rosemary Mocktail 1 (see below)
Assignment 2: Orange and Rosemary Mocktail 2
Music
Assignment: Listen to a full album, five times.
Extra Credit: Do the above, on vinyl.1
My “Top Songs of 2025” is ready!
Unlike Spotify’s Wrapped (which looks purely at play count) my playlist curates the top 4-star & 5-star songs that I found/featured in my monthly playlists throughout the year.2 This completes my fall music assignment. I hope you enjoy; there is literally something for everyone in my annual lists.
8 of the Best Lyrics from Last Year
Now I’m shedding my skin | Versions of me unravelling - last time by little tuna
And there’s a light on that will never go out | And when the night is gone, not a shadow of doubt | About you, about you | And there’s a time bomb that was gonna go off | But we’ll disarm it because I’m so better off with you - We Stay Together by Kaiser Chiefs
Isn’t it true, alas it is much worse | A person may end up believing in anything - Liberation by Harold van Lennep
There’s one thing I’ll do if it ever goes wrong | I’ll write you into all of my songs | And if suddenly I die, I hope they will say | That he was obsessed and it was okay - Downtown (Alex Cruz & Brascon Remix) by Majical Cloudz
You’re not another lonely star | Floating somewhere out in the dark | I know you think you’re on your own | But you’re not alone, you’re not alone | Honey you’re home - Lonely Star by Ariana and the Rose
Once in a while | You turn up the dial | To an old tape playing in my head | I’ll turn it off and live instead - Old Tape by Lucius
And it’s a prison | to love a shadow | to chase an echo - Echo by CLAVVS
We like to keep some places wild | like battlefields where no one fights - Sparks by The Do
Spotify clocked my listening age at 28.
It says this is based on listening to music from the early 2010s. Based on the Wrapped list, I am unsure how it came to this conclusion. I know I bungled my Discover list3 early in the year by listening (on repeat) to music for my character playlists… but those were all pre-2005 music. Not sure I appreciate that I was aged-down so much.
Meanwhile, they report that I have listened to 33 days’ worth of music.
This excludes anything I listened to from our home server but still comes out at over 2 hours per day of listening. Hopefully I am instilling good taste in my children.
When I was younger I would draw specific subjects, obsessively.
Hands, stairwells, Spanish fountains. As a young artist, these were exercises in learning how to render the same subject multiple ways; studies, as they are often called. When I got older, I drifted toward drawing multiple subjects in a single medium or style. This has left me with a somewhat incoherent — albeit multi-disciplined — portfolio.
I’m ready to trim back down and focus4. So, I’m aiming to make a full series of cozy bedrooms. Here is installment #2.
As I was telling fellow authortist Rachel Tribble the Ohuhu markers function a little different than Copic (the gold standard of alcohol markers). But I think they’re a great student/starter marker, especially at the price point. So, if trying a new art supply is on your 2026 list, I think they’re worth a try.
Orange and Rosemary are in my Winter Wonder interests.
So, I present to you mocktail exploration #1: “I’m Not French 75.” A mocktail take on the French 75. Mine was zero-sugar, but you can use granulated sugar and simple syrup to the same effect.
Additional Reading:
I need to purchase a new turntable as my last one was deadstock from the 1960s and unfortunately died for real.
It does not include Taylor Swift (sorry, not sorry. I am not a Swiftie.)
For a few weeks, they were recommending tracks I already knew backwards and forwards (like Decemberists and Franz Ferdinand) as if these were great discoveries for me.
We’ll see how long it lasts; you don’t become a multi-hyphenate by sticking to one thing 😅
I love ohuhu markers! They aren’t as pricey as copic, but you can do some beautiful things with them.
I’m going to have to take some time and dig into your archive because I love the idea of a syllabus and I might borrow it.
Thanks for sharing!