Sickness

 We are doing our usual "someone gets sick and then passes it around the family" thing. I have it now. Yesterday was pretty bad and I was thinking maybe bronchotis. Today is better and while I still don't feel perky, and have a sore throat, I think I am on my way towards being Ok.

Why do colds have to take so long?

It isn't COVID at leaste; three of us checked and all were negative.

I was thinking recently about how one sign of being comfortable with our money situation is I don't hesitate to buy COVID tests and use them with reckless abandon whenever we are sick :-).

If we do get COVID (again) I want to know.

Kevin's mom is heading to Texas tomorrow along with Kevin's sister for a visit. Kevin's mom is doing well after surgery on her arm. It really is a gift from God how much has changed medically in the last hundred, fifty, twenty, and ten years. The surgery was outpatient, in and out, and will result in a much improved outcome.

It is annoying being sick over the holidays but life happens. Also, we didn't have any medical appointments this week so that is actually kind of helpful.

Christmas

We had Christmas! We had many gifts. It was a lot of fun.

A virus has been circling and I came down with it yesterday (Christmas Day). I am mostly really tired and thanks to older kids, I was able to take a four hour nap yesterday afternoon.

Kevin's sister is in town helping Kevin's mom, who is recovering as well as can be hoped for after breaking her arm.

Merry Christmas to all!

 

Injury

Not us, thankfully!

Last Friday, Kevin's mom fell and broke her left arm, poor thing! It is the sort of thing that can happen; a sudden trip and a bone is broken!

She is staying here for now though Kevin's sister is coming in tonight for a couple of weeks to help her.

So yeah, not what anyone wanted for Christmas week. But it could have been a hip so yes, that is good. Also it is her non dominant hand.

Mid December

 Just like that, it is halfway through December! So far we haven't had too much cold; well, I mean, sometimes in the thirties and even twenties at night, but no serious cold snaps.

Daniel made cardboard boats to float in a tub. Very creative! He figured it out from a book.

This is MINE. I am eating spaghetti again, using chickpea pasta. Lower carb than regular pasta.

I bought a loom for Rose and Sarah to make pot holders. They. Love. It. We have lots of pot holders now.

I took the four younger kids to the Air Force Museum today. We wandered around for half an hour and then watched an IMAX movie on Fighter Pilots. We were the only ones in the theater. How fun is that?

So I keep gaining weight which is annoying but not surprising. First, I am middle aged now and I think my metabolism has slowed down. Also, I am less active than I was when I had a whole bunch of little kids. I used to just tear around the house from sun up to sun down. Well, that is exaggerating but I was very busy and on my feet a lot.

When I had newborns and was nursing, I sat more but hey, the milk took calories1

Anyway, last week I decided that I was going to exercise after lunch every possible day. I don't like running or elliptical machines. I don't like being miserably hot and sweaty. We are blessed with 5 acres and right now there are no bugs. So every day I have been marching around our last three acres twice.

I have also been doing Beatsaber fairly often. And lifting very light 5 lb weights in each hand.

I have also been trying to eat less and that is the hard part. Ugh. I don't like being hungry. Truthfully, sometimes I eat because I am bored. Not often, but sometimes, which doesn't help.

So yeah, hopefully this will help me stay where I am or even lose weight. I am currently about 173 lbs. I am also 5 ft 8+ inches so that isn't really heavy, but as I have doubtless said before, ten years ago I was like 140 lbs so I have gained a lot of weight in the last decade.

Even if I don't lose weight, I will undoubtedly be healthier if I am getting regular exercise.

Rambling Thoughts on a Tuesday

 I am writing a new book because that is what authors do.  They write. This one is going rather slowly because life is busy; this week involves a number of doctor and orthodontic appointments. But the key is to keep on keeping on.

I have said before that I am a pantser. I get an idea for a story and I just start writing it and my brain comes up with the next bits as I write. It is really cool, and a gift from God, that I can do this. I am grateful. Our books continue to be very well received which is so sweet. I know I am not writing great literature. My books are fun and mostly mellow. Romance readers tend to read a lot and they like my books, which makes me happy. I will also say here that I am very careful to keep them clean and sweet; no steamy sex scenes in my books!

We have had a minor illness for more than a week now. Yesterday I was tilting my head and pulled something in my neck. Ouch. It isn't terrible but it is annoying.

I read part of an article a couple of days ago which keeps bothering me. A woman wrote an article for the Washington Post describing how she married young (21 or so) and had three kids in a few years and then one day decided she wasn't happy and insisted on divorcing her husband. Her husband was, apparently, a perfectly pleasant man, not abusive, faithful, hard working, etc. She wanted more. So she broke up her family and she had absolutely no shame about it. She "wasn't happy" and didn't give a rip about her small children (the eldest was 5) being thrown into a broken home.

I find it very upsetting because divorce causes long term scars in children. I am NOT saying that divorce is always wrong; there are times when divorce is the best of bad options. In cases of abuse and cheating and abandonment, it may be the right thing to do. But this woman just decided she wasn't happy, and she bailed.

She is still caring for her kids half of the time but still...it is hard on kids when their parents aren't together. There have been studies showing that kids don't just shake it off. It causes permanent effects.

And yet, her viewpoint is perfectly reasonable from the perspective of someone who doesn't believe in a God who reigns and rules. If this life is all there is, than "being happy" is the most important thing. I guess?

So it is sad but not surprising.

I have been thinking too about how parenting is a long haul, and especially when a couple has nine kids and their youngest in their mid 40's!

I am 54 and Rose is 9! 

Rose deserves a diligent mother and father, and Kevin and I often pray for wisdom and the ability to do what we should do with our time and energy.

I have a couple of homeschooling books written by a very intelligent woman who was the youngest of six children; she was strong willed, and her parents were tired, and she went off the rails in her 20's.

Now, kids can go off the rails regardless of parenting, that is for sure! However, she says her parents were too tired to discipline her properly and that was NOT good for her.

So yes, I am trying to be as diligent in guiding and loving Rose as I was with Naomi, in spite of being 15 years older now than when Naomi was 9!

Life is way easier in some ways, of course; no babies, no toddlers trying to damage themselves by climbing on the chandeliers.

Well, I should go wake up the children who are still sleeping. This illness makes people tired, but it is 10:30 a.m.

Early December

 

I hang banners for various exciting days throughout the year. We have a Birthday Banner, and a Christmas Banner, and  New Year's banner, and a Thanksgiving banner, and so on and so forth. Rose decided to get into the action this year by making a "Black Friday" banner, which is adorable.

Random picture of all our desserts for Thanksgiving.

Sarah painted this. Yes, my girls are amazing artists.

We have this cute little spot out the back door which is usually quite a bit warmer than elsewhere when it is sunny; the wind is blocked by walls, and the sunlight reflects and it is cozy. Also, the cats like Isaac.

Our sun room has writing all over it from our days with small people who wrote on walls. Joseph is heroically working on cleaning it.

Sarah got a diamond painting craft for her birthday. 

Sarah is tall.

In other news, we published another book. Yes, that is crazy but... I finished Elizabeth Bennet's Inheritance in early October and immediately settled down to write a Christmas story which, as I said in my last post, I finished last week. We published two days ago. It is shorter than my usual books but doing well so far.

In other interesting news, Joseph is now a monetized youtuber. Youtube pays people if they have more than 1000 subscribers and over 4000 (I think) watching hours of the channel. He does these incredibly complex mods (modifications) of a game called Terraria. He has taught himself how to code and change things like how the villains interact and so on. He has been doing this for several years, and last week a particular video went viral among the Terraria community. He quickly soared above the requisiste 1000 subscribers and is now over 2000 subscribers!

It is exciting and will provide a little bit of income for him. Not enough for him to quit his day job -- not that he has one now, as he is studying for IT certification, but still, very fun!

We have some minor illness moving through the house. I am very tired and have been having peculiar dreams. Other than that, mostly Ok thankfully.

December is frankly a little stressful for me; we have three birthdays to celebrate, and Christmas too. But times they are changing. The children can do a lot of the work (like putting up the Christmas tree) and Kevin has graciously taken care of the purchasing of the presents. So I can just enjoy myself, and I intend to!

Oh, one last thing! The biggest concern for both Kevin and me about him quitting his job was finding health insurance. Thanks to Obamacare, we are signed up for a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan starting in January which will be very managable, and which includes dental and vision. We will have to change dental offices unfortunately, but it is still awesome to have that sorted out.

Thanksgiving

 Yesterday was Thanksgiving. It was "just" the 12 of us -- we Kendigs 11, and Kevin's mother.

A year ago Thanksgiving was humorous. I was frantically finishing a book at the time, and Kevin's mother, who usually brings multiple dishes, was in Texas visiting Kevin's sister.

Thanksgiving dinner rolled around and I lifted my head from my manuscript and realized we had turkey, mashed potatoes, and 3 pies. That was it. No one really cared, but it definitely was an odd Thanksgiving dinner.

This year, I was determined to do better. Kevin's mom is in Ohio, so that helped. Our middle girls made 3 pies. Kevin's mom came with 2 more pies and brownies. We had enough desserts.

And we had many other things: turkey and mashed potatoes and green beans and sweet potatoes and gravy, and cranberry salad and olives. Oh, and Kevin's mom brought cheese ball, to the delight of some of the children.

It was very yummy.

Lydia has been battling significant dietary issues and has lost a lot of weight. She is currently sitting at like 130 lbs which is Ok, but thinner than she likes. She is trying to gain weight but it is hard when you can't eat so many things.

However, we do live in a time and place where gluten free alternatives are an option. So she is figuring out things she can eat. She thought she had celiac, but now the doctors are saying no, it isn't that...

but it could definitely be a wheat intolerance.

She is figuring it out.

Now onto the other excitement of the Thanksgiving weekend; another book!

After Kevin retired from his Air Force job, he started studying marketing. He found a lady who is an expert at marketing and we have hired her to help us market our books better.

We launched Elizabeth Bennet's Inheritance at the beginning of this month. I had finished that book in October, but we had to wait to publish because Kevin was working with Harry, our narrator, to record an audio book for EBI.

So anyway, I was of course writing away at a new book, a Christmas story. Still Pride and Prejudice, of course.

I was sitting on the couch a few days ago, minding my own business, when Kevin said that our marketing lady said that we really needed to get this Christmas book out this coming week.

And I was like, WHAT??

What?

I was nearly done but still, the first draft is the first draft and I still had to do a full edit, and Kevin had to do a full edit, and our paid editor had to do a full edit.

The other option, according to our marketing guru, was to wait until January to publish and change the title and the tone away from Christmas and onto winter.

As Inigo says in the Princess Bride, I hate waiting.

So I finished the book, and I am almost done with my second edits.

Kevin is working on his edits. Our editor is working on her edits. Not the same things at the same time. There is a process.

But anyway, we will have it done by tomorrow probably.

Stephen King, whom I certainly admire as a writer (though I don't like horror so...) said in his book, "On Writing" that authors should finish a manuscript, set it aside for 6 months, and then come back to it with fresh eyes.

How adorable.

We don't do that.

Anyway, the new book launches next week. Wow.

The End of a Generation

 My great- aunt died yesterday. She was in her late 80's and was the last of her generation.

My parents are each 80 so given that Ingrid was a full generation older, it is surprising that she was not so much older than my parents.

But she was born in Germany, came to the United States after the war, and eventually married my youngest great-uncle, who was some years older than she was.

He died some years ago at a ripe old age. Ingrid had a pretty hard childhood -- she was a child during World War II in Germany! She was an incredibly sweet, kind, generous person. She was amazing. People loved her.

The last few months have been hard and she was ready to go to be with the Lord. It is sad for us, but happy for her.

My great-uncle, her husband, farmed an old "family farm" for much of his life. When Francis was in his early 90's, he would still go out on the tractor to work the fields.

Francis and Ingrid did not have children, and no one in the family was interested in being a farmer. By God's grace, a wonderful family moved into a rental house next door to my great-aunt and -uncle's house.

For many years, they acted as family. They were kind and caring to my relatives. They looked after them. As time went on, they did more and more of the farm work.

They were such a gift, and I am confident they loved my relatives as much as Ingrid and Francis loved them.

The farm will go to this family, or already has, or something. It makes me happy that someone still loves that land, someone still wants to farm it. 

Good-bye, dear great aunt Ingrid. I am thankful that you are walking heaven's bright streets today, and sad for those of us left behind.

Refinishing the Table

 

Kevin is fixing up our dining room table. We currently have the dining room set up with card tables. 

I am proud that our garage is available for doing jobs like this. We just remove cars and...voila!

November

 

Gorgeous colors still! It has been such a pleasant autumn with beautiful colors.

I assigned Settlers of Catan this week for school, just one game, and it is now the new craze. Even Rose is playing and enjoying it, which I am thankful for.

Nice sunset

This pic is from a couple of weeks ago when my parents were visiting. When lots of Kendigs are in the same room, we fill it up!

It is like we have a bunch of kids or something!

Sarah, Rose and I went to the library a couple of weeks ago. An older woman stopped us and gave this quilt to Rose; she said her daughter had made it, and wanted to give it to "a little girl with glasses." Rose adores it. Isn't it cute?

November!

 

Angela and Rose love each other

It snowed last night! Obviously got cold -- mid 20's! Kevin was out and about yesterday evening and saw a genuine snow squall! Crazy! It will warm up later this week.

Last night five Kendigs went to our church's Halloween alternative Trunk or Treat. It was inside and as I said, it was bitterly cold outside and windy. We had over 300 people visit!  Lydia helped with making hot cocoa and Angela ran a game and Sarah and Daniel and I sat behind two themed tables and Rose ran around. It was a good experience though a little tiring.  I was being very extroverted -- chatting with people and complimenting them on costumes. It was an honor to serve and I did not DISLIKE it, but I was worn out mentally by the time we got in the car to go home. I can be very outgoing but I am an introvert so need some recovery time after being surrounded by people.

Daniel wanted to be a plague doctor so Angela, being an awesome big sister, made a mask for him!

Angela was  a... I am not sure what she was. She made a mask. She looked really cute in a scary way.

My parents visited over the weekend. It was great seeing them. They live in Michigan. We hung out. We had turkey. My father and I took a walk around the back three acres together. It was not cheery weather so we didn't go and do anything exciting but that is fine with me. Lots of talking, lots of catching up. It was good.

First month Plus of Kevin's retirement from the Air Force

 So it has been a little more than a month since Kevin stopped working for the Air Force.

How has it been going?

Mostly very well. It is great that Kevin has more time to rest and spend time with the family.

It is great that he has more time to work on the book business. He is a very smart person who likes to dive deep into new things so he is learning all kinds of stuff about marketing and book cover design and so on and so forth.

We both are adjusting. I don't like change. I like control. So a huge change in our lifestyle requires good communication. But yes, all in all, it has been great.

We have a new book coming out in about two weeks. Hooray!

Fall Colors

 

We are having the loveliest fall colors!  These pics are just from around our house; there are a bunch of far more beautiful trees but I don't have pictures.

I used to NOT like autumn because it heralded the onslaught of winter. But now I like winter. I like cozy days inside. I like the pool being closed because it is less work. I like no living chiggers.

It is gorgeous outside. It really is. Today was in the 70s and lovely.

Physical Issues

 My paternal grandmother, now gone, used to scold me about walking around campus with my backpack straps only over my right shoulder, with a very heavy load of books in said backpack.

She was, of course, right. I didn't know that at the time.

Then I had 9 children and carried babies and toddlers with my right arm.

Because I am silly.

So yes, now I am reaping what I sowed. I have chronic back and neck issues, though they are not at all debilitating. They are annoying.

I will be 54 this month and Kevin, who has been encouraging me for many years to work on my back and neck, bought me a fancy gaming chair.

It was expensive but it will be worth it if it helps and I think it will.

I spend a lot of time writing obviously. This chair is set up so that I can push my head against a pillow. This in turn keeps me straight.

My neck is currently kind of mad at me because I am forcing muscles to hold me in an unfamiliar position.

Because I have been slumping for decades at least a little.

In the long run, I am certain I will feel better.

I also have issues with ulnar nerves in both arms. This is the "funny bone" nerve and writers often have issues with it. I have been battling weird tingling feelings in my pinky and ring fingers and the part of my hands below those fingers. Classic ulnar nerve issues. 

I have a great chiropractor who told me all that. I am doing various things to help with that and my attempts are succeeding. I am doing better.

It is vaguely disturbing to be having issues in my 50's as I hope to have many years to live, but I can only go forward in life.

Oh, Kevin is also building me a new desk for our room. We are going to have a great setup which will allow me to work with proper posture.

October

 

Sarah is as tall as I am. I think I had Rose take this picture so the perspective is a little odd but yes, she is as tall as I am. Wow. She is 12.

The kids sometimes hang out on the deck. Here Miriam has plenty of cat company.

In other news, I finished my latest book. Whew!  Not just the first draft, but my edits. Now Kevin and our editor will toil away to do the last polish. I am so happy to be done with it!

Of course, I will start a new book in a day or two. I have a pretty solid idea for a Christmas themed book.

We have a cold running through the house. I have a mild case. Both Rose and Daniel got it the worst.

Lydia has been sick too with something. Stomach issues. If you are a praying person, please pray for her. It is lingering.

That's about it for now. I am excited about autumn!

Brilliant Parenting Hack

Rose is nine years old and until recently, had a huge phobia to stink bugs. It was getting to be a problem because she was afraid to go to bed because there might be stink bugs in her room, and she was nervous about going outside for the same reason.

They don't bite. They are herbivores. But nine year olds are not always logical.

So Kevin and I prayed about it and Kevin got the brilliant idea of capturing a stink bug and presenting it to Rose as a pet.

It took about thirty seconds for Rose to get over her stink bug phobia.

She immediately fell in love with "Stinky" and checks him many times a day.

We feed him and his companion, "Spinky" (captured a couple of days ago) cucumbers and peaches and stuff.

Thank you, Lord.

Late September

 

I decided to take this week off from formal homeschooling. I am trying to finish my latest book and also want to get some decluttering and organizing done.

Yesterday, I came downstairs and Rose promptly bombarded me with questions about the International Date Line. Which is complicated. We looked it up and I understand it better than I did. Maybe she does too? I hope?

This morning at breakfast, Daniel and Rose were asking questions about eclipses. I pulled out the globe and used a lantern to explain solar and lunar eclipses.

At the end, Rose asked me, "So if you are on the moon, does the earth seem to have phases the same way the moon does?"

Like, um, that is a sophisticated question from a 9 year old!

Angela vegging with cats. She has a lot going on; her first college class, Freshman English, plus she is working 15 hours a week at Burger King. Sometimes you need some kitty time.

Our pool is sitting at 70 degrees, which is too cold for my blood. Oh wait, there was one day last week when I was dirty and hot (thanks, menopause!) and leaped in for a full ten seconds. Wow. I wasn't hot anymore. Anyway, Kevin will close it soon. In the meantime, sometimes the big boys swim to show they are REAL MEN. This is at night. 70 degrees in the pool, like 60 outside. Wow.

Moonbeam looks like a seal when he is sleeping.

I bought an A1c meter from Amazon. Pretty pricey but I find that frequent A1c checks help me to behave with my diet. 5.8 is pretty good. I did just up my metformin to 1500 mg a day so that helps. But I am also still sticking to a very moderate diet. My one guilty pleasure is chocolate, which isn't as bad as it could be. I love chocolate. Dark chocolate, to be exact, with almond mixed in. Yum.

Kevin is Retired! (From the Air Force)

We had a party on base last week to say good-bye to Kevin's work colleagues.

Kevin brought some of our books to explain our new endeavor.

Miriam came to chat with people about IT.

I came to chat with colleagues as well; I used to work on the base until 2021 or so.

Isaac came to chat with people about engineering.

The weather was great and it was a lot of fun.

And yes, as of Friday, Kevin has retired from his engineering job!

 

Five days!

 Friday is Kevin's last day of work!

He has a bunch of stuff to do with turning in equipment and stuff. Also, he is having a retirement party on base on Wednesday to say good-bye to people.

My parents graciously gave us 20 pounds of blueberries when we went to Michigan. Kevin made a bunch of jam.

I finished another puzzle. I really like puzzles.

A friend of ours whom we have not seen in twenty years came over on Saturday. It was so much fun to catch up with him!

Sarah loves to read.

So does Daniel.

Now they don't necessarily read what I like to read.  Daniel's favorite book probably is Predatorpedia, about animals that eat other animals :-).