Late February

 Our new book did launch. It is doing pretty well. Sitting at #734 in the Kindle store, which means that only 733 books are currently doing better. It isn't a really long book so we won't make as much on Kindle page reads but it should be moderately lucrative.

We had snow a week or two ago and this pic is from that storm. We got like 4 inches. It all melted last week and last night we got another inch or so. The roads were bad this morning but thanks to sunshine, most of the snow is gone now.

Pic of a pizza party. I enjoy it when the whole crowd is around and able to eat pizza.

Well, everyone but me and Lydia. I can't because of diabetes and she is still eating a very restricted diet. It is helping as she isn't sick much anymore.

Rose has bears.

I have been watching a video sermon series on Ecclesiastes. The speaker is talking about how Solomon was super rich and super wise and tested to see whether love or lust or marriage or concubines or building projects or possessions or gold or anything else would make him feel fulfilled.

And he realized that everything was meaningless without God.

He was in a weird position of being able to have anything that was possible in that day and age. (He couldn't have an automatic dishwasher because obviously not invented yet!)

Most people in our world can always yearn for more because most of us aren't super wealthy.

We are not super wealthy. We are wealthy compared to many people in the world. Food on the table, good roof over our heads, heat in the winter, AC in the summer, cars, a POOL!

When I was a kid, I thought only really really rich fortunate people had pools. And we have a pool!

Kevin and I both keep talking about managing our time and efforts during this season of life. The more books we publish, the more we make. But how much money is enough?

That is actually a tricky question! If I spent 40 hours a week writing, and Kevin 40 hours a week doing editing and marketing and all that, we would write books much  more quickly. But we would neglect the kids. And we definitely are not called to neglect the kids!

So it is a balance. Finishing books is very satisfying to me. Writing them is satisfying. I really enjoy writing. But it is vital that I spend enough time with Kevin and the children, that I talk to the children about the Lord, that I keep on keeping on with homeschooling even though I've been doing this like 20 years now and I am a little tired of it.

(Public school is NOT an option. I am way too cranky in my views about the right way to educate to be the kind of parent who should put her kids in ps. We felt called to homeschool for a variety of reasons, but one of them is being cranky about modern educational methods.)

Anyway, all this needs thought and prayer. I adore James 1:5.

 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

Mid February

 Our new book, Ramsgate Rescue, has been released as an audio book and as a paperback. The ebook launches next week.

In an ideal world, everything would be released within a few days but hey, Amazon KDP is not the ideal world.

I am working hard on the next story. I don't quite know how it is going to work out but I have confidence I will figure out something. I often get stressed that I won't be able to finish a story but so far I always think of something.

It has been busy around here, but that is nothing unusual. Today we have some snow coming down, finally. The last week was warm for February. It has been a mostly mild winter.

I feel like I should have more to report but I really don't. We're doing well. Kevin and I are both feeling mostly recovered from COVID which is great. 

That's about it!

February

 So far it has been a mild winter except for a couple of really cold weeks in January. And now it is February! It is warmish -- like high of 40 something today.

Ok, busy week here. Health wise, Kevin and I continue to improve. We also are doing more, so increased energy input and output. I am usually super tired when I get to bed but that's Ok.

Miriam and Joseph have been studying for months to take an exam called the Comp TIA Security Plus Exam. The certification is a basic requirement for many IT jobs.  Kevin took Miriam and Joseph off to the testing center on Wednesday and both passed!  I was actually pretty surprised; it is a hard test and most people don't pass it the first time. Naomi did also so Kendigs are three for three on that test the first time!

So now they are job hunting! And I am praying. And Kevin is working a lot with the kids with resumes and all that. We have some connections in the IT industry (Naomi and some friends of Kevin's from his Air Force years). I am hopeful they will both have jobs soon.

We are going to purchase another car for the kids. We have a Toyota Corolla that Isaac and Joseph share. Miriam is taking her driving test in a couple of weeks an if she passes, we will have three teen drivers. Also we hope that M and J will soon have full time jobs.

Kevin is looking around for a used car. I don't know much about cars and he is handling all that, but I did request blind spot monitoring for the new used car. It really is very helpful and with new drivers -- well, I would like the new used car to have blind spot monitoring.

Kevin found a possible car yesterday and we decided on a "date" 90 minutes north to check it out in the great city of Lima, Ohio. Spelled like Lima in a lima bean, not Lima as in Lima, Peru.

There was a huge accident on I-75 North which slowed us down.  We ended up getting off the highway and driving through the less wonderful parts of Lima. It is a refinery city and there are giant tanks and smokestacks and fun stuff like that. We went through a part of town that was falling down.

We finally got there and checked out the car. The man showing it to us was very pleasant. BUT the car, erm, the car's heat was having opposite day. Not only was the heat not working, the air coming out of the vents was colder than the outside air, or at least it felt like it. It behaved as if it was permanently stuck on AC.

So yeah, no. Kevin also detected an issue with the suspension. Never mind.

It was a date. We got away for four hours together. We'll take it.

Kevin and I also toiled away this last week to finish the latest book. Don't have a publish date yet because we are also having Harry Frost do an audio narration of the book to launch at the same time as the e book.

It was definitely a busy week and we had homeschooling on top of it.

But we are both feeling better so are thankful!