October!

 I love sunny autumn days. We have had several nice sunny days after a few gray days. It is lovely.

Last week, we went on a little field trip to a nearby farm where they sell pumpkins. They have pigs, and chickens, and PEACOCKS, and dogs, and cats, and the barn is full of pumpkins.

Lydia with cat

Me with a peacock and a hen in the background.

One of the fascinating things about this farm is that Kevin's paternal grandfather grew up at this farm! It used to belong to the Kendigs, but was sold off to someone else in the last one hundred years.

We bought pumpkins and the kids carved them.

So pretty! (There are lit candles in the pumpkins).

Kevin cut down our crabapple tree. It has not been doing well, and dumping leaves in our gutters, so away it goes.

I bought a helium balloon tank, and some mylar balloons, and we have been having fun with helium!

We launched a new book a little more than a week ago. It is doing reasonably well, especially since stupid Amazon did not send out messages to my followers (again.)

Ah well, such is life.

Thinking about getting colder

 It is inkling towards the end of September, which means it is getting cooler at night. Our pool is still open and techniquely swimmable, but I am a wimp and don't like cold water. I might jump in tomorrow but if so, that will be that for the year.

I made bread today. I cannot eat bread; first becuase it is high carb, and second because wheat is high fructan and my digestive system does not like high fructans. But I like the way it looks, and smells, and live variously through my family eating the bread.

The thing above is not DOUGH, surprisingly enough; it is modeling (white) chocolate. It can be colored and molded and all that. VERY COOL!

One of the interesting things about having nine kids is every one is different and every one has different interests. Rose is my cooking and baking and candy enthusiast. She likes to watch shows about making cakes and candy, and every time we go to the library, she checks out a bunch of cook books.

An orange!

Rose also likes playing with our giant magnets.

Petey is still a big hit. Kevin found some videos about training your pigeon to like you, and we have been teaching him to eat out of our hands. He is doing so with alacrity.

Yesterday we had a bird escape, though, and he is a bit more nervous today. Kevin was feeding him, and had the door to the cage wider open than usual. Petey ate away happily, and then got bored (apparently) and flew off! That was a surprise :-). We moved his cage into the sun room while he perched on the mantle, and then encouraged him to fly out into the sun room. I had to follow him around and he did not like that, so he is a bit more anxious today about people in general, and hands in particular, than a couple of days ago.

Pigeons apparently get nervous about hands, which are grabby and also maybe look like claws?

Rose drew a waistcoat, hat, and monocle on a picture of Petey.

Sarah is definitely a "science girl" and I realized that since she may end up going to college for engineering and/or science, we need to push a little faster with math. 22 years into this homeschool thing, I have concluded that most people don't really need to learn trigonometry and calculus. But if she is gonna be an engineer, she needs to have both of those and right now she is doing Algebra 1 and Geometry.

So we will work on that.

She definitely has a scientific mind. She reads books about science and often asks me complicated questions about chemistry and physics.

In writing news. I am getting near the end of a Christmas Book. It is early for that, but being done is nice. I am like five chapters away from being done, probably? 

August

 My parents visited this last weekend!  We had great fun!

The kids were all here for two dinners. It was lovely having everyone together, including my folks.

Yesterday we went to a garden and a farmer's market with the three youngest kids. Life is definitely different with the older five living outside the house, and Angela working full time. There is a huge difference between 5 and 11 people, obviously. And this weekend, we had 13 people some of the time. It was fabulous.

Petey continues to be a hit. Kevin keep trying to give him fruit and tasty leaves and he says, no thanks. He is a picky eater. He only eats bird seed. He only eats SOME of the bird seed. His food is a mix, and he deliberately tosses it on the floor of his cage and then hunts and pecks for his particular favorite bird seed(s).

He is very cute though.

 

I took the three younger kids to a local water park. They had a great time. The water was very cold. There are these buckets in the middle of the park which fill with water and then dump on the kids. Daniel, in particular, thought that was great.

Isaac and Miriam dressed up for church.

This week, Kevin's mother, sister, and niece are coming to visit, so that is fun.

I am writing away vigorously, as usual. I am reading up on French Christmas customs, which is fascinating.

Mid July

 

A new book launches tomorrow. That is always exciting.

Miriam and Joseph are moving out, which is even more exciting! Joseph has been planning to move out for a while but his finances are a bit dubious, so it wasn't happening. Miriam decided a few weeks ago that she would like to move out as well, which is reasonable. They talked and worked together and found a two bedroom apartment about 15 minutes from us. It looks like a nice place and easily affordable.

They will move out by the end of the month (probably) which will leave ONLY 4 kids here! Which is a little crazy!

Lydia started a new job which pays better. She likes it pretty well though the schedule is very different than her last job. She starts at 10 a.m. and is done at 6:30 p.m. most days.

Poor Lydia was also the victim of a catalytic converter theft more than a week ago! Some thieves hit her apartment complex. It sucks.

She has a friend whose husband is a mechanic and he is going to fix it for her, hopefully this Saturday.

It is very hot again.

Kevin's back is hurting a lot. It has been a problem for a month, sometimes better sometimes worse. It seems like a muscle or tendon issue, not a back issue proper. Mostly lower right side.

Middle March

 

St. Patrick's day was two days ago. I came across this prayer that is ascribed to St. Patrick of Ireland. I love it, because it really is all about Jesus. Every facet of a Christian's life should flow out of their relationship with Jesus, Savior, Lord, and Friend.

Last week, I didn't do formal school with the kids because I was finishing up my latest book. (And yes, first draft IS DONE!) Rose decided to make a carnival in our living room, with little games made out of paper and cardboard. She is super creative.

A few days ago, we got snow. Not a LOT of snow, but I was still indignant.

By the way, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (where I went to undergraduate) they had three feet of snow over the weekend. With 60 mph winds. INSANE!

Rose got a cute dress from Goodwill.

It feels like we have been busy but I am not certain why. The kids are doing a lot of coming and going, so the house feels like Grand Central Station sometimes!  But it is all good.

As I said, I did finish the first draft of a book. Kevin is currently doing his edits, and then I do edits, and then he does two more rounds of edits, and we have to get the cover made and all that...

and then we can publish!

Warm and windy

 I do like spring!

Of course, it is only March and we will have cold dreary days ahead of us, but today it is supposed to be upper 60s with sun. I love it so much!

Our pool is not "open", but it is open.

:-)

Seriously, we need the liner replaced so Kevin pulled off the winter cover this week so some people could come out and measure the pool carefully. So now we have thick, murky water outside our back windows.

It is not attractive, but that's Ok. I understand the liner will be replaced mid April, probably.  

Then we will fill it with water and... who knows? Maybe actually swim early? We do not have a heater but we do have a solar cover and our children are pretty tough. Maybe by early May it will be warm enough to swim for some crazy people.

Not me. I don't do cold water.

Kevin and I attended a wedding last weekend. It was held, oddly enough, in a Native American Museum that is only fifteen minutes from our house.

I thought it was great. The scenery was interesting and the chairs they brought in were comfortable. It was lovely seeing a young man and woman exchanging vows.

I dressed up so much that I actually brought a purse to the wedding instead of my usual belly pack. I am all about FASHION!

What else is going on? Well, this week I hope to finish my latest book. I am in the "I am sick of it" phase.

And the weather is nice, as I said before. I hope we will all be able to run around outside.

Spring is here!

Early March

 Spring is coming! Spring is coming!

It really is.

Today it is cool and rainy. Tomorrow it will be warmer and rainy. Friday it will be 70+ degrees and... rainy.

Yes, we are being rained on very thoroughly this week. We live on top of a hill so don't get flooded, and I am grateful.

This year we are having our pool liner replaced because the old liner is definitely worse for wear. The poor pool liner is exposed to the sun's rays AND a lot of chlorine so yeah, it doesn't last forever.

The whole thing is kind of exciting. The pool will be drained and workmen will put a new liner in.

I am about 75,000 words into my new book and I am getting tired of it. I am still a decent way from an ending, though. Obviously this book is gonna be LONG.

It seems like not a lot has happened the last few weeks. People go to work. I write books. The younger kids do school. Kevin is nobly tackling our complicated taxes. He does every year and I am SO grateful. We have a small business and kids and this and that...

But yeah, mostly things are calm, which is good.

Mid February

 

Kevin and I finished another 1000 piece puzzle. I do like puzzles now, very much. The kids are old enough that they don't walk if with pieces, which is a great blessing.

Last blog post I spoke of a winter storm. We got well over a foot one day, and then a week later, we got four more inches. It was below freezing for several weeks, and we had a lot of snow. It was beautiful in a chilly way.

This last week the temps finally, reluctantly, popped up past freezing, and a couple of days it was 50 something. So the snow began melting with enthusiasm.

This morning I took a picture of a cat visitor. The kids saw him a few months ago and named him Deck Chair because he was, at the time, sitting on a deck chair.

You can see how most of the snow has melted.

This coming week is going to be really warm and nice. I adore the first warm days of the year because there are no bugs and everything feels fresh and new.

I didn't blog for more than two weeks so a lot has happened. We did launch a book and Amazon DID send out messages about it to our followers, and the book has done substantially better than the last two books. That makes us happy. It has been wobbling in and out of best seller status in Romantic Adaptations. At the moment it is a best seller in that catagory and one other, which means we have an orange banner on the book. Amazon pushes books that are doing well so that helps.

I am 50,000 plus words into another book. It is farther off of "canon" -- which is to say, farther from the original P and P. I have a long way to go. It will be long.

An older relation of mine got sick in the last couple of weeks. She is recovering. I am thankful for good medical care.

That's about it. We have kids coming and going with work. Lydia has a friend visiting from the West Coast starting at the end of next week. It is good.

Cold and Snowy Winter so far

 

This was from a few days ago. Not a LOT of snow, but nonetheless snow. It is actually quite rare for us to get snow in December here. We have had a couple of storms with 4 or 5 inches, and supposedly we will get another few inches tomorrow.

We have young drivers out on the roads a lot so I need to keep praying for their safety. Angela is supposed to work tomorrow and she is our youngest driver so I hope and pray she will be Ok. We will see if it actually snows like they say it will. Sometimes the weather winkies are wrong.

There is a lot going on in the house with Christmas coming, plus three kid birthdays. Kevin kindly purchases most of the gifts for the kids which is a HUGE blessing.

I am 45,000 words into another book. It will not be super long -- I am guessing like 60,000 when all is said and done.

Did you see how I used a dash in the previous sentence (-)? Apparently, people have decided that dashes are signs of Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in writing, so now I  am avoiding dashes. It is stupid because normal writers do use dashes, but I also don't want people writing reviews claiming I am using AI in my writing.

Our big boys have been looking around at apartments and considering what they want to do. At the moment, they are seriously contemplating living together in an apartment because it will be much cheaper. They initially wanted to live in their own places, but not surprisingly, it is way more expensive.

Kevin and I have been purchasing and organizing stuff for the boys so they will have dishes and pots and pans when they move out. We have a storage room in the basement and I am happily looking for stuff to give away.

Sometimes I am truly overwhelmed by how much stuff we have in the house. Given that we have nine people living here, I don't suppose it is really that bad but I don't like clutter.

This is our sons' bedroom. It is a big room (like 14 by 17) and fits three beds and three dressers nicely, but still it is crowded. When the big boys leave, there will be so much more space for stuff. I don't know what we will do with it, but we will figure out something. Maybe some of the toys that Daniel really likes?

Speaking of Daniel, he will miss them. He has shared a room with his brothers for as long as he can remember.

Our older boys, who both have to work early, will probably relish having their own room so they can hit the sack without being distracted by siblings. Joseph has a particularly brutal shift -- it starts at 6:30 a.m.!

So yeah, lots going on! It is good for young people to grow up and move out. It will be hard having them gone, but also kind of nice with a little less busyness and stuff in our house.

December!

 

We are past Thanksgiving. On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we didn't have our normal banquet because Angela was working.

So instead we had it on Saturday evening. ALSO, we had a party for Kevin's mother in the early afternoon on Saturday. She turned 80.

She lives in Texas with Kevin's sister and family, but they kindly brought her up so there could be a party for her. It was fun. 

Kevin's sister gave us hats so that evening, some of us wore hats.

It was nice being all together.

We didn't get snow, unlike Michigan, where they got a bunch. We are supposed to get snow tonight. We will see!

When the big girls visited for Thanksgiving dinner, we had six cars in our driveway. Fortunately, we have a big driveway. We look like a used car lot :-).

A new book launched on Friday. Amazon continues to behave in a wonky fashion which is annoying. It is, however, entirely beyond our control so Kevin and I are working on being patient.

The big thing that is annoying is that Amazon isn't, apparently, sending out messages to our Amazon "followers." These are people who have said they WANT to know when a book launches, but we don't think Amazon is doing it.

There was some big computer glitch more than a month ago and maybe it is still getting sorted out? Maybe.

Anyway. It is beyond our control. I am being calm.

My left foot has been bothering me quite a bit. I think I strained some tendons on the top of the foot or something.

I am so grateful for strong kids who can carry things up and down stairs for me as needed.

Kevin was on a decluttering spree last week which was nice. He threw away a bunch of stuff. Our big boys are moving out in the next couple of months and will take away more stuff.

I like having open space. Clutter stresses me out. Also, I live in a house with 8 other people and need to be patient with other people's clutter.

December is upon us and Christmas is coming. In the midst of all the holiday hustle and bustle, I am going to try to keep my thoughts fixed on the Lord Jesus, who came as a baby, grew to an adult, preached, taught, and then died for my sins, and rose again from the grave.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Mid November

 

We had a little snowstorm! It was a record for November 10th in some local places. I think we got at least 3 inches.

Rose and Daniel were super excited. They spent a lot of happy time playing in the snow.

Do you see the pale sun shining through the clouds in the picture above? Cool!

Yesterday was Kevin's birthday. He and I only barely stepped outside yesterday. It was a great day to be inside, enjoying the warmth. Lydia came over for dinner so we had 8 kids celebrating.

Lydia and Naomi have several cats, and one of them has been losing weight. Turns out he is diabetic! So now they are having to give him insulin shots twice a day. He is already feeling much better.

Let's see... OH! Joseph got an IT job!  It starts next Monday. So that is a huge answer to prayer.

Isaac is still working a temp job but he does have an engineering interview today. So we will see.

We launched a book a week ago and so far it has been kind of a dud. I don't think it is the fault of the book. Amazon got messed up which affected the launch.

Two things happened. First, we have a big group of people who like my books, and they are supposed to be told when one of our books is on pre order, and when one of our books has launched. By Amazon, I mean. As far as we know, neither email got sent out.

Also, the reviews got totally stuck. A week from launch, we have only three reviews. Other books are having the same problem. Amazon is HUGE and sometimes things go wrong. By this time, I expect there have been at least 100 reviews to the book, most of them so called "star" reviews, where at the end of the book, people have the option of just telling how many stars there are. The written reviews are always far rarer.  But by now there should be quite a few and at the moment we have three and the first one showed up only yesterday.

All of this is annoying but reality. We work with Amazon, which is gigantic, and there are algorithms and computer stuff and when it goes wrong, the author "suffers".

But we also are blessed by Amazon, because, hey, most of our money comes from Kindle Unlimited page reads! So I am working to just take the good with the bad and be calm.

I haven't written anything in several days (creatively, I mean -- a book, I mean) and my brain has been bouncing all over thinking about stuff.

I am going through a Chernobyl phase. There was a huge nuclear accident in 1986 and I am watching a documentary series and reading about it again because it is fascinating.

I FINALLY figured out one scientific detail which has been confusing me for ages. So that is nice.

I have also been making parallels in my head between our situation with Amazon and SNAP recipient with the governement. The shut down caused a lot of fear and anguish and we decided to donate a decent sum to a local food pantry to help out.

I assume SNAP will get sorted out now, which is a relief for those who are struggling with food insecurity and hunger.

There are so many families struggling who need SNAP. There are also a bunch of people being kind of stupid about the whole thing.

I have seen online videos, which seem to be authentic, where people with SNAP are buying tons of expensive stuff -- expensive meats, and lots of pricy frozen meals. Here's the thing ... if you are on SNAP, and cannot pay for your own groceries, you SHOULD use SNAP very very very carefully. If I were in that position, I would buy a bunch of long lasting things (like rice or canned items) so IF the government had a problem and SNAP stopped, I would have food stored in the pantry.

Now some people literally don't have stoves, I get that. So their situation is different from those who do have kitchens and stoves and still decide to buy pricy pops and expensive name brand chips and that kind of thing.

My mentality is very different, maybe especially because I have kids. If I was so poor I couldn't pay for my own food, I would be trying to stockpile and lots of people don't.

Lots of people probably do stockpile, too.

Maybe there are a just a few people with terrible habits, but I would guess that isn't true.

When the government comes through faithfully every month, it is easy to take it for granted. And then, when we have a 40+ days shutdown and SNAP is delayed, a lot of people freak. Some people are literally on the cliff of poverty so I do understand that it is really hard. But some people are definitely being stupid about how they have been using their "free money" for groceries.

We are used to having Amazon be helpful, and this time it has been causing problems with not doing what it should be doing. BUT, we have savings so we can weather having lower income than expected.

Late October

 

Rose is still small and cute. She made this wonderful magnet house.

This is from a week ago or so. Isaac got in the water like a crazy person. It was 66 at the time. BRRRR.

So we have bees living in our house. Joy. They have made a nest between a stone and the window frame. Kevin has been shooting poison foam at them, but what really is working is sucking them up with a Shop Vac. Great care will be taken not to open the Shop Vac any time soon.

What else is going on?

Well, a lot. A LOT.

Let's talk about jobs!  Isaac got a temp. job. It is not an engineering job, and he is still hunting for one, but he is working full time working on metal sheeting. It pays decently well. Not as well as an engineering position of course, but he wants money!

Joseph battled beauracracy and is getting unemployment while also job hunting.

Angela has been wearing herself out! She is also searching for an IT job but those jobs are hard to find and she has no experience, so she also went out and got a job to make money. She is in training at the same place Lydia works now. Lydia is a concierge and Angela is going to work as a server at the restaurant and also a dishwasher and table clearer.

It means kids are coming and going a lot. The house is quieter for sure with only four kids home most days.

Last week I finished my latest book. It is launching in early November. Also, Kevin has a bunch of work to do on it.

Also, I am 17,000 words into a Christmas novella. That needs to be done in a few weeks. Yes, I am writing a lot these days!

It is getting cooler. I like that given that I am post menopausal!

End of September now, really!

 

So our pool is chilly now. Like 74 or 75 degrees.  The days have been above 80 but at night it gets cold.

Isaac AND Daniel jumped into the pool a few days ago. They are very tough! 

I went in yesterday and just stuck to walking up and down in the shallow end. It was an unpleasant experience for a few minutes, but I got exercise. My upper body was dry so I didn't die from icy water.

It isn't that cold, of course. I am just a wimp.

We published a new book four days ago. It is doing reasonably well but not amazingly well. But reasonably well is good, and I am happy.

I love that Angela is driving now. It makes our lives much less complicated.

We have kids doing interviews and drug screens and this and that. So busy.

The world is still being sad. Yesterday some madman murdered four people in an LDS church in Michigan. Absolutely heartbreaking and horrible.

I am not dwelling on it or deep diving because there were children there and I don't want to know too much.

The Detroit Tigers did manage to crawl into the post season. They had a horrible end of the year. I am genuinely mad at them for blowing their huge lead in the AL Central. They will be playing Cleveland starting tomorrow in a Wild Card series. Cleveland was on a positive tear at the end of the year and beat the Tigers five out of six times in the last couple of weeks of the regular season.

Of course, they are more upset than I am about doing so badly:-).

It doesn't matter that much but I am still annoyed.

I sound annoyed a lot in this post. Sorry about that. Really, things are going fine all in all. Lots is still in the air with regards to jobs and stuff like that. I am frequently giving my uncertainties to God.

He is good.

Early August

 It is still very hot which is nice for the pool. I love water temperatures in the mid 80s. So so so nice.

About a week ago, Angela took a big, ugly, Security Plus test and PASSED. This is the same test three of her siblings took, and passed, so now she has Security Plus certification.

She turns 18 this month and will be able to get a job in IT. So she is going to be job hunting. She also will be getting her driver's license, we hope. So lots of grown up stuff for our girl!

That Cyber Truck is not hers. They just found it in a random parking lot! Ha ha!

Tree frogs keep climbing up our umbrella near our pool. This dude fell off the umbrella when I opened it. He is handsome. Or she is handsome.

This week school started but it was super mellow. Younger three kids did fine.

I also worked really hard on my latest book. It is very long, like 110,000 words. I am almost done with editing it.

I will be glad when it is done. I am always glad when I am done. So glad. So so so so glad.

It won't be published until next month.

Very End of July

I haven't posted in two weeks, I see. 

Tomorrow is August!

I like summer a lot, but I am not mourning that autumn will soon be upon us with cooler temperatures. The end of June and all of July were hot, and we have also had a lot of rain. The grass is very excited. Our pool is like swimming in warm bath water. SO warm. I have been swimming every day almost which is good for my joints and all that.

Today and tomorrow highs will be only in the 70s, but then it will heat up again. I do like the seasons. I don't even mind winter all that much anymore, which is a change, because I used to be cranky about cold temperatures.

Now that I am post menopausal, I get hot very easily so am super thankful for air conditioning!

Last week was full of doctor and dental appointments. We had dentist visits for four people, and orthondontic checks for three kids, and I had a trip to a gastro surgeon. That proved to be useful as I discovered that I have an anal fissure, not hemmorhoids. It is healing but still painful. Annoying that something so small could be so uncomfortable.

I don't think I have a high pain tolerance, though. So that is part of it.

Anyway, this week has been much more mellow. I am on Epilogue 2 of my latest long book so almost done. That makes me happy.

The younger three kids start school next Monday. We always ease into it slowly so it won't be a heavy work week.

I hope to have the new book edited by the end of the next week and then I can pass all the other work off to Kevin like making a cover and marketing and stuff. He is a total boss with that kind of thing.

That is about it! 

Younger Kids in Michigan

 Last week our younger four children went to Michigan to spend the week with my parents and their cousin who is a little older than Rose.

They went to the zoo and rode a camel.

They helped serve a big dinner at my parents' church

Another zoo pic

They had dinner with my younger brother (and my parents)

They played checkers.

They went bike riding. You may notice that my parents have gorgeous flowers. Yes, yes they do. My mother, and to some degree my father, are incredible gardiners.

Flight simulator at the Air Zoo

Another zoo ride, one that is crazy with lots of ups and downs!

Something artsy.

Boys on camel.

So yeah, it was a great week for the children and I am so relieved it all worked out.

Kevin and I were home the whole week, and our three older kids (who live at home) were at work during the day and it was so so so quiet. So quiet.

The original thought was that Kevin and I would go on vacation while the children were at my parents, but then my little health issues cropped up. I still have kidney stones rattling around and also hemmorroids. Like, who wants to talk about the latter? I don't like TALKING about it, but wow, they can be really uncomfortable! They are! Riding in a car for many hours does not make me happy!

I am on meds for them and also seeing a surgeon next week to see if I will need surgery, and then in August I will see a urologist to discuss the kidney stones, which are not hurting but still presumably there.

So yeah, this summer has been a bit disappointing with minor health issues.

Also this week I had a mammogram like a responsible woman, and then yesterday several of us got our teeth cleaned, and then today I went in to get a cavity fixed. So I am tired. Oh, and I ran Sarah to the eye doctor yesterday because an eye is swollen. She is on antibiotics for it now.

It reminded me of my life ten years ago when I would have a great many doctor appointments because back then, I had 9 kids under the age of 18! Compared to those days, I really don't have a lot of doctor appointments. None of the children have chronic health issues so it was all just normal stuf in the past.

I am thankful. I have a friend who has a child who has some issues and when the child was young she would have six medical appointments a week for that one kid.  That is hard.  But when you are a parent, you just do what needs to be done.

I did write quite a bit last week. I finished a novella and now Kevin has to figure out when to publish it and cover design and all that.

I am 70,000 words into another story and will finish it up soonish.

I am a machine where writing is concerned. A big part of being a successful author is just trucking along on books whether it is "fun" or not. I like writing but sometimes there are sections which are just not much fun. But I just write and write and write.

That's about it! Oh, Kevin purchased a robotic vacuum cleaner during Amazon Prime Days and has been playing around with it. It cleaned our room today three times, and our floors are super clean. We vacuum every week, but Robbie the Robot can get under beds and stuff, so he (it?) is doing an extra good job.