Thanksgiving

 We had the whole crowd here for Thanksgiving.  Lydia brought pies and mashed potatoes. We provided turkey, olives, pickles, and more pies.

So dinner was hilarious with turkey and mashed potatoes and two lame sides.  Then we had lots of dessert!

Kevin's mother usually brings five or six sides but she was still in Texas at the time.  I was busy working on a book and lost track of the fact that we had basically no sides.

No one was too upset.  What can go wrong with four pies??

Angela made this apple pie!

Rose made herself a crown!

Our beloved Horde.

Boys ate separately as we don't all fit around the table.

Our boys!

Our girls!

These Weeks in Pictures

This might be from a couple of weeks ago. Just wanted to get Kevin and the kids at home in a picture.

Rose and I wandering around Pearl's Fen, a nearby park.

Rose in her new hat, shirt, and gloves.  

We were going to go to church this morning BUT yesterday afternoon, my right eye started itching fiercely. This morning, it had a film on it when I got up.  So I think I have pink eye!  Fortunately I have eye drops for it. BUT given that it is super contagious I decided we should stay home from church. So far the kids seem mostly Ok (some are complaining of stuffed heads and aching limbs) but I don't want to spread pink eye through Sunday School.

So I knew we were supposed to get some snow but thought a few flakes, maybe?  No.  It has snowed and snowed. It won't last long but it is beautiful.

The sun room kittens are interested!

And then they got super tired!

My wonderful husband turned 51 this week.  Happy birthday, darling!

Rubik's Cube

 

I solved a Rubik's cube!

I used online help, of course, but still!  What an accomplishment :-).

Thankful for 52 years

 I had a birthday this month and I am now 52 years old!

Rose and I are wearing our matching turtle shirts from St. Croix. She was THRILLED to pose with me, obviously!

I really like being in my 50's. I have no doubt that if I live long enough, I will be far wiser at 80 than I am right now, but I know I am far, far wiser than I was at 25.  So that is good!

I am also incredibly grateful for my comparatively good health.  One does not carry 9 children to term, and have six of them by C-section, and have a full incision hysterectomy in one's late 40's, without some damage to the body. I know, because my OB has told me, that I have a lot of scar tissue in my abdomen. My neck and back fuss at me regularly because I spent decades with poor posture thanks to carrying babies both within the womb and on my right hip. However, a chiropractor helps and my aches and pains are minor.

My Type 2 diabetes is under control, and 17 years after being diagnosed, I don't have any obvious side effects. 

All this is to say that I am quite healthy, and I am grateful!

Kevin's mom left Ohio two months ago to help an extended family member who fell ill with COVID.  He almost died on the ventilator but by the grace of God, he survived and is back home. He is slowly regaining his strength.

I am reading a book by a pastor/radiologist (yes, he was both at the same time) who in his late 30's abruptly developed a serious, rare disease which means he has spent the last couple of decades feeling rotten much of the time.

I have another friend who was in a series of car accidents in his late teens, which caused irreparable damage to his back. He has had a series of surgeries to try to repair the damage.  While things have improved, he spent years on pain meds and eventually started taking too many, and is now an opioid addict.  Today he is in a detox facility trying to break free from his addiction.

Wow.  

So yes, my neck aches, and my back aches at times.  I have to eat increasingly carefully as I grow old.  But, at age 52, I can walk and climb stairs and hug my kids and do my various jobs.  I am grateful.

New Book Launching

 

Today is launch day for my new book, entitled Brighton Rescue.  It is, as all my books are, a Pride and Prejudice variation.

I always find the last phase of a book the hardest, as it involves editing, which is boring.  :-)

Kevin does all the work actually getting it set up for publication so yeah for Kevin!!

It is great being done with this book.  It is great to have it launched.  I am happy!

Bad Week for Anxiety

 This was truthfully a really rough week for me anxiety wise.  Part of it was self inflicted. Most of it was self inflicted?  I was finishing edits on the book, which is my least favorite part of the process.  I was still working away on some household projects (like cleaning the porch).  And then we were also doing school this week.  Oh, and I had 3 appointments outside of home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday!

Tuesday's was a lot of fun; Lydia and I went out to lunch. That was great!

Wednesday I took Joseph in for his well check appointment.  He is 17, 6 ft, and weighs, I am serious about this, weighs 106 lbs.

So yeah.  The doc checked him out carefully and he is totally healthy, just very skinny.  Isaac was the same way but has put on some weight this year. So now Isaac is 6 ft. almost 3 inches tall, 137 lbs.  Which is still very thin!

Thursday I took two kids to the orthodontist.

Did I talk about the edits?  Ergh.  Entering edits into the computer requires a lot of concentration and I was getting interrupted so often.

Oh, and Kevin's job has been super busy lately.  He works from home and I have to keep the kids quiet sometimes which is not too hard since they aren't babies and toddlers anymore, but still.  He has been rather stressed too.

Anyway, my anxiety was through the roof this week.  For me, again, to reiterate from a few blog posts ago, it is not that I am worried about something bad happening. It is more that I look around and everything out of place catches my eye, and my brain is flitting through all that needs to be done.  It is no fun.

A few weeks ago I was really anxious and upped my Lexapro dosage and felt better.  Then this last week I dropped it down to normal levels and got worse again. So I think I need to move up to 15 mg from 10 mg of Lexapro.

It is very uncomfortable and it makes me an agitated wife and mother, which Kevin and the kids don't need.

 I still get lots done when I am not so anxious. I am able to see something that needs to be finished and think, Ok, yes, I need to do that, but I will get to that later.  It doesn't make me feel overwhelmed.

I am very thankful for the meds because they do help me. 

This Week in Pictures

 

We bought collection folders for quarters and have had fun looking through our stash of quarters and putting the different state park and state coins in the right places.

Back three acres is mostly wild and really nice.

Rose with magnets on door.

There is a story here!  I decided to spray off the porch with a sprayer on a hose.  Kevin says no, use the pressure washer.  So what was going to be just a little clean up turned into a long, exhausting, but productive process.  I did some, Kevin did more.  The Welcome in the dirt shows what the porch looked like before Kevin toiled away with the pressure washer.

The black and white kitten is Kevin's emotional support animal. He sometimes takes her into his office for meeting.

Rose can be dramatic about folding towels.

Lydia and Opal