Kevin and Monkeys

 

Kevin turned 54 in the last week. I turned 55 a few weeks ago. I am just a little more than a year older than he is

I love him so much. He is very smart, and hard working, and we have a lot in common, and he loves Jesus, and me, and our kids.

Please note the jade plant behind Kevin. Usually it lives in our sun room but we have been hosting a cat who has a bad ear infection. Twice a day I get to snatch her and pour drops in her ears. She doesn't like it, but she is improving.

So the plant is indoors. Now the plant is interesting because it is alive. I kill plants.  Like, I am so bad with plants. I am great with kids, but not great with plants. So every living plant in the house is thanks to Kevin. He does a good job.

So yeah, great husband and father and editor and grower of jade plants.

Why did I mention monkeys? Why, because about a week ago, more than 40 monkeys escaped their enclosure in Yemassee, South Carolina. MORE THAN FORTY!

Crazy stuff! They have managed to capture most of them but apparently there are still 13 on the lam.

It just makes me feel kind of, I don't know, happy, to think of monkeys leaping on trees and fences and generally causing chaos, so long as no one gets hurt, of course. It is funny. So far, the captured monkeys have all been well. Now realistically, the sooner they are captured the better, but there is this certain joy in thinking about them carrying on and leading their caretakers a merry dance.

Post Election

 Before I talk about the election, I have sad news. Our random rooster died at the teeth of some predator. Poor Cogburn. Chickens are generally stupid and he lasted months, which was surprising, really. But yeah, something got him a few days ago. We will miss him.

Ok, the election. Obviously Trump won.

I am a conservative and so I voted for Trump and I am happy that he won.

I know lots of people, including some people I love very much, have VERY different views of the matter, and are very sad that Kamala Harris lost.

When I was considering the available information on Monday night, with the polls supposedly tight as tight in the swing states, I was frankly confused. I thought it SHOULD be a Trump landslide, not necessarily because of Harris's deficiencies as a candidate, but because she is VP during a time in American history where inflation has been high and people are nervous about bills and groceries and all that.

Historically, when the American people think the nation is "on the wrong track" in large numbers, they vote out the party in power. Presidents have a lot of power, but still, life happens -- the COVID pandemic caused a lot of trouble and while I definitely did not approve of many of Biden's decisions, I am aware that the troubles of our country cannot all be heaped on his shoulders. But people look at their own lives and if things aren't going well, they tend to vote for a "change" candidate, and while Harris tried to make herself out as a change candidate, it was hard for her to do so given that she is the VP at the moment.

The whole thing was a mess for Democrats in other ways, of course, given that Biden stepped out of the race only a few months ago. Now I would argue that was a mistake on the part of the party; the man is obviously declining mentally, and shouldn't have tried to run again. But I also have sympathy for the situation. He IS the sitting president. And people with dementia often don't know they HAVE dementia. How do you tell someone who is the most powerful man in the world that he should NOT run again for President?

As for Harris, I am confident she is an intelligent person with many gifts, but she is not, frankly, a gifted speaker. She repeated herself a lot, and there were the word salads, and she just didn't connect well with a lot of "normal folks". I understand she talked at one point about how much she loves Venn diagrams. I love them too! They are so awesome! But apparently Venn diagrams leave most people cold.

One thing that is undeniably true is that people are individuals. Yes, black men OFTEN vote like other black men, and women with college degrees vote like other women with college degrees, but not everyone thinks the same way within the blocs. I am a highly educated white woman who would never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for Kamala Harris because a huge part of her message was abortion rights, and I HATE abortion. I hate it. It breaks my heart. To be clear, I recognize there are rare occasions when abortion is the only viable option, like life of the mother, but in general, I think it horrific, and the one thing that Harris was very clear on was her defense of abortion, up to and including post birth. I mean, it is happening in Minnesota. Babies have survived abortion and been left to die, and Walz, her running mate, signed a bill so that medical people don't have to tell anyone if an infant survives abortion and is left to die. So we don't know how many almost full term babies are dying post birth in Minnesota. Now I think a life is a life is a life regardless of gestational age, BUT that is infanticide. That is carrying a baby somewhere and leaving him or her to die. It is another level of evil.

One of the vibes from the Democrats was that women should vote for Harris because she is a woman, and we should want one of "our own" to be in the White House.

I have no problem with a female president. Maybe in my lifetime, there will be a female president. But by God, I will NOT vote for someone MERELY because she is female, or black or whatever. We are talking about literally the most important job in the entire world, and we need someone who can do the job. I think Trump can, nor will he be a dictator.  Lots of people hate his guts. I get that. I respect that. If people voted for Harris because she was NOT Trump, I understand.

In my case, I would have preferred a different Republican, but I was never going to vote Harris and I think Trump will do a good job.

So yeah. I am going to pray for our nation and that our government can do the right thing. And I'm going to focus on the most important thing, which is my job as wife and mom and child of God.

November!

 

I love fall colors so much! Gorgeous! I don't even know where this tree was. I found it on my phone. I took the pic but don't remember where I was at the time.

So...

Lots going on. First a new book launched a couple of days ago. It is doing fine, though nothing like the last book, which was called Elizabeth is Not a Bennet. That one was a BEAST. But this one is doing fine so far.

Our church had a Trunk or Treat ministry on Thursday, Halloween.

Angela manned a table and also did the decorations and made the Flower Face for herself. It comes from a video game. Isn't it cute?

We had about 400 people go through.

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my friends' seven year old son. It was a powerful service and also so incredibly sad. I thought the pastors both did a great job. They didn't speak empty platitudes. They said, yes, we have a Lord and Savior who loves children and this little guy is with the Lord. BUT this is agony for his family. We don't understand it. We may never understand it.

So yeah, that was a hard service. I wish I had brought more Kleenex. I am praying for my friends and also will be available to help them in the future. 

This is funny to me... I have been watching a lot of shows and video clips that have little commercials mixed in. It seems like no one knows who I am because the commercials are absolutely aimed for someone else. I keep seeing a wine commercial. I hate the taste of wine so much. I keep seeing commercials for special shampoo for black women's hair. My hair is straight and boring, not beautifully curly and able to be braided in a fancy way. I also keep seeing Pampers commercials, sometimes in Spanish. WHAT? I mean, yes, I had plenty of babies, but a long time ago!

Rose learned to ride a bike this last week. Yes, it was late but she took to it like a duck to water. Then yesterday she and a couple of other kids were doing the Death Gully Challenge and she crashed into a tree. She is fine though has a bruise on her leg. Like why, kids? Why be so crazy?  Because they are young and full of vim and vigor.

Obviously the election is on Tuesday. A lot of people are stressed, including me. It has, if nothing else, been a whacky election cycle with a previous president running again, and Biden dropping out, and assassination attempts, and other insanity. 

I keep trying to remember that God is God. Sometimes the "wrong" leader comes to power. God is still God.  

We do have seven voting Kendigs and will be doing our part on election day. 

One thing that is regrettable is that people generally ascribe rotten intentions toward people with other views. I can believe someone to be wrong while still understanding the motivation behind it. There can be good intentions which lead to bad outcomes.

Well, we will know soon...

Birthday Week

 

I turned 55 this week. Angela made me a chocolate cake using almond flour, which was excellent. Rose made me a fake little cupcake out of playdough, plus two paper 5's. She is so creative.

My birthday was excellent. Good weather, plus two fun gifts from Kevin, namely a new Kindle and a new Fitbit watch.

Tuesday, some dear friends of ours visited for dinner. We had our 9 children and they had their eight younger children (their eldest lives elsewhere) and we had a wonderful time. We mostly were outdoors on the porch, where we set up tables. The kids haven't seen one another in three years, as our friends were in Germany for military reasons. Now they are back in the area. It was great.

Friday morning...

Sigh...

Friday morning I was doing my devotions when I got a call from a dear friend, and she was crying. She told me that her seven year old had died a few hours previously.

He showed every signs of a stomach bug the previous day and seemed to be improving, and when they got up in the morning, he was dead.

It is just... hard to put into words how wrecked they are. Of course they are. But there are no words.

It was a freak medical thing and not their fault at all. But as she told me, how do we go on?

I honestly don't know. They do have other children so they will go on because they have to, but to lose a child?

It is so easy to get upset and angry and irritated about little things and then when a child dies, suddenly all those little things seem far less important, don't they?

I look around at our children and they have their struggles, but they are alive and healthy and I am so grateful.

I know it is a cliche, but I am hugging my children a bit harder.

So yeah, at the moment I feel sad because my heart breaks for my friend and her husband and other children.

But I did have a good birthday, and am thankful for that.

Mid October

 

Kevin made swings and they are very popular, even with the older kids!

I was hilariously reminded of a scene in the Avengers movie, the first one, where various Avengers are striding toward the camera looking buff and ready to fight.

I think it is wonderful when the posse, the Horde, goes out and walks up and down the driveway together, chattering away as they do so.

We released a book in early October. So far it is shaping up as a Beast, which is to say very popular. It hit like 250 in the Kindle store, which is stupidly good.

Thanks to various odd circumstances, we are almost done with ANOTHER book. I am currently doing second edits on it. I hate second edits so much. I whine every time I have to do it.

Of course, I could just publish as is but second edits make the book much much much better.

So yeah. Why do I dislike it so much? It is hard work, and painstaking, and not fun.

But necessary.  So quit whining, Laraba!

Good things happening

 I decided to separate this blog post from the one full of pictures.

This last week, a bunch of good things happened. Let me start with the one that I am most thankful for.

When Kevin and I were in Michigan at the beginning of our marriage, we were friends with a couple with a large family.

One of their sons was working overseas for some years. Something went wrong recently regarding paperwork, and he ended up being detained and stuck in some rather lousy prison for foreigners with these kinds of issues. The problem in question lingered for literally weeks as our embassy didn't move quickly to sort out the paperwork issues. The young man has some underlying health issues and the prison was not a healthy place. 

I was praying, as were a great many people. Finally he did get the necessary documentation and he returned home in the last week.

So so so thankful. As a mom myself, I cannot imagine how hard this was for the entire family as they worried about him.

That's the biggest win of the week, for sure! 

Other far less important things, but nonetheless I am thankful.

1. I found a pair of my glasses that went missing. They had been gone for weeks and I decided to search my car. Yep, they were under a seat.

2. The Detroit Tigers, "my" baseball team, are on a tear. They have won 30 of the last 41 games or something and are on the cusp of making it to the post season for the first time in a decade. It is likely they will quickly be eliminated but still it is great fun!

3. Lydia is happily installed in her new job and likes it.

4. Our books are doing well. We have a new book launching next week and there is a lot of buzz around it. Of course, the buzz is partially because Kevin is doing an AWESOME job of promoting the book. But even aside from that, apparently people are pretty excited about the concept. It is a trope called "Elizabeth is Not a Bennet". Basically Elizabeth is adopted by the Bennets instead of being a Bennet daughter.

5. We got rain! Lots of it!  So so thankful!

I tend to focus on the things that aren't great sometimes, which isn't good. So right now I am thinking about how thankful I am for all these wonderful things that have happened recently.

 

End of September

Our cats are cute. 

Gorgeous skies one night. Obviously the pool is still open. It is getting cold though.

Kevin tore down our playset that we acquired like 17 years ago. It was falling apart and not safe. Then he decided to construct some swings for our front yard. After figuring out everything including making diagrams and using geometry...

Voila!

Cogburn is still hanging around looking happy. He is also very loud but he is so adorable we don't mind. Much.

Rose played with the train set this week. It is funny; a toy will sit in a corner for literally months and I will think, hmmm, maybe we should get rid of it...

And then the kids get excited.

Kevin did a great job with the garden this year. We had a drought but he watered very faithfully so we got lots of squashes. We are also getting many green beans still which makes me SO happy!

After aforementioned drought, we finally have been getting rain, which is a huge relief. There were dangers of wildfires and now the ground is nicely wet and the water table is probably a lot better.

So we are thankful for that!