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.

Winter Storm

 The weather people were so excited last week!

They said we were going to get a HUGE snowstorm, and then it was going to be really cold after that.

Now often the Weather People are wrong in one way or another, but this time they were so very right.

We got over 12 inches of snow on Saturday and Sunday! That is an incredible amount of snow for Southern Ohio.

From inside our barn.

Kevin toiling away.

You can see how very cold it has been now! Brrr.

Our back deck is incredibly full of snow!

Kevin made snow ice cream which made people really happy.

Isaac has moved out!

 Yesterday, Isaac did indeed move out. He and Joseph and Kevin saddled up (in two cars) and drove away with his stuff packed in the minivan and Isaac's car. He doesn't have a lot of stuff.

The apartment is about 45 minutes from us. Isaac will be stopping by here after church to collect a few things that he needs, so we will see him today :-).

It does feel very weird not having him here. It makes me a little meloncholy, along with making me happy because he is a young adult and he has launched.

I am excited about organizing the boys' bedroom now. Yesterday I realized that there were a great many clothes that none of the boys were wearing. It happens -- they just shove stuff into dressers and think, oh, that must be someone else's shirt. So I am organizing and decluttering.

Rose was happy to hear I wasn't messing with the room she shares with Sarah. I came across this yesterday and was amused. Like why are there stuffed cats on books? Part of some game, no doubt!

 

Kevin and I finished a puzzle yesterday. It was pretty brutal with a lot of sky and a lot of sand. We are proud!

Well, that's about it. I am unfortunately still not hearing clearly out of my right ear but it has improved. If it still isn't clear next week I may go to the doctor. I think it is just the remnants of my cold.

Wah! I am sick!

 Just a cold, but my right ear is plugged and I cannot hear well. And I am tired.

It isn't a huge deal. My breathing is great, anyway!

Kevin and I are trying to finish up a book this week.

Also, Isaac is moving out in the next week or so.

Lots going on!

Gang was all here

 We had our New Year's Feast today.

Angela had to work New Year's Day which is why we waited until today.

Kevin prepared almost all the food.

It  was fun and tasty.