Pics from the last couple of weeks in no particular order

 

Rose set up two of her plushies to look cute.

Lydia had a birthday!

Happy Moonbeam.

Kevin took pictures at a nearby park

Rose turned 9!

Jet and Cocoa love each other. This is Jet being affectionate, not trying to strangle Cocoa.  They were cuddling.

Good Feeling Gone

 So...

Sigh.

Last Thursday, Kevin's boss called and informed him that his "leave of absence without pay" had been denied.

That was very disappointing. We were told it was going to happen, and the only question was whether it would be a six month leave of absence or a longer leave of absence. And suddenly, there was no leave of absence.

And just like that, Kevin is back to work!

I will admit to being very disappointed.  This does not mean, of course, that he is forced to keep working for the Air Force.  He can quit his job.  But if he does, we need to sort out health insurance and some other issues.  That was the nice thing about leave without pay; we could keep our health insurance and the government would continue paying for part of it.

The last three weeks have been really wonderful for me. Kevin has taken on some of the things usually on my plate (like shuttling kids to doctor appointments, dealing with meals, etc.) and now we have to figure out what we are doing.  It is not, of course, the end of the world. I have done this for many, many, many years.  But I really enjoyed those three weeks.

So we are praying about where to go from here.

Sigh.

cute planter

 

My parents gave Rose a little planter kit for her birthday. She and Angela painted it, and Kevin helped Rose put in the dirt, and the seeds, and water them.

Three plants have already come up and Rose is ecstatic. There are marigolds, zinnias, and cosmos.

 

Pictures

 

Rose had a birthday.

She is 9!

Sarah made a pizza casserole with some help.

Sarah also bought a funny hat and Isaac put it on.

Cats like tubs

Flowers!

At Pearl's Fen

Where we had a picnic!

Two Weeks!

 Today marks the second full week of Kevin's leave from work, which is intended to last until at least January of next year. It has been good, and interesting. One does not spend 29 years toiling away in a paying job and then stop working without it being a major change.

I am talking about Kevin, of course. My life hasn't changed nearly as much; I still have stuff I do, I still write, Kevin is still around a lot -- he has been since COVID -- but now he isn't managing meetings and work in the midst of busy, crazy life.

He says he is feeling more relaxed, but it also doesn't quite feel "real" yet.  It has only been two weeks, so feels like a long vacation.

I am writing daily and have made a great deal of progress on my latest book. I'm over 40,000 words now, which means that I am probably about halfway done?  I never plan on how long a book will be. I write until my brain decides it is time to wrap things up.  Have I said before how grateful I am for Stephen King?  Not for his books -- I don't like horror -- but for ONE book, On Writing, where he says he is a pantser.  As opposed to a plotter.  A pantser has some idea in his or her head, and starts writing, and then just keeps writing.  A plotter makes outlines and figures out the entire book before beginning to write the prose.

Both are totally valid, by the way.  I'm just a pantser and I love it.

Anyway, it was a good week, and we are still adjusting to this odd life wherein Kevin isn't juggling home life with work life.

Also, it finally rained, after a six week drought. It rained a LOT.  We got a great deal of rain. Once again, I was happy that our house is on a hill.

It was also chilly.  The pool cooled down a lot. I am a wimp about cold water so I haven't been swimming in several weeks. The younger two kids love the pool regardless of the temps so...yeah, they swam.

  

Refrigerator Excitement

 We have a new refrigerator!  It took a while to get it all sorted out; Kevin did lots of online hunting around and we finally decided on an LG refrigerator.  It is a simpler one than our last one, which was a Samsung.  It doesn't have an ice option in the door. It does make ice that ends up in a tub in the freezer portion, which is the bottom third of the refrigerator.

This is just a tiny part of it. I don't have a picture readily available of the new one.  It keeps things cold.  It makes ice.  Yeah!

This is a montage of the old refrigerator as it slowly made its way here and there in the house and then outside.  Kevin is going to deal with getting rid of it.  I kept finding it in new places which made me joke that it was sentient.

So Much to Say!

 Well, a lot is going on and I don't even know where to start!!

Let's start with a tent!

Rose decided to make up a giant tent in the living room using chairs and blankets. So cute!!

Sand ants.  They have a tube and as soon as they possibly could, began hauling sand into the tube.  Which I find absolutely fascinating!

Gel ants. They also have a tube but it is slippery so they aren't as thrilled with it. They can get up and down it, but not with ease.

So...this is our kitchen.

You will observe the giant refrigeration in the middle of the kitchen.

Which is not ideal, but, it is dying and overheating and thus it is better to have it pulled away from the wall with a fan on it.

This weekend was interesting!  Kevin's last day of work was Friday. Saturday morning the oven wasn't working, the pool pump wasn't working, and the freezer section of the refrigerator wasn't working.

Like, WOW!  Kevin got the oven working and the pool pump working but the freezer is dead and the refrigerator is overheating so ...

Yesterday I was out and about a lot. I went to church with some kids.  Kevin and I went to TWO stores to look at refrigerators.  I also got my hair dyed red. And last, but definitely not least, Isaac and I had a "fun" trip to the emergency room!  We have a little refrigerator, like a dorm refrigerator, and asked him to carry it upstairs so we could put things in it while the main refrigerator dies.

There was a sharp piece and he cut two fingers pretty badly. It wasn't as bad as we thought, or God healed it, or something, because by the time a doctor looked at it he said it didn't need stitches, which is awesome.

But yes, for awhile there was blood everywhere. We are thankful he is Ok!

Kevin ordered a new refrigerator last night.

So hooray for that!  

Here I am with red hair!