4th of July!

 It is our nation's 250th birthday today!

Our nation has problems, for sure, but in many ways, the USA is an amazing place to live. I am thankful for our freedoms. 

A lot is going on here at the Kendig house. All of this is in no particular order of importance.

I finished my edits for a book yesterday. This book took longer than usual to finish because Kevin has been dealing with back and ear problems and wasn't editing as fast as he typically does. Anyway, I am done with almost everything I have to do.

I am 20,000 plus words into another book already. Part of this new book involves a court case so I am reading up on courts and law in the Regency period in England. Fascinating stuff.

Miriam and Joseph have decided to move out together. They are looking for an apartment. Joseph wanted to move out but was having a hard time finding one given his income. He is currently working as a janitor and it doesn't pay particularly well. Miriam is in IT and together they can find a good 2 bedroom apartment. I am glad Miriam will have a big brother in the same apartment. I like having sibs rooming together because they can keep track of each other.

Miriam is only 20 but she is ready to be on her own and running her own life. That is reasonable. She and the older kids will all be close enough to us that we can give advice and help out with things like car issues and so on.

I will miss M and J, but it will also be nice having a quieter house. I think a lot about how I am 56 and it is weird we have 6 kids still under our roof :-).

Of course, having six kids at all is weird, and nine is truly insane :-).

Anyway, they are looking for an apartment and I suspect will be out of our house by the end of the summer.

Lydia has a new job which she will start later this coming week. She has been working as a concierge at a retirement community for 2 years and she likes the job, but it doesn't pay well enough to live on, really. Her new job has a 20% higher pay.

Lydia's work place lost a couple of concierges in the last couple of months (and now, of course, they are losing Lydia) and so the poor kid has been working really intense hours. That means overtime and more money, which is helpful for her, but she is working 64 hours this week including today and she is tired. New job will not require overtime as far as I know.

Angela, who has been working as a server/dishwasher at the same retirement community, is going to take Lydia's job, which comes with a pay bump and steadier hours. Angela is still looking for an IT job but so far hasn't had any luck.

Part of being a mother is really wanting the kids to be happy and earn enough money, and sometimes life happens and I have to step back and pray and support. 

I have mentioned a few times that I wanted to lose weight. Well, I did so. I dropped my lexapro dosage, because that was the initial spur to my weight gain. I lost some weight, but then realized that I needed my full lexapro dosage and went back up again. Surprisingly I kept losing weight. So I was 180 lbs, and now I am about 167. I am trying to be really careful about eating which, not surprisingly, helps with losing weight. Some evenings I am hungry and there just isn't anything appropriate that is quick, so I go to bed instead of eating.

I am going to end this blog post and start a new one for pictures.