Masks

My mother has made us lots of masks.  She is a very accomplished seamstress.  Lydia is also very gifted.

That gene missed me.

Anyway, they are awesome.

We are like a bunch of colorful bandits who will not spread coronavirus.  Thanks, Mom!!

I do not have coronavirus!

There's a great title, huh?

I did get tested.  I got sick on Monday and had a bunch of symptoms, including shortness of breath. No fever, but I don't get fevers easily.  In an ordinary year, I would have just waited it out but because this is 2020, I went to the doctor and got tested for COVID-19.

They called yesterday and the test was negative. Hooray!

I am feeling better, too. Still tired, but not so drained.  For a couple of days, I felt like a cooked spaghetti noodle.  A limp spaghetti noodle with no energy.

I was kind of nervous.  I'm 50 but people get really sick from coronavirus at my age.  Some die.

I love Jesus so much and I am absolutely sure about my salvation because I know my sins are paid by the blood of Christ on the cross.  So death is not, in itself, scary except that it is because I have a husband and nine young children.  I mean even Naomi is only 20! 

I pray that God will allow me to live a good long life so I can raise the children to adulthood.

Today I feel better than yesterday, which was better than the day before.  So praise God, I'm on the mend.

And I don't have coronavirus.

July 21st

It has been very very hot. We had rather a cool spring and then bam, it got super hot. There are summers when we have had but one day hit 90 degrees. We've had many days in the 90's. The pool is delightful, thankfully!

Rose is swimming like a champ now, which means all 9 kids can swim.  Hooray!

She learned with about three lessons from Kevin, which was awesome.

I am writing a lot these days.  I will start school in early August and will have less time then but for now, yes, writing.  I really, really enjoy it.

A few pictures.  We had guests on July 4th and a few days later, which was fun.

Obviously we weren't social distancing from our friends but mostly we have been pretty careful, and our friends have as well.

Naomi is working quite a few hours. Lydia has a couple of part time jobs. Life is rolling around quite smoothly.

Totally Testing

Um, they have changed some things on blogger which is kind of rude.  Oh well.

I hate figuring out new things.

Anyway, we are doing fine. I published my second book, The Blind Will See

https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Will-See-Prejudice-Variation-ebook/dp/B08CKCRHLZ/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+blind+will+see&qid=1594394857&sr=8-2

It is doing pretty well so far.  I have 4 reviews on Amazon, all of them 5 star so at least some people like it.

Also, my kids are being super loud right now, so I will get off.

June 27th

Tomorrow is our 23rd anniversary, which is awesome.  We don't have any particular plans. Maybe, if we are very fortunate, we will go out to eat :-).

But yes, 23 years is a long time.  We are truly blessed.

So what have I been up to?  Well, one thing is sorting out Isaac's college classes for the fall. He has been leaping through various hoops and is accepted to both Clark State University and Wright State University.  Clark State is a community college (with far lower tuition) and Wright State is a 4 year state college.

Isaac wants to get a materials science degree from Wright State. Yeah, Materials Science!!

There is a class that he should take this fall at Wright State. But.

He won't.  The logistics just don't work. He doesn't drive yet on his own and I already will be busy shuttling him to and from the Clark State Springfield campus on Tuesday and Thursdays. This class he should take is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for an hour, plus a Tuesday lab. I will go stark raving mad if I have to run him around 5 days a week.

He turns 18 in December and we hope he'll get his license after that. Of course, we could try to get his license before then but it doesn't really work.  COVID and various things have conspired against us.

So for now, he is taking Chemistry and Pre-Calculus at Clark State and I hope to add another humanities class.

It has been really FUN working with two different colleges getting this all sorted out though I will say that at both Clark State and Wright State, the people I have been emailing have been super helpful.

I've also been writing furiously on my second Pride and Prejudice novel.  I find myself a bit nervous about it because people REALLY liked I Am Jael.I have 23 Amazon reviews and they are all 4 or 5 stars.  I worry that people won't like the second book as well.

But oh well if they don't!  I mean, I think it is a good book, an interesting book (the second one, I mean.)  I'm doing the best I can.  They don't have to like it, right?

Is this why some people produce only one book?  Nerves?  Like the Gone With the Wind author only wrote that one book, I think.

Anyway, I am just going to finish it, edit it, publish it.

Birthday Girls

Busy Life!

Let's start with kittens. Aren't they just the cutest?  We fed them kitten formula the first couple of weeks we had them.  Now they are old enough to just eat dry food, but I have a little left that I am finishing up. They are always so adorable when they gather around to drink it. Enjoy it while you've got it, kittens!

We have had a lot of doctor, dentist, eye, chiropractor, and orthodontist appointments lately. None of it is urgent or emergency in nature, we just took a long break during the lock down and are catching up.

Lydia is still job hunting. We keep praying God will guide her to the perfect position.

Our pool was happily hanging in the mid 80's for a week or so, and then we had a cool down.  So now it is about 81. Not bad. The kids and Kevin love it. I want another few degrees before I will really be happy.  My chiropractor is urging both me and Kevin to swim regularly as swimming is good exercise, obviously.  I just want it really warm in there. Is that too much to ask?

My book, I am Jael, continues to astound me.  I mean, I've been writing for years now and have been improving my writing skills throughout. I'm a reasonably good writer.  But still, for a debut novel from an unknown author, it is really doing well!  Last week it was hovering at around 9000 on the Kindle store list, which means only 9000 books were doing better. I was pretty impressed with that, given that there are hundreds of thousands of books available on Kindle. A couple of days ago, it shot up to about 4000 and has been oscillating around there ever since.  Amazon's algorithm's in ranking books are a complicated business; I wouldn't be surprised if the programmers themselves are slightly bewildered by it all :-).




Here is the link if you are interested:

Amazon link to 'I am Jael'

Anyway, it isn't that important except that it is truly nice that people like the book.  I am writing another Pride and Prejudice book rather frantically right now; not because I have to, but because the story is unspooling in my mind and I want to get it down.

I wrote a Ph.D. thesis back in 1996-1997.  I cannot tell you how arduous and boring that was. Compared to that, any writer's block in a fictional Pride and Prejudice (or Star Wars) fanfiction is nothing. So I keep writing and when I hit a block, I write something.  Often I have to change it, but one of my writing mantras is "You can't fix nothing".  Better to have something down, even if it is lousy, than nothing.  I can usually take at least a little of some rotten prose and improve it.

Well, I need to get moving.  The children are still curled up in bed, mostly, and I need to dislodge them.