Feel Good Friday!

It's rainy here. And chilly. But I'm snuggled up in my chair with a blanket. It's quite possibly my last Friday home. I go to the doctor on Monday and we'll see what he says about clearing me for return to work. 

Let's do the list...

1. Making a successful trip into the day job yesterday to say "Happy Retirement" to my boss. It's bittersweet. He was a great boss and I'll miss him, but I'm happy for him to get to enjoy his retirement too. He's been talking about it since I started over 5 years ago. 

2. Feeling pretty confident in my new boss. He definitely has a different style, but it's good. I think things are going to be just fine. 

3. Putting on my very loose comfy socks all by myself. It took a very long time and the help of my grabber thingy, but I did somehow manage to get my left sock on. It's crooked, but my foot is warm. 

4. Getting writing done. I have made decent progress this week, and I will continue to make decent progress. I am re-finding my focus and my spark so that's something. And I'm doing my best not to overdo it and burn myself out. 

5. Working hard at not overdoing things. It's absolutely amazing to not have the pain level I had before. It's super easy to forget that my body is still healing. And that I do still have pain that shouldn't be ignored. I am mindful though. 

6. Starting to look forward to upcoming things. I feel like I haven't been able to do that for a little while. And yeah, I did look forward to the holidays, but not without a huge amount of trepidation and frustration over how I was going to get things done and survive with the amount of pain I was dealing with. Now it's with more of a "I should be able to do that" attitude. If that makes sense. 

That's about it. 

Behave! 

I'm Here!

I'm not even close to 100% yet, and that will be a while, but every day is getting better.

The pain of the bad hip is gone. Whoot! Now I'm left with surgical pain - or you know - someone reaching their hands inside of my body and taking out my bones pain. And there's a lot of that! Ha! The bruising was epic. So are the muscle cramps. Mostly gone now, but there's still a little. My scar is good. Healing nicely. Sleeping is a crapshoot, but it always is. Ha! I'm walking around the neighborhood some and can do steps better than I could before though I still have to take it slow. 

I will be venturing out for the first time in two weeks on Thursday. My boss is retiring and I need to go to the shindig. It's at work, so it should be easy and there are plenty of spaces for me to rest if I need to. Then I see my surgeon on Monday and hopefully he'll release me to go back to work. 

In the meantime, I'm in my chair watching dumb tv and organizing stuff. I haven't gotten back to writing yet, but that's today. I hope. 

That's all I have! 

Behave!

I'm Back!

Sorry it's taken me so long! 

I'm doing well and making progress!

I'll post more detail soon! 

Behave! 

Here We Go...

I report bright and early tomorrow morning. Well, actually I have to be there before it's even bright and early. Ha! My surgery time is first thing in the morning. I'm the first one of the day. 

I received my call with my instructions and I'm good to go. 

So I guess I'll catch you on the flip side. I'll post as soon as I can/feel up to it. 

And then I can get back to living life! Living life without constant pain! 

Let's go! 

Behave!

2 Days Until Surgery...

I'm all set... I've been medically cleared for Friday. I'll get a time to report sometime tomorrow. 

I have my bag packed. The house is almost clean. Stuff has been organized. 

I have to use this super weird smelling body wash. I can't sleep with my dog. 

Our bed part came, but it's taking it's time warming up so we're watching it. It will be a pain if we have to send it back. 

No writing has happened. My brain is working and I cannot wait until I can put some words on the page again. 

And that is all...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday on Saturday...Again

Well, here we are at Saturday again. I kind of fell down on posting this week, but in my defense, the week was absolute insanity. 

To back up, it barely snowed. So we trudged our way into work Monday to inventory data entry and report making. And trying to catch up on everything that didn't happen due to getting ready for inventory day. That continued until Friday. About the only thing I can say is that it was one of "those" work weeks. 

And it was one of "those" weeks period. So many stressful things. 

Still up in the air about whether or not surgery is really going to happen. I'm told not to worry and to continue as if it is, but there seems to be one thing after another. The "don't worry" is a ridiculous thing to say to someone. And I am continuing like everything is as it should be, but damn, so very much stress. 

We're still waiting for the part for our bed. the original place refunded me after I emailed for status (they apologized and said they were out of stock)and I had to do a pretty intense search for another one. Which I did find, and I paid way too much for it, but I had no choice. It's supposed to be here today and we're ready. There's a hose running through the living room in preparation. The hope is that we can be back to normal by Monday night. Fingers crossed. 

No writing has happened this week, and we'll see if I get to it this weekend at all. My brain is a little broken, but I might be able to spew some ideas out for later. I also want to go through the old man synopsis and query again, but I'm giving myself grace on that all of it. 

That's it for now. Hopefully this coming week will be better than last...

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up

Happy Sunday? 

I am torn about being happy it's Sunday. I mean, it's been a pretty decent weekend, but after Sunday is Monday and...well...no one wants that. 

Christmas is gone from this house. We packed it all up and put it away. There are some snowmen things here and there. The sleds and "winter flowers" are still on the porch along with the big snowman. I'm okay with that. We did some minor organizing in the basement. Well, we did a lot of organizing of various things and laundry. 

I spent most of yesterday writing. I think I figured out the beginning of the old lady story. That's progress. I'm just now getting to it today. 

My main purpose in posting was to update on our dinner tonight...

So this time last week, we dumped an entire bottle of wine into a pot with various vegetables, spices, and beef broth and cooked it into a marinade. Once that was cooled, we placed a small roast into a bag and poured the marinade on top. By Wednesday, we had to move the whole thing into a container due to leakage. It smelled like wine. 

This morning we pulled it all out, dried off the roast, braised it, and then put it all back together with the marinade and popped it into the oven at 300. It was supposed to go for 3-4 hours. 

Well, with all of the organizing we were doing, we lost track of time. 

And we burned it. 

We were supposed to take the marinade, strain it, add gingersnaps, and make gravy. Pssh. Instead, we made beef broth gravy with no gingersnaps. 

The meat was dry, but not inedible. It didn't taste burned so there's that. I can't say I loved the taste, but I didn't hate it either. If that makes sense. 

There was also a red cabbage side dish to go with it. That turned out awesome and we sunk the meat in the pot while we finished up the gravy. The red cabbage dish is going to stay in our back pocket for future meals. 

And there you have it. That Man is working on cleaning the burned dutch oven. I have opened my document and am getting to work. We have precious few hours until the week starts, but hopefully we'll get the snow they're talking about and tomorrow will be a work from home day. 

Behave!

Feel Good Friday on Saturday

Made it through the first few days of the year, but honestly... this year is not starting out so great. 

Let's get the crap out of the way first, shall we? You know how they say "crap happens in threes"? Yep. In just four days we've managed to fill the crap-o-meter.

1. Potentially having to delay my surgery due to a missed test scheduling. (Not my fault) For now, we are continuing like things are happening. But I won't know if we're a go until the last minute unless there's a cancellation. 

2. Our heater going out on our bed. That happened New Years Eve. We ordered a new one, but it hasn't even shipped yet. I'm in the guest room and he's been sleeping on the couch. It sucks because I have a week until I'm in the guest room full time for a bit. 

3. There is a three. 

So, let's do our best to side table the crap and focus on some good stuff. 

1. Work inventory going well. There's only a bit of entering numbers to do. We were done the earliest we've ever been and so far, things are lining up pretty well! Lunch was awesome and it was a good day even though it was a really long day. 

2. Snow in the forecast. Though I just saw an update that has the storm pushed to the south and shows us as not getting anything now. I hope that's wrong. I haven't had time to check it out yet. 

3. Since we're in self-imposed lock down, we've been trying new recipes. Next up is sauerbraten. I will let you know how it comes out tomorrow or Monday. The roast has been marinating for a week. 

4. Figuring out what the old lady story needs. I'm picking my way through, but it's a slow go right now. 

Okay. That's all I have. At least the good was more than the bad? Yeah. I don't think it works that way...

Behave! 

End...

Well, this is it! The end of this weird year! 

I have a lot of hope for 2025. Well, not really. We'll see what happens after surgery and recovery. Right now, that's all I'm focused on. 

I don't know if I'll do a year in review or not... Maybe. But it'll be short since I didn't post a lot in 2024. 

Mainly I spent the year in pain and it impacted so many things for me. I'm ready for the pain not to be an issue anymore. 

It's good that we opted out of the various evening invites we had. Everyone is turning up sick. I'm not convinced we're not going to end up with some form of crud, but we're trying our best! It is what it is though. All we can do is our best. 

That's all I have for now. 

Behave! 

After the Chaos...

It's done! 

I hope your holiday was as awesome as ours!

There was a ton of food, laughter, conversations, and good feelings. I wasn't allowed to do much as far as prep and clean up, but I did what I could and tried my best to be okay with sitting out. 

We had a blast, but I have to say, I'm glad it's over. Now it's just the clean up and reorganization of my house. 

We'll get to that this coming week. This weekend was about relaxing. This is the first weekend in months that we haven't had an obligation. I slept in both days and we just hung out watching dumb tv. And napped.

We also figured out our plan for New Year's Eve. Well, we knew our plan already. We're home. Staying away from germs and therefore missing out on any and all of the gatherings we've been invited to. But we're having an epic dinner that includes an appetizer and dessert. Yeah, we're going fancy. Ha! 

Hopefully you'll hear more from me in the next few weeks before surgery. I'm going to do my best. 

That's all I have for now though. 

Behave! 

Very Merry!

Well, here we are! Christmas is commencing in just a few hours!

I'm almost ready. No. I'm not.. We still need to get our dog a present. Trust me when I say this is a very important thing. She loves to open presents, which is why you won't find any wrapped gifts under our tree unless we're home. 

We also have a few gifts to wrap, food to make, and a house to straighten up, but we're in the homestretch. 

Christmas Eve should be a hoot. Most of the family is coming. There will be a lot of talking, laughing, eating, and talking. Though I do hope for an early evening. I will explain a little further down. 

Then Christmas Day and a birthday. K4 will be 25. We're having stromboli for dinner and her usual ice cream cake. The kids are coming over, which will be fun chaos. And lucky for us, we're off the day after Christmas. 

So, this time last year I started having consistent pain in my hip. I'd had on and off pain for months before, but once I laid down it would stop. Then that stopped being a thing and it hurt all of the time with very rare times of no pain. I thought it was my sciatic. At the beginning of summer I couldn't take it anymore and went to the walk-in orthopedic clinic. 

To make a long story short, I'm having my hip replaced in two weeks. Things have progressed horribly. I am in constant pain and it's hard to get comfortable. I don't sleep well. I can't do half of the things I want/need to. I'm using a cane now and have a special step stool to get in our truck. My tolerance for chaos is pretty much nonexistent right now and I'm exhausted all of the time. I'm very frustrated by my own limitations and it doesn't take much to make me cry because the pain keeps me on the brink already. 

That Man is a saint. He has to put my sock on for me and help me with so many things. He's taking care of the majority of the household chores and has to deal with my whining and restlessness. 

And that's where we're at. I haven't touched my writing in at least a week. But hopefully I will get back to it over the next two weeks. Christmas is my social cut off. I can't take the chance of getting sick and delaying my surgery so I'm quarantining. There won't be any New Year's Eve gathering for us, but I'd probably just be cranky and uncomfortable anyways. 

And that's that. 

I hope you have a wonderful day however you celebrate. 

Behave! 

Holy Cow!

I definitely didn't mean for there to be that long of a silence! 

Sorry about that! 

So what's been going on? 

Insanity! Or maybe just chaos. It's hard to know for sure.

We have like 2 weeks until Christmas. I'm not ready. I'm not even a quarter ready. Our tree is up, but that's about it. And it's a fake tree for the first time ever. It was kind of a necessity for a few different reasons. 

Every weekend is full from now until Christmas. And not just one day full. But it's all good stuff. 

Writing is slow. Very. 

That's all for now! 

Hopefully it won't take me another forever to come back! I'd like to do a more detailed post about what's going on.  

Behave! 

Oh Hi!

That was a little longer than I'd planned. And I won't say I'm fully back. There's a lot going on, so I'll do the best I can. Nothing has really changed with life. Same stuff, different day. 

Let's just jump right into to Feel Good Friday, okay? 

1. Sleeping in tomorrow. 

2. The work week not being as crazy this week. That's a nice break. 

3. Finally a weekend at home this weekend. Still busy, but at least we're home.

4. My office.  

5. Holidays coming up. This is our year with That Man's family. I'm not exactly sure what I'm making yet, but I'm working on it. 

This year is flying. I am stunned at how few weekends there are until the end of the year. 

That is all. 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday

I'm so glad the rain finally stopped. I love rainy days, but that was a little much! 

Okay, so here's the Feel Good list: 

1. Today is Friday. 

2. Sleeping in a little tomorrow. Which is good since I've been up and moving since 4am. 

3. Cooler temps.

4. Even though I've made little progress on my story this week, I feel good about the decisions I've made. 

5. Spending last Sunday with the grandboys. We carved pumpkins, played, and watched weird tv. It was a good day. 

6. Weekend plans. They aren't crazy, but they're good. 

That's about it. I'm sure there's more, but my brain is literally broken. 

Don't be surprised if I don't show up for a few weeks. I think I need to take another social media break. I'm weary, so I'll be on hiatus for the next month or so. 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday on Saturday

Okay, enough with the rain already! I think I'm growing moss! 

In reality, I don't mind it so much. We did need it, and my plants are loving it. 

Anyway. Here's the list:

1. Living through the work week. It was a long one. 

2. Sleeping in a tiny bit this morning. It definitely wasn't long enough, but I did take a nap this afternoon. 

3. A phone call I've been wishing for. 

4. Realizing the old lady story needs something. Except even though I know what now, I'm not sure how I want to do it. Sigh. 

5. Getting stuff done around the house. 

6. Maybe sleeping in a little tomorrow. 

7. Having the boys tomorrow. We're going to carve pumpkins and hopefully do some plant rearranging. 

8. Mr. B winning his soccer game today, and him scoring every goal in the game and taking the title of the most goals in his league. 

9. Naps. Oh wait. I said that. 

10. Chicken Rice soup for dinner. 

That's all. I should try to figure this old lady out. 

Behave! 

New Beginnings...

I mentioned about my publisher closing down a few weeks ago. I'm still sad about this, but at the same time, I know it's time for me to spread my wings a little and go a different direction. It's been brewing for a little while now and things happening the way they did kind of feels like the push I needed. 

None of my books will be available after the end of the month. Though I will have my full rights back to each. I also get to keep some of the covers. I don't know what I'm doing with them yet though. Yes, I can self publish them, but that's a lot of effort that I could be putting towards other things. I'm still thinking. 

A few years ago, I had an idea while on vacation. It was definitely not typical of what I usually write. It was a story about the struggles, love, and life of a couple that met when they were teenagers and are now at the end of their lives. That's the Old Man story. Then, I wrote about an older woman re-finding her first love. The Old Lady story, which is what I'm currently editing. And now I have at least four other ideas for these types of stories. 

So that's what I'm doing at the moment. It's a very different direction and I find I'm super comfortable with it. I still love the post apocalyptic stuff and can't say I'd never write another one, but for now I'm writing what I guess you could call "family saga" or just women's fiction. 

And there you have it...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday on Saturday

 Yay for Saturday! 

Here's what's good. 

1. Sleeping in this morning! It was much needed after a really bad night of sleep Thursday night. 

2. Living through the work week. It was a rough one. 

3. Fall being here! Finally!

4. Getting stuff organized. 

5. Having most of my weekend chores done already.

6. Moving on to editing the Old Lady story. 

7. Lots of stuff going on, but feeling like I have a handle on things. 

And that's about it!

Behave!

Feel Good Friday

Yay for Friday! It has been an insanely long week! 

Here's the list: 

1. Managing to make it through the work week despite crappy sleep and overburdened schedules. 

2. Ticking off a few big things from the "to do" list. 

3. That Man's truck running again. 

4. Plans tonight to meet friends for dinner. We used to be neighbors and we saw each other every day. We talked on the phone every day even though we lived a yard apart. Our kids grew up together. H*ll, we grew up together. They moved away and we miss them. So we're meeting them for dinner tonight, which should be a blast. 

5. Saturday plans. They are necessary and organizational, but they should still be fun. Even though there is no food plan at this point.

6. Having the boys on Sunday. We have a surprise for Little B. After him riding my great niece's bike at camp, we managed to find him his own bike. He has no idea. And I can't wait to hear how school is going for both. 

7. This is not feel good, but waking up this morning to find unauthorized charges on my debit card. What a freaking pain! And what the h*ll is wrong with people? It's being resolved, but it has created a bunch of frustration for me. 

8. Finding time to write this week even though it was short and spotty. I'm getting there. 

That is all! 

Behave!

Oh Hi, September!

Yay for fall! I mean, it's not really fall yet, but it's coming! 

We had a good time at camp. We had both grandboys all weekend. We were tired--well, tired is an understatement. Little B did pretty good, especially since it was his first time at camp without his parents. And it was his first time away from home for that long. And no, he did not eat marshmallows all weekend. More like chicken nuggets. Ha! I took my little air fryer, and it was the best decision. 

The other big news is that my publisher is closing down. It was a shock. A very sad shock. I've been with them for ten years. I absolutely love my editor. I've learned so much from her and really enjoyed talking with her. It's going to be weird going forward. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my backlist yet, but I'll likely self publish them. I'm working on my plan. 

In the meantime, I am finishing the Old Man story. I've gone through all of my critiques and now just have my own notes and then a final read through. I also have the Chaos book to figure out what to do with. 

I'll get there. 

That is all. 

Behave!

Weekend Wrap Up!

I know it's been a while. The month is almost over! No excuses!

So what's been going on? 

Ha! Pretty much the same chaos as usual. 

Chaos is submitted and the Old Man story has been critiqued and is waiting for me to input the changes. I have two critiques to do first though, but I hope to get to it quickly. And then I have three ideas to write and another story of mine to edit(actually two more, but...). I'm getting there though. It really felt good to finish two books so close together. 

Camp is coming up! We'll have both grandsons for the weekend. It'll be Little B's first time for more than one night. The only thing he'll tell me he wants to eat is marshmallows, so this should be interesting. Ha! Most of the family will be camping, so it should be a good weekend. I still have no idea what to make for the picnic, but I guess I'll figure it out soon. I'm hoping the weekend will be cooler than this week is supposed to be! 

Nothing else new here... the day job is busy with no signs of slowing down. We had an epic company wide kickball game a few weeks ago and it was an absolute blast. Next up is planning for the Christmas party, and then my boss's retirement party...along with everything else. At least I'm not alone in the party planning. There are three of us to get stuff done. 

And that is all... Sunday is winding down, which means Monday comes too soon. Boo! 

Behave!