Last Friday in October? Already?

Not exactly sad about that. This year has been a struggle for so many. Plus, add all the other stuff going on in the world and it's overwhelming.

I kinda wish I had a secluded cabin in the woods where I could hide until the coast was clear. It would be nice, right? Ha!

I told a friend the other day that I just needed the world to hold itself together long enough for me to be able to afford a third-generation Camaro. Not a super expensive or fancy one. I've wanted one since I was a senior in high school. Maybe it'll happen, but it's one of those...hope things.

It's a silly, non-practical wish and I know that. If it happens, it happens. If not, it's okay. Just a silly want.

Bandit's story is with the editor! I hope to have it out in the early part of November. Also, I got feedback about my short story idea, and I'm working on one now. It's light and fun. I'm enjoying it too. I hope to have it and a few others out before the end of the year, but we'll see. I know I say that a lot, but I don't want to disappoint anyone.

Okay, I'm making this week's note short as well. I'm working on the first short story. I think the title will be Secret Billionaire and the story will be set in a fictional town called Luck Lake in South Dakota. I loved the mountains and scenery on our trip. I'll be using Hill City as my inspiration for the town. We had such a good time there. I would love to go back.
​
Anyway, there's my Texas goodbye.

I'm going to keep it kind of brief this week. My get up and go, got up and went. It's only 11 p.m. as I write this, so that doesn't bode well for my Friday.

It's cold here today, and I'm grateful. First, we got fireplace doors and I want to use my fireplace since it was too late earlier this year. Plus, smores are calling my name.

Point of celebration though. I finished Bandit's story this week. It's already been sent to my editor. WHOOP! I'm trying to decide what I want to do next.

I had an idea for short stories. One that could be read in about an hour. I'm torn between setting them in the winter/Christmas and summer/beach. These would be about 40-60 pages, but they'd be complete stand-alone stories. Sort of like a bite-sized cookie. It's in the idea stage at this point. We'll see. My lightbulb moments are sometimes ten watts instead of sixty watts.

It's been a long week. The kind when your emotions are up one minute and down the next. A rollercoaster, as they say. 

For the most part, I don't talk about how I'm feeling on social media. Most of the time, I don't even talk about them within my small circle of friends. Not because they don't care. Why blab about my issues? Aren't their issues equal with mine? Why add mine to theirs?

Also, it feels weird saying anything. Sometimes, I just want to say I feel icky in my heart without any comments returned. I'm not looking for advice or consoling or anything. I just need to say it so that it's out.

Feelings aren't facts. I know this to be true. I know they can be misleading. I know they can be flat out wrong. I know they can sway rationality into irrantionality. Feelings are strong. They push and pull and grab and claw.

They make things worse than what they really are. 

They make it hard to be still and know.

They cloud truth. Create doubt. Feed insecurities. 

All that to say, yeah, it's been a long week. I wish I had answers. More often than not, I'm left with more questions.

Psalm 118:5. And in my anguish, I cried out to the Lord and He rescued me by setting me free. 

I'm crying out, but what does freedom look like? Another answer I don't have at the moment.

For now, I'm a forty-six year old housewife with a husband, two kids, four cats who still loves carbs way more than she should. 

Maybe the take away is you do your best with what you have and hope with all the hope that is in you that it's enough. Not for anyone else, but yourself. One can hope, right?

Okay, that's enough of my rambling melancholy heart poured out.

Hi teachers (both public and homeschoolers),

If you're thinking this looks familiar, I did offer this last Halloween. If you're seeing it for the first time, then yay! I hope you can use it.

This is a short story about two little girls taking on Snow White's Seven Dwarves. I purposefully left it open-ended to foster speculation and creativity. If you think it might be fun for your class to read, you are welcome to it.

It's not super scary, and I did that on purpose as well. Some children want to participate in Halloween but ghosts and goblins are too much for them.

Anyway, I'm sending this out now so that if you were needing something fun for your class, you can prepare. Otherwise, it's just a fun little story that I hope you and your children will enjoy.
​
Thanks, teachers. You bear a lot of responsibility and this just my way of showing appreciation.



This is my formal permission to use this book in a classroom setting. You are allowed to print as many copies as you need. All I ask is for attribution. Should you take this to a printer such as Office Max or other print companies and they have any questions, they can email me at [email protected].
This book is not to be printed for profit. I maintain the copyright and all rights contained therein.

And hello October. This year has both crept along so slowly it's almost painful and moved so quickly that it feels like I was doing a quarter-mile in a muscle car.

I've already seen Christmas stuff getting put out, and pumpkin spice everything is in my local grocery store. I'm not dissing it, but that particular flavor seems to grow from one year to the next.

Personally, I'm waiting on the egg nog. Oh, man, I love that stuff! I'm glad it's only available a few months of the year. I'd be the gal they'd be taking a wall down to carry out if it was an all-year thing. Maybe. It may be one of those things that you'd get tired of. Still, I'm glad it has a limited time so there's no temptation to test the theory.

When we bought our house in April, it was a little too late to use the fireplace. We needed a cap as that was in the inspector's report. So, this past couple of weeks, my husband got it ready for the season. To our delight, it works perfectly. We need doors on it, but other than that, it's fantastic.

It's been a long time since we've had a fireplace and our girls love it. They like roasting things: marshmallows, hot dogs, Vienna Sausages (sorry, nope, don't like them), and s'mores. We had a few of those extra-large marshmallows and those were fun! I had to be patient to get the inside hot, though, but it was totally worth it.
​
Other than that, life has been rather uneventful since returning from vacation. I'm expecting the young adult romance back from my proofreader any time now and I'm working on Bandit's story every day. I hope to have it to my editor in the next couple of weeks.