Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

So, I had (still have) a post about the furnace having a gas leak and the gas company coming out, shutting it off, and my little house getting a bit cold for a day. That same post then goes into my fridge gasping its last breath and me venturing out to find a new one to replace it. There was also the fiasco with a large box store that kept pushing back the delivery of my fencing supplies. Yeah, I have that post ready to publish. But then Funny Delightful Son messaged all of us (we have family channel in Discord) that he tested positive for COVID. Of my three kids, I've been most worried about Funny Delightful Son getting the virus. He's the one who spent four days in the hospital when he was just nine months old. Pneumonia. He's also the one who had mono when he was 14. Then again when he was 17. We hear all the time that a person can't get mono twice. Not true. And each time, Funny Delightful Son was really down and out.  When we went on lockdown back in March, Funny D...

A year ago I began moving my life from one house to another. My anger was fueling me, and even now, 365 days later, I still feel some embers glowing. I wonder if I will ever wake up one morning and know the anger is completely gone. I have my doubts. Despite the anger, the year was good. This space the kids and I have called home has been wonderful for us. But changes are happening again. Lovely Beautiful Daughter is returning to school to pursue a degree in elementary education. She has also decided it's time she is on her own, in her own space. She won't be so far away this time and has promised to drop by to visit often. Funny Delightful Son is transferring to Western Illinois. He and I will be driving over in a week to meet with his advisor and check out some apartments. This semester he is finishing up some Gen Eds he put off, and while he wasn't looking forward to any of his classes at the beginning of the semester, he did say not too long ago that the classes a...

Well, January was fun! If the rest of the year goes along as January did, I'll not be sad. Monday my youngest turned 19. While memories of the day he was born have blurred around the edges, I still remember being in the delivery room, way beyond ready to give birth to the little guy who was nearly two weeks overdue, and feeling incredible relief once the ordeal ended. This guy came into the world at ten pounds nine ounces. A big boy. My doctor had estimated him in the nine pound range before all the action began, so I decided to go with a natural childbirth since I'd delivered Funny Delightful Son naturally, and he'd weighed in at just over nine pounds. I figured I could do it again. I did, but it wasn't fun by any stretch of the imagination. Thankfully, all turned out just fine, and that big boy is now a tall, lanky young man who can't get enough to eat. The four of us went out to eat for Angel Baby's birthday dinner. He absolutely hates going anywhere that...

Things are changing around my house. Good changes. Happy changes. Well, mostly happy. Lovely Beautiful Daughter has moved out, and while I'm happy for her because moving into her first apartment makes her happy, I'm also somewhat sad. I already miss her. Her spark, her creativity, and her cheerfulness always made for fun times. Lovely Beautiful Daughter taught me how important it is to play as an adult, so I try every single day to incorporate some kind of play into my schedule, even if it's only an online word game of some sort. She's been so good for my soul her entire life, and I will never be able to express in words what this young woman means to me. And my boys. Both are changing what seems like by the minute. Funny Delightful Son just got his driver's license. Angel Baby is now taller than I am. All I've been thinking about lately is how it won't be long before both of them are off and on their own, too. My babies are no longer babies. Where did t...

Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo .

With the kids away for the week, the house is very quiet. And very clean. Along with the quiet and clean, my husband and I marvel at how little food we actually go through when the three are away. It's weird, a bit of a glimpse at what it'll be like when they are grown and out on their own for real. I'm missing them terribly, so I have a hunch I'm going to go through some rough times when the time for them to make their own way comes. Thank goodness I have a few years yet before this happens. I can take these years to prepare myself. A good workout day today. We bought a contraption that turns a regular bike into a stationary bike, so rather than sink several hundred dollars into an exercise bike, we turned my husband's ten-speed into a stationary bike for under a hundred bucks. Now we have a treadmill and the bike to workout on. In addition to these, we have the thing-a-ma-jig that we can do pull-ups on, leg lifts on, dips, and an assorted other exercises on. We ha...