It’s Saturday! The Saturday before school starts! The kids are ready! They’ve met their teachers, have all their clothes and supplies. Now, the nerves have set in. They’re planning their first day’s outfits, putting in their orders for their lunchboxes, etc. Our little town is having a “Back to School Blowout” tonight in the town center, complete with bouncy houses, facepaint artists, etc. Hopefully, there will be food trucks, too, for the parents as they herd their kids through the stations.
We’re ready (and NOT) for them to go back to school. Schedules will compress. Timing will be everything. (I’ll get back my quiet “alone time” to write and edit! Woot!) My daughter and I do hate the passage of time. We want to keep them little, but they’re eager to spread their wings. Same ole, same ole, I’m sure for most parents and grandparents.
Today, I had the 19-year-old clean my spaces. It’s such a big help. I can settle in my chair in my clean office and get some s**t done today. I hope. Until the next emergency—hopefully, not a power outage today. I noticed this morning, when I popped into town, that there were new power poles laid out all along the road to replace those splintered old things that keep falling every time the wind blows. I wonder if they’ll give us warning when they have to cut the power to install the expanse. Ha!
Anways, you have a challenge today. Solve the puzzle then tell me what this creature is doing. Or tell me what you would do if you were face-to-face with it! Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card.Enjoy the puzzle and have a great rest of the weekend!
I’m posting late again. This time, it’s not due to my age-addled brain. We had heavy thunderstorms last night and lost power around 3:30 AM. It came back on around 5. Then went out again at 6 AM. Power did not return until after 6 tonight. I live in a rural area, so our service restoration ALWAYS takes last priority after more populated areas (even though our service is more expensive than for the townies).
How did we spend our day? We waited for a good five hours before digging the generator out of the shed. Usually, outages only last about four hours. So long as we don’t open the fridge, we’re good. We hunker down, eat sandwiches, and during the heat of summer, we open the windows to get a breeze flowing through the house. This time, it didn’t pop back on so we ran one cord to the fridge and used the second plug on the generator to run a coffee pot then charge our phones. It was hot and sticky. The house smelled. We smelled. When most of the others decided to head to town to eat dinner and sit in the AC, the 14-year-old and I stayed behind to walk and water dogs and SWIM in the pool. So refreshing.
Mostly, we hung out and napped. Our internet was down, but we could pick up a few bars by walking out into the yard to call the damn electric company. It would’ve been nice if they could’ve given us updates, but they don’t do that. All we got was the message that said there were outages in our area, and they were working on them. I feel for anyone who didn’t have a generator because no doubt they are emptying their refrigerators and freezers of spoiled food. I know in some places, somewhere, you can make a list of your losses and submit them for some amount of refund, but not here.
So, long story short. The power’s back on. I lost of day of work. I have a ton of emails to get through, and I’m burning candles and incense to freshen the air. Humidity + animals + human sweat = a stinky house. But we’re back! No contest today, and more than you wanted to know about my real life, but this space is mine and I over-share.
Y’all have a great evening. I plan to putter around a bit more, feed my traumatized betta, and get an early night. I have a lot of catching up to do tomorrow.
Have you ever thought about doing something, then gotten distracted, and then thought you did it because you thought about doing it? Confused? Me, too. I thought about posting first thing this morning, began working on edits, then clicked over just now to check on my site—and wondered where the heck today’s blog was.
And you know what? They actually had a picture out there on my favorite photo site to describe what I call what happened…
Now that you’ve seen it, it can’t be unseen. Have a great rest of the day, folks!
I’m posting late today. Sorry—no puzzle! And no, those aren’t my legs (obvi!), but the view is very similar to the one I enjoyed today.
We were up early this morning so we could hit the Caddo river with our innertubes before a mob arrived. Tubing is very popular around here.
Several years ago, I invested in rugged river tubes because it’s something we love to do in the summertime and renting tubes is ridiculously expensive for a family of six. I also bought a floating cooler-tube that we fill with water bottles and snacks. And although we bought the best SPF sunscreen we could find, I’m still a very pretty color of dark pink at the moment.
I’m worn out. I think I’ll blow off the rest of the day and sit under an AC vent with a big jug of water to play Charm King until it’s time to go to bed. I promise, I’ll share a puzzle tomorrow!
This summer isn’t working out the way I’d hoped. I wanted to have a lazy-ish summer where I could enjoy the pool with the kids, paint some things, and dream about the stories I want to write. It hasn’t worked out that way.
I didn’t even make it through the second day of the art fodder challenge I was hoping to complete this month. Okay, so part of it wasn’t because of lack of time, it was due to lack of interest. The daily projects dropped, and I didn’t want to do them. Some of them were soooo time-consuming. I didn’t have an ENTIRE day to devote to making something I’ll glue on something else. I like quick projects, or at least projects where I can paint part of them and come back the next day to continue another part. The challenge wasn’t what I needed. I had a book to finish, which I did. Plus, I’ve had multiple editing projects, one after the other, some at the same time, to muddle through. So, there went my free time.
What I really want to do is start inventorying the art I have to see what else I need to produce for the Art Festival in October and the Christmas craft fair in December. Maybe I can tackle that a little at a time.
As well, I have some new products I want to try out. I’ve been collecting supplies for encaustic (wax) painting. I have an iron, a heating plate, a variety and many colors of wax, special brushes, scrapers, etc. Now, I just need to carve out an ENTIRE DAY to set up my space and experiment. I hope I love it. I hope I can get good at it. I love moving around mediums (watercolor, acrylic, collage, so far) when I get bored.
My daughter is getting a headstart. Here are a few of the things she’s completed so far. They’re so fun!
She hand-dyed the wooden beads and painted the sign for this pretty garland.
She’s been playing with polymer clay to make jewelry.
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Aren’t they cute? So, today, I’m hoping to complete one more set of edits. I finished another last night. Tomorrow, I carved out the day for Oppenheimer with my daughter and SIL. I’m looking forward to some “adulting,” movie popcorn, and some Cillian Murphy.
Next Tuesday, we’ll do Barbie with the girls. Yes, we’re doing the “Barbenheimer” challenge—just not all in one day. I need the T-shirt! 🙂
So, for a chance to win a FREE download of one of my books, tell me what you wish you had more time for—something you really, really want to do. Or tell me whether you’re planning to see the movies!
Were you alive on July 20th, 1969? I was eleven years old and still vividly remember watching Neil Armstrong take the first step a human ever took onto the Moon’s surface. We had gathered in someone’s living room (I don’t think it was ours) with some neighbors. The children were all lined up, sitting cross-legged in front of an old black-and-white TV, you know, the kind that was on legs, waiting for the broadcast.
I remember when it started. Everyone was silent. I think some of the adults were crying, it was such a proud moment. For this kid it was surreal. I was already a certified space nerd. I adored Star Trek and Lost in Space. I daydreamed about space exploration. (I often dreamed I was Judy Robinson, and that the robot was my best friend.) When I went to the library, I checked out books on the planets and stars. To see Buzz and Neil jumping around the moon, unimpeded by gravity, left me with a lasting feeling of awe and possibility.
Here’s a picture of our intrepid crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.
A side note. When I worked at a large insurance company, Buzz Aldrin came for a booksigning of his co-authored novel, The Return. Naturally, I bought a copy and had him sign it. I was like a fan at a rock concert. I met the second man who stepped on the moon. 🙂
So, my question to you, for a chance to win a free download of one of my books, is…
Are you ready for us to go back? Are you eager to see if we can make the flight to Mars?
Yes! It’s a holiday! Another of those weird ones I like to highlight because don’t we need more reasons to celebrate? It celebrates the mayhem and chaos in our everyday lives. Something we usually hate, but today, we can revel in it!
Looking around my life, I can find plenty of chaos. I could take a daily picture of my desk, but the pictures I’m sharing today are much more fun. Our family decided to take the dive into raising our own chickens for their eggs—and what an adventure that has been!
Of course, my daughter went shopping for cute little chicks and came home with ducks and guinea fowl, too! Since then, we’ve added geese.
The guinea fowl have proven to be our “chaos agents.” Here’s the “best” picture I have of the raucous pair. They were much younger. They don’t stand ever stand still (my dd says it’s like they have ADHD).
This is what they sound like! They are very loud.
We didn’t know it at the time, but they are excellent little guards for the chickens. They are very vocal and scare off hawks and snakes and anything else that might try to enter the chickens’ yard.
Here’s a recent picture.
And because we’re on the topic of our birds, here are some more adorable pics.
Can’t forget our geese and ducks.
Here’s our first egg!
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, share about some chaos agent or chaotic event in your life.
 
