If You Stopped By and We Chatted for a While

So? What's going on with you?! It's been FOREVER since we talked. Tell me about you. Really. What have you been up to? Read anything good lately? How are the kids? Anything new with your job? Going anywhere fun soon? Do you guys celebrate Halloween or not? Planning to spend Thanksgiving out of town this year? How are your parents? Please, tell them I said 'Hi', and that I think of them far more often than you would think that I think of them. It's crazy, but I do. Oh, look at the time. I've gotta go. But it's been so good talking with you. We've got to do this again soon! Love you! Bye!

And I would say:
I've been busy with life and I'm ready to slow down a little bit.

Schooling the kids, starting a new Small Group, coordinating a Home school Co-op, led worship for a Women's Retreat, birthday parties. I've been busy. But I'm ready to be done being busy. Thanks for asking.

I've read two books this month, and am still reading 3 more. Novels I always finish in less than 3 days, because I LOVE STORIES. The self help/self improvement/manuals for living books take me much longer. If they would just put symbolism and plot and character development in those kind of books, I'd read them much faster. That'll be my goal. To write a book that people want to read because the story is so very interesting, but will change their lives because it's also so insightful. I'll put that on my list for 2019.

The kids have survived a round of the flu. Seriously people. The flu is not that bad. People have been getting sick since the Fall of Man. This is not the Black Plague, the Bubonic Plague or even the White Death. This is fever for a week, a lot of congestive nastiness, feeling totally yucky, a vaporizer, tylenol, family movies in the morning, books read out loud, multiple naps a day, runny noses, nighttime coughs and time. Now, if your family has different symptoms than that, I'm sorry for you. But for us, it was just regular old flu. Type A, Type 89, Type H1N1 or Type DOES IT REALLY MATTER??!! Call it what you will. They were sick. And I'm thanking God they are better.

My job had me stressed out this month. Doing my job doesn't stress me. I love taking photos. I love getting to know families by spending a couple hours with them. I didn't like that I tried to do it too much this month. I don't like who I am when I'm stressed out. I'm not the Fun Girl when I'm stressed. Therefore, I'm cutting back in the job area. I mean, who really needs to get paid anyway, when there's all this other really important hard stuff I can do and not get paid at all? I've got children to love, and meals to cook, and laundry to fold, and friends to make, and tea to sip, and phone calls to friends in other states to return. Now, if someone would just pay me for the really important things in life, THAT would be fun.

No plans for travel until January. When I'm really really trying to make it to Gretchen's next birth. I'm hoping, and praying and trying to be there. We'll see.....

Actually, I'm going on a Homeschool field trip tomorrow to the Putnam Museum. We've been studying Ancient Egypt and learning about Mummies. So I co-ordinated our first official Homeschool Field trip with the Knox Area Home School Co-op for tomorrow. We're really looking forward to it. They have a REAL mummy up there!

We dress up in costumes for Halloween and go get candy. Nothing scary. Nothing evil. Nothing gross. No talking about dead people or things. No boogy monsters. No skeletons. No severed body parts. Just costumes and candy.

Thanksgiving plans are going to be around here with one side of the extended family or the other. But I'm really hoping to invite some people who don't have family in the area to join our extended family for Thanksgiving. Granted, I don't know those people yet. But I'm planning to make some new friends in the next 29 days, so they can come to Thanksgiving with us. It's been too long since we've had guests at Thanksgiving and I miss it.

My parents are well. My Mom and Dad have been busy busy busy helping their children renovate houses for the past year or so. And they made tons of apple cider, apple butter and other yummy things to sell at the local Scenic Drive Festival. A girl couldn't hope for better parents than mine. I treasure them.

I'm so glad we finally got to catch up! This has been so fun! I've missed you more than you know. I promise it won't be so long next time. Touch base with me on Facebook. Those one-liner status updates were all I could manage this month. But I'm looking forward to being right back here in all my verbose-ness. Seriously, thanks for stopping by.

Bye!