Gratitude
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It’s Wednesday . . .
. . . which means it’s a Chipperish day! YAY! A new episode of Jed Bartlet Is My President is up, so I’m off to listen. Hope you are too! Gratitude today: Sunshine! A day with Dee and Di–always a treat. My new mug that Husband got me–it’s got the Eiffel Tower on it! Pictures later. A terrific three-hour lunch with Liz on Monday! I’m into my new knitting project and it’s already really pretty!
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Day Two
I’ve decided not to think of this hiatus from social media as “going dark.” Rather, I’m going to consider it stepping back into the light. Here’s the thing. I have a tendency to be a hermit–particularly in the winter. I write, I work on editing gigs, I knit, I binge-watch shows on Netflix, and I spend way too much time on Facebook and Twitter. Oh, it’s not that I don’t go anywhere at all. I have the occasional lunch with my friends, I do go the pool at least twice a week, I go up to see Dee, and Husband and I do things like the rare movie out and…
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On 2016 . . .
It’s almost the end of 2016–something I’m kinda grateful for because it’s been a crappy, crappy year. From politics to my own health, 2016 has been hard. The politics thing is going to have to work itself out–I can’t control it nor would I choose to, but I will say that I’m happy I live in the United States, it’s a great country. However, I’m not one bit happy about our new president, but you know what? I’m not the first person to be unhappy about who got elected president of this great country and I won’t be the last. The difference is that this election has affected me more…
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A Heartening Tale
Man, I’d so love to write an update blog that has nothing whatsoever to do with my health–sadly, it’s not this one. But happily, there is good news to report. I haven’t shared this particular issue on social media, mostly because I’m kinda sick of my own issues, but also because I’m trying to keep social media a happy place where I talk about writing and books. About three weeks ago, maybe a month, I started having dizziness and chest discomfort–ack! I’ve been really tired for about a year and have chalked that up to grief and other body issues that we won’t go into and of course to my…
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Three More Days of Thankful
It’s Sunday and we’re closing up the lake cottage for the winter season, which means draining all the pipes and pumping in antifreeze, packing up all the food, storing all the deck furniture, making the place as unwelcome to mice and other rodents as we can, and covering the furniture with dust sheets. It’s bittersweet. I love being at the lake, it is unquestionably our escape from real life and we work hard to keep it that way. In the past, when November came around, we were pretty much ready to stop making the drive and spend winter in the city. This year . . . well, not so much…
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Still Here, Still Grateful
These are pictures of the lighthouse at Point Betsie in Frankfort, MI–the town Willow Bay is based on. Remember this lighthouse–it will show up in Sarah’s story and in Libby’s, too–the Women of Willow Bay books currently in progress. I’m behind, as usual, but with good reasons . . . well, okay, decent excuses. I confess gratitude comes hard after this election because I’m sad and scared. But, sad and scared is no way to live. Neither is angry, so I’m working very hard to remember that I live in a great country. America is already great and we’ve survived this long because of our diversity and creativity and our…
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Three More Days of Grateful
This is my picture of peace–it’s Lake Michigan. Isn’t it lovely? It’s been a disturbing week–the national elections didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, but as I’ve read all the comments and postings on Facebook and Twitter and listened to news stories and pundits and commentators, I’ve come down here: It’s going to be okay. Our democratic process worked. The way our founders set up the electoral process functioned as it was meant to function. It didn’t work the way I wanted it to, but it worked and now we have a new president-elect. Like everyone else who voted for the other candidate, I’m disappointed and yes, frightened by…
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Two Days of Grateful
Yesterday, we packed up and headed back to the city–just one more trip to the lake for 2016 and that will be our one to winterize the cottage and say goodbye until spring. So, I didn’t write yesterday and I didn’t write today either because we had Internet issues that needed to be resolved and then I went to vote and now . . . well, I’m done with the first part of the editing gig I’ve been working on and my foot hurts and I have a meeting at church tonight and I’m just longing for a cup of tea and a nap. So, I’m thinking . . .…
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Checking In . . .
. . . with my 21-Day Writing Challenge. It’s Day 10 and I have gotten up every day between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and written for at least one hour. Sometimes I get so involved that I’ve written for an hour and a half without realizing it. I’m surprised I’ve made it halfway through without missing a day–that may not sound like much of accomplishment, but given the chaos of the last couple of years of my life, it’s big stuff. Altogether, I’ve managed to get down 9,625 new words on Sarah’s story–an average of about 800 words each day–which brings the story to a little under 14K words. Given…
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Happy Mother’s Day
Today is my rogues’ gallery of family Moms . . .this isn’t near all the great moms I know, but they’re ones I love . . . My mom in the late 1970s–love that smile! My darling daughter-in-law with Grandboy–she’s one terrific mom! Sister Pam and her sons and daughters-in-law–she’s a terrific mom! Sister Kate, who loved her kids and grandkids with all her heart and soul. Then there’s me, also a mom to a pretty terrific kid. You get a double dose of me because there’s also Grandboy . .…