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Sunday Snippet: The I Love Autumn Edition
Autumn is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, and yet there is that feeling of joyful beginning that comes with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season. We’re closing up the cottage this weekend, packing perishable items that can’t stay over the winter, storing linens, and winterizing. The saddest thing is leaving our lake friends. It’s odd, but in the summer, the lake often feels like our real life, and when we come home, it seems as if we are just marking time until we can go back there. I’m not sure…
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Sunday Snippet: The Begin Again Edition, Plus a Snippet!
Good Sunday morning, mes amies. It’s kinda cloudy here at the lake and the forecast is calling for rain and cool temperatures, which is okay. We need the rain and it’s supposed to be sunny and pleasant the rest of the week. So boat rides after work, but no swimming–the lake has cooled off considerably. We’re having guests this week, which is always a joy, but we also have work to do. Husband plans to scrub the back of the cottage, we need to reset the last of the border bricks in the back as well, and we’ll start scraping the deck in prep for priming and painting sometime before…
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Sunday Snippet: The Summer’s Closing…Sorta Edition
I really can’t believe it’s Labor Day Weekend. The lake is busy, busy as it is every holiday weekend, so we went out early this morning for a boat ride to avoid the crazy. There is a sort of leaving feeling in the air here in our little lake community. Some folks will close up their cottages for the season, others (like us) hang on a bit longer. We generally start closing up closer to Halloween, but we’ll pull the boat in late September or mid-October. But fall is definitely on the way. The cottonwoods and walnut trees are turning yellow and dropping leaves. On our way up to the…
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Sunday Snippet: The What the Heck Happened to Summer? Edition
Seriously… how is it already August 6? I mean, wasn’t it just May and Husband and I were looking forward to our 50th anniversary trip to Oregon and I was busy making plans with my writer pal Carol Light for our trip to San Juan Capistrano and the Tule Author Retreat and checking with my sibs for a visit to my brother’s in Woodland Hills? I’m sure that was just a week ago… Yikes! Oregon is a fond, wistful memory now. The Tule Author Retreat remains ingrained in my heart and mind as a wondrous time with fellow authors and editors and the Tule team, as well as a fun…
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Sunday Snippet: The Whine, Then Find the Sunshine Edition
It’s been a tough week. My shoulder hurts, really aches, from spending so much time in front of my computer, working on editing gigs and writing Jack and Maddie’s story. Son is dealing with a lot of stuff that I wish so much I could take off his plate, but I can’t. I can only listen. (Even when they’re in their forties, your mom instincts kick in.) We’re doing work on the lake cottage, making choices about where we want to spend refurbishing dollars this year, except that those dollars now have to be shared with medicine expenses because I hit the damn doughnut hole with my heart meds this…
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Sunday Snippet: The Editor Nan Edition
Nine years ago–gosh, has it been that long? Nine years ago, when Husband retired, took off his watch, and said, “I’m done,” we agreed that I would work until I got to age…well, a certain number. We’d worked endlessly on a retirement budget, figured every dime, and knew exactly what we’d need to maintain the lifestyle to which we’d become accustomed. Back then, it felt a long way off and I was sure that by the time I got to that number, I’d be ready to stop editing. Well, that certain number now looms large on the horizon and I’m not at all sure I’m ready to hang up my editor…
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Sunday Snippet: The Mom Edition
It’s Mother’s Day and although I sometimes have trouble with whole concept, which I once was convinced came about because a greeting card company needed sales. Turns out my cynicism button had been pushed because that’s not how it came about at all. A woman named Anna Jarvis spearheaded the celebration of Mother’s Day because she wanted to honor her mother who’d passed three years earlier. She ushered in the first Mother’s Day with a church celebration in West Virginia. And on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday in May as national Mother’s Day and asked Americans to give a public thank you to all their…
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Sunday Snippet: The Spring Fever Edition
Mushy mind—it’s a thing and wow, do I have it right now. I have a very bad case of mind mush—my ability to focus and function is seriously out of whack. I’m not sure if it’s spring fever or what, but fact is, I’m just not able to focus on much of anything right now. I think I’ve mentioned before, probably in the spring, that my grandmother used to say she was muzzy—isn’t that a great word? I’m muzzy. I’ve got four books to write for Tule Publishing in the next two years and my heart frequently stops (not really!) at the thought. I’m about 15K words into Jack Walker’s…
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Sunday Snippet: The Chasing Summer Edition
It’s October 30 and it’s chilly and a little breezy here at the lake—crisp autumn chilly. The sun has been shining all weekend, until today. Clouds are rolling in and I think we’re due some rain. We raked leaves yesterday and hauled 10 golf-cart loads to the detritus pile up on the hill. It’s truly fall… and now I’m wondering what the hell happened to summer? I know summer was here—after all the cottage is still open (although we’re closing up soon). I vaguely remember a boat ride or two, several swims in the lake, although not nearly as many as previous years, and a lot of editing work, and…
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Sunday Snippet: The Back Home Again Edition
We’re back in the city after just over a week at the lake. It was very nice there–swimming, a couple of boat rides, time with lake pals… all in all, the lake was lovely. Our city neighbors came up for a day while we were there and we really enjoyed visiting in a different venue. The lake was turning over, so we didn’t get to swim, but we took a long boat ride and enjoyed the sun and the lovely early September breezes. Lunch was hot dogs on the grill, chips, veggies, and some delish brownies that neighbor Mary brought. Yum! We sat on the deck under the trees and…