OMGosh! On a day like yesterday, all you can do is praise God for his artistry! I’m at the farm to work on the computer since the internet is lightning fast. And, I needed to get the lawn mowed for the very last time of the season. I always breathe a king-sized sigh of relief when it’s over for a few months. I don’t mind adding this yard to my list of chores to do every week. It’s my payment for the privilege of staying here whenever I want. 

The sun was setting when we came out of the grocery store.

Mr. FixIt had a followup visit with our PCP to see how he’s doing after his bout with Covid. We were glad to hear he’s doing great and we can hug again! That was a long stretch and we didn’t like it. Everyone needs human touch. I remember when I lost Mr. Virgo, I had my doctor write out a prescription for massages and I went every week. I needed that to help me heal.

Sometimes you just have to do it. It isn’t selfish to do something just for you. It’s healthy, and something I wish I would have learned a lot earlier in my life. I joined the craft group at one of the local churches yesterday morning. And by morning I mean 9:00AM. Ok, it was 10:00AM to my body, but still… I don’t usually get moving around much before that and I’ll never schedule an early morning appointment in town if I can help it. I spent all my life either getting up at the crack of dawn for work or for kids. I don’t do it if I don’t have to.

I spent most of the day at the computer instead of knitting. As my friend Janine reminds me, I can knit at the book signings. This stuff isn’t going to write itself. The rough draft is just that. A rough presentation of ALL the ideas and stories. But, unless I’m planning to publish a tome the size of War & Peace, a lot has to be trimmed. So much of my story and the things I have gone through involve other people. People I love and respect. People whose friendships I treasure. I simply cannot write a story that might, even inadvertently, cast a disparaging view on those I care about. 

Last winter, I spent many nights sleeping in the camper. I love a cold room and a warm bed. I’ve been sleeping in the house since we got back from our camping trip to the beach and my body has become acclimated to a warmer room. Mr. FixIt and I have been working hard this week trying to make up for the lost time while he was so sick with Covid. So, I rewarded myself with a campout Friday night.

I’d love to have a staff like Martha Stewart. Just take all my great ideas and assign the bulk of the heavy lifting to my wonderfully creative staff and I could get SO much more done, right? I made the huge mistake of asking Mr. FixIt what he wanted for breakfast. In my mind, a nice bowl of cereal would have worked great with my schedule. However, my sweetheart set his sights on poached eggs and toast. So, poached eggs and toast it was. And, I’ve made a serious commitment to never leave the kitchen till the dishes are done and everything is wiped down and ready for the next meal.

I want to tell you all about another example of how God takes care of his children. You know our furnace has been on the fritz this fall. We’ve tried everything we knew how to do, but through process of elimination, it became apparent the problem was bigger than we could handle. We also came to the conclusion it was the heat exchanger gone bad. That’s only the single most expensive part on a furnace and a bear to fix.

With the first day of NaNoWriMo under my belt, I came out with 11,550 edited and proofed words. That doesn’t mean that’s the final draft… it’s just the beginning of my working draft. But it’s a good beginning! It took me over an hour to just FIND the manuscript. It’s been so long since I’ve worked on it that I couldn’t even remember the working title I was using. I finally found a copy as an attachment to an email. I tried every which way to open it and nothing worked. I broke for a second cup of RYZE and remembered… I wrote all that on my iPad. When I searched it, there it was. 

Just a small fraction of the elephant ears I pulled up yesterday.

Yes, it’s getting pretty darned cold in West Virginia the next few days. The bad news is…the furnace is not fixed. We’ve tried everything. We went to town yesterday…Mr. FixIt riding shotgun with a mask. (It was a clever Halloween costume!) We went to the furnace parts store and the lady at the desk said not to waste our money buying more parts. The Furnace Doctor diagnosed the problem as a bad heat exchanger. NOT a cheap fix. However, the good news is, the repairman will be here on Thursday morning!!! We did our best. It’s time to call in the pros!

I opened my eyes to the sound of the bedroom door being gently closed…my husband’s attempt to keep from awakening me. I smiled because that meant he was feeling better…up making tea and getting his day started as usual. Such good news. I turned and looked out the bedroom window at the ridge beyond the far field. It was a dull, grey morning with a steady misty rain making everything look like a faded WWII movie in an English countryside.