What's Going On These Days?

My daughter & adorable grandson. 

Happy Wednesday, readers! I hope you're all still surviving the insanity of the world we live in now. It has been a weird year, but we're almost to the end of it. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for 2020 to be DONE. I certainly hope next year is calmer. 

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to keep things (a.k.a. my sh*t) together and move forward, even if it's at a snail's pace. In the last three months I've had a new grandson, returned to the day job, two kids married, and went on family vacation.

It has been CRAZY!

With all that going on, the book writing has fallen by the wayside. That's not saying zero writing has happened, just that it isn't up to par with my usual production rates. I mean, this baby boy won't stay a baby forever, so I might as well enjoy him. :D

The youngest will be returning to school next month, which (hopefully) will get us back to something closely resembling normalcy. She's been home since the beginning of March and she misses her friends and the school routine. Plus, she'll be turning 16 in January and (hopefully) gets her driver's license. After that, I won't have to do the school driving any longer!

All in all, there are tons of things going on around here, even with a pandemic going on in the world. It just hasn't been book writing at a speed I would prefer. Now I'm going to get my behind out of this desk chair, change clothes, and head to the gym for a workout before heading to the day job for a few hours.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Surviving a Quarantine

My first attempt at Dandelion Jelly.

Happy Friday, everyone! Did you know it was Friday? LOL! I had to look on my phone to make sure before I typed that out.

As I type this, I'm sitting in my office listening to my husband outside cutting up a fallen tree, my youngest daughter (15yr old) is in her room watching Youtube on her television and some other video on her cell phone (most definitely NOT school-related), and my pregnant daughter is texting me about all her aches and pains (she has 4 wks left). I also see my Boston Terrier sitting in my office doorway because the dogs aren't allowed in here. The world around us feels chaotic, but my household looks and sounds pretty normal right now.

I've been off my day job since the middle of March, and in that time I've accomplished a lot of household things. I've been doing a lot of canning, baking, cleaning, and home projects. We planted a huge garden, and have been working around the property. Tim even installed a new water line so I'd have easier access for watering the garden. This is Tim's second week home with me and I think he's starting to get bored. LOL! Time to find more for him to do. :D

During my time at home, the Coronavirus caused the cancellation of my daughter's baby shower. I had a huge party planned for my first grandchild. I rented a local venue and was buying up decorations and planning the menu when all this started. We waited and waited, until I couldn't wait any longer, and then I cancelled it. Instead, we did a virtual Facebook Live shower where my daughter and her boyfriend opened gifts and we thanked everyone who generously sent those gifts in advance. It wasn't the shower we planned, but it was something at least.

On the author side of things, I managed to watch a webinar about audiobooks, as it appears a lot of people are enjoying them. Take a moment and let me know your thoughts on audiobooks. Do you listen to them?

I also added one of my freebie books to BookFunnel. If you've read the Liz Baker series and the first book in the Penny Montague series, you might enjoy the short story crossover Sorrow Meets Death. It's always free for the taking.

Well, since I've rambled long enough, if you've made it this far I'll send you off with a few pics of some of the projects around here. Have a great weekend and stay healthy!

Homemade Turkey Stock

Homemade Baked Beans

A little folding chair my girls used as children.

Repainted for our grandson

Lastly, my sweet daughter today, 1 day shy of 36wks pregnant.

I'm on vacation this week!

© Christie Silvers 2015
I'm finishing up P.M. Terrell's Exit 22.

It has been six years since my last family summer vacation. We had several years where we were caring for Tim's elderly parents, and then their passings. It took a while to get all that stuff in order. Kids stuff, work stuff, job changes, and even my own work events. Finally, FINALLY, we had a good year, Tim has vacation days again, and I'm determined to take my oldest on one more vacation before she leaves for college next month.

So here we are, toes in the sand and hoping the sunscreen holds out. Yet knowing, unfortunately, it won't. LOL. My 10 yr old is building sand castles and pushing my patience on the allowed distance she can go out to sea. My 15yr old is jumping in the waves and then tanning on a beach towel.

My 18yr old is sitting in the condo, probably watching some sort of anime on her laptop. *Face Palm*

I'm reading, people watching, and just enjoying the peace, waves, and sunshine. Meanwhile, the hubby is swimming in the ocean, causing panic when I look out and don't see his head bobbing. All in all everyone seems to be having a good time (even the condo-bound 18yr old), and that's all that matters to me.

I'll be heading home Friday, so until then be prepared to see lots of beach pictures floating around my social media pages. :)