Writer's Retreat

 This week a friend and I went "off the grid" for a mini writer's retreat. We stayed in one of these cute little lakeside cabins.

It was a productive time. We both worked on our books, brainstormed with each other, and enjoyed probably just a tad too much off-topic chit-chat.

The weather was pretty blustery, though the sun was out for part of the time, but we had a lovely view of the lake from inside our cabin.  We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves, since it's the off-season.

So... I am making [very slow] progress on my novel. I'm still not sure that it will ever be anything anyone will want to read, but I feel compelled to write it anyway. This week helped me figure out what to work on next, and what research still needs to be done at this stage.

It reminds me of working a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. You dump that thing out of the box and you wonder how you're ever going to get it to make a picture. You start turning pieces over one by one, separating out the edges, sorting like colors together, and slowly it begins to come together. The more you get done, the faster it goes.

Maybe someday it will be finished.

We Have Arrived!

Today we reach a major milestone, Lyle and I. Our children are both now legally adults. We have successfully raised them. We take full credit, of course, for the beautiful young ladies they have turned out to be. And now, we are done. We can sit back and enjoy our empty nest, basking in the satisfaction of a job well done....

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Oh! Except for one thing... they actually do still live with us, so our nest isn't really empty.

Oh! And another thing... I still have the rest of this school year to homeschool.

Oh, yeah. And they still ask us for advice. Several times a day usually. They don't always choose to follow our advice. But they do ask.

And I worry about them. Especially when they are out and about with their friends. Or driving home from work late at a night on dark country roads.

I fret about the future. Where will they be in 5 years? 10?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I'm ready for them to be all grown up. But here we are.

And our parenting job isn't really over.

And we really can't take credit for the beautiful young ladies they truly are. That credit has to go to God for the wisdom He was so gracious to provide every time we asked. And to friends and family who have so faithfully come alongside us over the years.

We are blessed.

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Happy 18th birthday, Sweet Becky!

An Exceptional Mother

Going through old family pictures lately, I liked this one of my mother and her daughters taken about 1974. (I especially like how my bright blue socks coordinate so well with my yellow and white dress! Probably there was some minuscule speck of blue in the floral pattern that I thought the socks "matched.")

I have an exceptional mother... and that's not just my opinion, many of my friends tell me so. One of the things I most appreciate and admire about her is how much she has always enjoyed her children. She had 5 of us in 5 years (with a set of twins, as you can see-- so we were spaced about a year-and-a-half apart). We usually lived in small houses and things were often chaotic, so it's hard for me to imagine actually enjoying having 5 little kids underfoot. You would think she would be relieved to send us off to school so she could actually get things done, but she wasn't. She actually liked having us home, and dreaded to see school start in the fall. Homeschooling wasn't a "thing" in the 1970s, or she probably would have done that.

And now, she's an exceptional grandmother. My kids call her almost daily. I wonder if the other 9 grandchildren do, too. She always has time to listen to their most trivial news or to offer advice. Laura has learned that if Mom doesn't know, Grammy likely will. I want to be like that when I grow up.

Happy birthday, Mother! We love and appreciate you!

New Crochet Projects

I love to try out new crochet patterns, especially smaller projects that work up quickly and are easy to take along in the car. Here are some new wash cloths and pot holders I experimented with this summer. Now available in my Etsy shop... just in time for early Christmas shopping!

 Flower Wash Cloths

 Tunisian Crochet Wash Cloths

Citrus Wash Cloths

 Rose Pot Holder

 Daisy Corner Wash Cloths

Chicken Pot Holders

What are your favorites? I always like to get input on colors and styles.

Late Summer Camping

Setting up camp. 

The highlight of the weekend:
4-wheeling with friends.

My view:
Looking over the shoulder of my Driving Man.

Deep woods creek. 

Our camp site at night.