How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was good, thanks. Mom and Big Sis fixed an awesome dinner, and I got to see all of my side of the family except for one of my nieces. Hubby spent most of the time hovering over the kids, because he was afraid that my sister’s youngest daughter, who happens to be a rambunctious tomboy, would influence Pumpkin to step out of her comfort zone and do something dangerous. I know Pumpkin better than that, but at least watching them kept him occupied and less bored than he otherwise would have been.
So today is Black Friday. For those of you who went shopping, I hope you caught some killer deals. As for me, I haven’t left the house. I had hoped to get some shopping done from home, taking advantage of sales and online coupons from my favorite etailers. But it was not to be. Pretty much everything that was on sale was out of my price range, even if it was deeply discounted. And the few things I found that I could have bought, I had no use for. Oh well. There’s still a month until Christmas.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll probably be doing a great deal of my shopping at Dollar Tree. All the kids on Hubby’s side of the family are very rough on toys, so it wouldn’t do to buy them anything expensive anyway. Hubby will probably buy his parents and brothers cigarettes like he usually does, so all I’ll have left to worry about are Pumpkin, Hubby and the kids on my side of the family, since I’ve already got plans for my mom’s gift. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Pumpkin and I are psyched about going to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. I think we’ve even talked Hubby into going, although you can’t really pin him down on anything until the last minute. I just hope I’m able to get everything together without a hitch before we go. We’re not spending the night, but we will need our medications and I’ll need to make sure that everything we plan to wear is clean and dry tonight.
I’ve also got to make a strawberry cheesecake to take up there. When I asked Mom if there was anything she needed me to bring, she said no, but that if I took a notion to make one of those, that would be fine. I took that to mean that she would like to have one, so I picked up the ingredients last time I was at the grocery store.
One thing I’m super-thankful for this year is that there’s not a chance of snow. Whenever I go up there, if there’s a flake or two of snow, Hubby gets in a big hurry to get back home. I don’t know whether he’s really that scared of getting snowed in or if he’s just looking for an excuse to come back, but he won’t rest until we’re driving back up the mountain. But according to the forecast, all that we might possibly need to contend with the weather are an umbrella and some rain boots. And there’s not even that big of a chance of rain.
This is probably the last you’ll hear from me here until after the holiday. So have a good one!
It’s hard to believe that the official start of the holiday season (AKA Thanksgiving) is coming up this Thursday. Well, to me it is. If you listen to the retailers this year, it’s apparently already well underway.
As for me, I’m not in such a hurry for Christmas to get here. I’m looking forward to Turkey Day. If I were spending it at home, it wouldn’t really be a big deal. But I’m planning to go up to my mom’s for dinner, and I’ll get to see my brother and sister and their families. Since that doesn’t happen very often any more, it’s certainly something special.
I don’t know yet whether Hubby will be going, but I hope he will. If I were spending the night and going shopping on Black Friday, I’m sure he would opt to stay home, as long as he could find someone to hang out with while Pumpkin and I were gone. But we’re just going up there for the day, so maybe I’ll be able to talk him into joining us.
While I’m on the subject of Thanksgiving, I hope all of you out there have a happy and safe long holiday weekend. Just wanted to say that since I’ll probably forget if I wait until closer to the actual day. 
Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living, and I tell them I’m a writer, they want to know what kind of books I write. And then I have to tell them that I don’t write books, that I write stuff for the Web. Some think that’s even better, others take that as reason not to take me seriously, and others give me a puzzled look.
I like what I do, but I would like to write a book some day. I don’t mean printing something off and putting it through a Velo Bind machine, or putting out an ebook (although I hope to eventually have a few of those under my belt, too), but actually writing something good enough to be published. I know I’ve got it in me, it’s getting it formulated and on paper that’s the hard part.
I know that this is NaNoWriMo month, but I didn’t have the courage or ambition to participate this year. Maybe next year, if things are better for me by then. And yes, I’ll definitely be posting updates if I do.
I posted a few weeks ago about how strange my sleep habits were becoming. I’d sleep well for a few nights, then I would have persistent insomnia for a while, and so on and so forth. The good news is, I haven’t had the need for natural sleep aids for a while now. The bad news is, pretty much all I feel like doing is sleeping.
It’s not because I’m staying up late working like I once did all the time. I’ve been going to bed around the time I put Pumpkin to bed, or sometimes an hour or two later. I get up and get her ready for school, and sometimes I try to stay up. But I end up getting so sleepy that I have two choices: either stay up in a daze and get nothing done, or go back to bed and get some more sleep. It’s gotten to the point where most of the time I don’t bother fighting it, and go straight back to bed as soon as the bus gets here.
That wouldn’t be so bad if I could just sleep for an hour or two and get back up. But I usually end up sleeping until 11:30 or 12:00, and that makes it hard to get anything done during the day. Most of the time I don’t feel particularly rested when I get back up, either. It really sucks.
I guess I’ll talk to the doctor about it when I go back. That won’t be until next month, but I’m just going to have to tough it out until then. I may have to start drinking coffee in the mornings until I see him, even though I’m not supposed to have much caffeine.
Christmas is getting here way too quickly for my tastes. I hate it when I don’t have the money to even get all of the kids (plus Mom and Hubby) a decent gift, but that’s the way it’s looking this year. I’m not sure how much we’d be able to get Pumpkin if we weren’t getting some assistance on that front.
I might do the whole baking thing again this year. Just bake some of my best holiday goodies and send a package to each family. But even that has been getting more expensive each year. One of my most beloved treats is toasted pecans, yet pecans are just about too expensive to buy unless you just want a tiny little bag that’s fit for a snack for one person.
I’ve just about given up on even sending out Christmas cards. I usually get no more than one or two, so what’s the point? Sure, those fancy address stampers and holiday themed postage stamps are nice, but if nobody cares about getting a card any more, what’s the point?
It’s not that I’m not in the Christmas spirit. Well, at least I’m getting there. But it would just be so much nicer if there were an easier way to let our friends and family members know we care, without obliterating our bank accounts and stressing ourselves out in the long run.
The weather has been very nice here this week, with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures during the day. But it’s fall, y’all, and you know what that means. The weather is obscenely unpredictable. According to the forecast, we’re supposed to be back to the cold stuff by next week.
We’ve got all of the wood we had chopped and stacked, and are hoping that it will at least last most of the winter. Now all that’s left to do is the little stuff. We need to make sure the drain pipes are clear so that the melting snow will go around the house instead of under it and into the basement. We need to shut the storm windows, and check into a local program that will replace some storm windows with more energy-efficient ones if they qualify. And we need to do something about the outer basement door.
Our basement is rather unique in that it has no entry from inside the house. To get in there, you have to go through a door that leads you under the front porch, then go through another door that leads you into the actual basement. Both doors could use some help, but the outer one is the worst. It definitely needs some new door hinges, and maybe a whole new door, because the whole thing just refuses to stay in place like it should. And that means that much more cold air is getting in than there should be.
If I can get Hubby started on that little project, I don’t think it would be too hard to complete. I’d be more than happy to help if he’ll let me.
I just hope this winter goes better than the last one. Between the excessive snow and ice and the constantly freezing water, it was absolutely the winter from hell. And that’s saying a lot, because we’ve had some real doozies around here!
Sometimes I can concentrate on my writing. Unfortunately, those times are now few and far between. I often end up surfing the web, and the subjects that I read about are as scattered as my brain. Sometime last week, between seeing how much I could get by selling my hair and learning about hydroponic systems, I ran across a video that I’ve been meaning to share since then. It’s by a band called the Zimmers, which is made up of a group of senior citizens from the U.K. And they’re doing a cover of none other than The Prodigy’s “Firestarter.” Watch and be amazed:
I showed it to Pumpkin, and she was rather freaked out by it. But I love it! If you’re interested, you can learn more about the Zimmers at their website, and you can download this and more of their songs at Amazon.com.
Not much has changed since I last blogged. I’ve still been suffering from a major lack of energy, yet writing has come pretty easily when I can get motivated enough to do it. I read in some phenphedrine reviews that it gives you lots of energy… maybe I should give that a try.
Hubby has been trying to talk me into going to the doctor over some feminine problems I’ve been having, but I’m trying to hold out a little longer. That could very well be a big part of the reason I have no energy, but if that’s the worst it does to me, I can’t see spending money we can’t afford to spend on yet another doctor visit. I’m at least going to give it until next week unless other problems develop.
Despite being tired all the time and having a bit of anxiety due to the health issues and other minor stuff, I’ve been in pretty good spirits. And that’s a good thing. Hopefully I’ll be able to fight through the fog and turn some of this creativity that’s dying to get out into dollars.
You’d never know it judging by my lack of blog posts since Halloween, but I’ve discovered that my ability to write has not disappeared forever. And that makes me happy. Well, kind of.
Actually, my mood has been, I dunno… kinda “meh” lately. I’m not all bouncy and bubbly, but not deeply darkly depressed, either. As for my energy level, it has been pretty low. Good because I’ve been sleeping much better than usual, but bad because I’ve been sleeping too much and having a lot of trouble getting motivated to do anything at all. But, when I’m able to make myself sit down and write, the words have been flowing almost as easily as they did when I first started writing. And while that hasn’t been enough to give me a big mood boost, it does ease my mind a bit.
I still haven’t decided whether or not this is an overall improvement. Ideally, I’d like to have plenty of energy and be happy at all times. And while being depressed sucks, not feeling much of anything isn’t so great, either. I guess I’ll just keep hoping that this is the beginning of better things to come and see how it pans out.
