Good Morning from the Midst of Chaos

Good morning!

I borrowed this picture from a blog called Patchwork Reflections because it could have been taken down the road from our house. I've seen many sunrises like this one here in south central Kentucky.

Ironically, the blog the photo came from hasn't been updated since 2013. It hasn't been quite that long since I updated this blog, but it has been almost four months. I'm not sure how many people actually read my attempts at keeping this blog up, but for those of you who do, thank you.

If you've been following me for the little over eight years I've been posting this blog, you know it's been quite the journey. I didn't even realize I've been posting that long. I'll have to go back and read some of my old blog posts for kicks.

So what have I been doing the past four months that have kept me from posting? So much! I dug out an old story that I posted on The Royal Academy of Bards site at least ten years ago and reworked it. If you're not familiar with The Royal Academy of Bards, it's a Xena-Gabrielle fan fiction site with a lot of great free works to read. I used to post stories there before I was published and you can find some of my rough originals there.

Besides reworking my story, "The Outfitter," which has become "The Avalanche of Love," which will be released May 1, 2019, I'm working on a new play and a YA story amid our life of chaos. The chaos is caused by kids and pets. Even this morning, as I'm trying to write this, our new Australian shepherd mix kept nudging me until I finally got up to let him out to go potty.

Yes, we have a new dog, and we needed one like a hole in the head, but we got him the same way we ended up with three grandkids to raise. My oldest daughter, whose kids we have, gave her loser boyfriend this puppy when he was three months old. The boyfriend, who I could describe in the most colorful of terms, was not taking proper care of the dog and when they temporarily broke up decided he didn't want the dog. The grandkids had already grown attached to him, and he really is a sweet dog, so we took him. Now we have a Shih Tzu/Papillon/Chihuahua mix, who is not happy about the new dog; two cats, and three kids in our small three bedroom house.

For those of you who are just getting to know me, I used to be married to a man, as did my partner of twenty years, Rosa. She had two sons (her oldest passed away a few years ago due to diabetes complications). I have two daughters. Between us, we have eleven grandchildren from 14, almost 15, years old to 2 years old. 

The three we are raising are Jacob, the almost 15-year-old, Jazmyn, who might make it to 13 if she straightens up, and Julian, who is 5 and very good at it. All three are my oldest daughter, Jessica's children. Jessica had drug problems when Jacob and Jazmyn were babies and no maternal instincts. She still doesn't have any motherly instincts. Fortunately for the kids, Rosa has motherly instincts in spades. I do too. I don't have the patience she has.

Rosa just retired. Like, yesterday was her very first day of retirement. She'd worked for over 45 years, doing a wide variety of jobs. The last one was at a car parts factory for the past 15 years. Now, her job is taking care of the house and kids, especially the teenagers who need to be watched more than the 5-year-old does.

We planned for over a year for Rosa to be able to retire. Things will be tight money wise, but I was happy I could let her have this time of doing what she wants.

Earlier you may have noted that I said I was working on a new play. I wrote one last year that was performed by the Emerald Theater Company in Memphis, Tennessee. There is nothing like watching other people interpret your words and bringing them to life. You can check out the video of the dress rehearsal of the play "Is She or Isn't She" on YouTube.

As you can imagine, life stays pretty busy for us, and I haven't gotten to be online as much as I used to, and every time I think I'll get to do more work online, something else comes up. So, no promises about how soon I'll be able to post again. I hope you will stop back occasionally to see what new craziness is going on in my life. With teenagers in the house, you know there will be more craziness to report. 

I hope you have a fabulous day and are up early enough to catch a sunrise. I'm going to do some writing while it's still quiet in the house.