it's been pretty quiet the last week. no major crises to negotiate, no new disasters to muddle through. we still have a growing marsh in our living room, but until we can buy some cement, that's just going to be how it is. course, once we buy the cement, it's going to take weeks for the carpet to dry out completely, and the thing is probably stained for life. it doesn't help that we now have to replace our steamer. no one's sure when it happened, but apparently the main part of the steamer is no longer working. youngest has been using one of the attachments to clean up as much water as she can, which isn't much. but other than that, there's not been much going on: kids and adults are all on summer break, saxy should be getting a few more hours at his job (which we need), girls are working. a bit of a flu or something has been making its rounds, but it's like a 2 or 3 day thing: person throws up once, spends 2 days in bed, then is fine.
course, we all know when i get it, it'll last longer than that, but it's nice to know it shouldn't last weeks or months.
saxy's been at a bit of a loss being out of school and not on a full time schedule: he watches some tv and falls asleep. lol he's been working hard, so deserves the break. we've spent more time discussing his menu for his restaurant, and as soon as we have a little extra cash, we'll be playing around with it. he's been slowly becoming more focused as he's gone to school, and now has a definite idea of where the restaurant is going. when we're ready, he wants to move a bit more north and closer tot he coast to get fresher seafood. we'll see. i'm not sure that will be possible, considering our financial history and that even as a chef, he won't be earning much.
gotta sell a book and sell it well, i guess. ;)
the writing is generally going well. pretty focused on the new novel. if i keep going the way i have been, i should have the current revision done in the next 5 to 6 weeks. then i have to let it sit for a bit, will go through it one more time, and then send it off to beta readers. i expect it to be ready for submission in time for the holidays, which means i probably won't start submitting it until january. which is fine. it's actually only about 4 months away from my self-imposed deadline. unlike assassin's, charms is in a genre that's in right now, so hopefully it'll do well. assassin's hasn't garnered as much interest as i would have liked, but it's not a big deal. the alden novels are harder to write, so i can work on those at a more leisurely pace for a bit, build up a bit of a backlog, maybe. for all i know, they may never sell commercially, but that doesn't mean don't have options. i'd just like something more traditional for starters. hopefully charms will get that for me. not expecting to be j.k. rowling, but, you know, some kind of income from the writing would be nice. ;)
health wise, i'm doing okay. i did have to get back on the hormones: a week after my period ended, i started having spotting. since i'm not willing to risk the same mess i was in 3 years ago, i just went ahead and got back on. i'll try again in another 20 pounds or so. this will be a slow process to get back to anything remotely considered normal, but i'm not discouraged. my weight is down, my headaches are less now when storms roll through, my bp is relatively under control, my blood work looks fantastic, and i'm able to more than i could even 6 months ago. for an overweight broad who's been sick for years, i'm doing pretty well. the weight may not be coming off biggest loser fast, but it is coming off. i'm bouncing back and forth a bit right now, but every time i recover from a small weight gain, i end up losing more...so it's like 1 step back, 2 steps forward. i'm struggling a bit with getting my cals below 1800, but i'm working on it.
and, really, that's pretty much it. saxy's working around 30 hours a week now that he has a month off, the older girls are working, oldest spends time with her fiancé when she has a couple of days off, kiddos are taking it easy when not vacuuming. cats are much happier without the fleas and trying to eat like little pigs. vagner had lost a good pound and a half, and now that he feels better, he wants that weight back. lol
so, really, not a whole lot going on. we're still struggling financially, but it's not at crises levels at the moment. with any luck, and saxy's extra hours, i can keep it that way for a bit longer. come fall term though, it won't be so easy.
~*~
word of the moment: mummer
an actor in a traditional type of play without words; an actor who communicates entirely by gesture and facial expression; a performer in a pantomime; broadly; one who goes merrymaking in disguise during festivals
