Update

Oh, it has been so long since I have written, and I apologize! The sun has come up and set WAY too quickly these last two weeks! Because of the sun’s increased schedule, there doesn’t seem to be enough time to either eat or sleep. LOL O.k., it’s true. There are still 24 hours in the day; the sun has kept its regular schedule. It’s just that our lives have been full. Thus, I thought I would give a quick update. 

 1. My garden is put to bed! Today, because of the beautiful weather, we got quite a bit accomplished outside. I finished pulling up the dead tomato plants (yes, I still had tomato plants in the garden), the dried out corn stalks (no, I hadn’t taken those out yet either). It feels good to have that project done with for a few months. I am now ready to hibernate inside for the winter!

2. I am writing a book! My head is still spinning, and it has been quite an interesting whirlwind regarding how this all came about. I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but during my Master’s work I began writing a book.  After graduation I continued working on it because it was so challenging. I will admit that as other pressure arose there were many times when I wanted to can the whole thing. But something kept me from doing that, and I always came back. Well, one year later I was encouraged to go to a writer’s conference (you can read about that in a blog from last summer). While there I met an editor with a publishing house down in Virginia. She was interested in this book, and she took it back to her team. We have now signed a contract with this publishing house! Within the next twoyears, we will have a book out! We are extremely excited, but because I have not even finished writing the book yet, I am also very busy. I would greatly appreciate your prayers over the next few months as I complete this project. I have seen God’s hand as he has put each step in place; I would appreciate your prayers as God continues to guide this project. 

 3. Many of you have asked about my mother. As you may know, she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. She also is suffering from some dementia. I have not noticed a decided increase in either of these lately, but there does seem to be a continued slow decline. I know she is frustrated with her inabilities, and she could use your prayer. You could also pray especially for my father and even for the rest of our family as we seek to support Mom. She is an amazing woman, and it is difficult seeing her suffer the way she is.

 4. We will butcher our pig on Tuesday! Friends of ours buy a pig every few years, and this year they offered to house a pig for us if we wanted to buy one. So, we did! Although we have only seen “Oinkers” a few times, we are proud of how large and pink she is (well, at least she is pink in the places that are not covered in mud). This week we will butcher her. I know this may seem cruel, but our reason for buying the pig is to save money on meat and to know exactly what we are eating. So, we have a new adventure this week!

Thank you all for your prayers. As always, I extend the invitation for you to contact me with any prayer requests that you have.