Happy Hump Day!

Hi everyone,

Today, as you well know, is Hump Day, which matters a lot to anyone who is still in the work force.  I remember, only too well, the good feeling you have when Wednesday evening rolls around.  You're soon be on the short end of the week.  Of course, looking forward to a good weekend always helped, also.

I've been proof reading my newest manuscript and yesterday morning I was getting close to the end of it, which I was happy about.  Of course, since I wrote the story, I knew how it ended!  So, I'm comfy and start reading out loud and soon I can feel the tears starting to form in my eyes.  I tried to pull myself together and that worked for a little while.  Soon after, I started getting weepy, once again.  All I could think was this:  I wrote this story and I already know how it ends.  Why am I crying when I didn't get weepy as I was writing it????

I just couldn't seem to help myself, it was sad.  It was like I was reading it for the first time, which I suppose technically, I was!  Well, just then my husband comes down from his office to run out for a little bit and he says to me, "Why are you sniffing?  Have you gotten a cold?"  I answer, "No, and he asks me, "Are you crying?"  (He was kidding!)  I answer, "Yes I am crying."  He quickly asks, "Why, what's wrong?"  He's now worried about me.  I say, "My story is sad and the thing I can't figure out is why I didn't cry while I was writing it.  Why now as I'm proofing it?"  He just shrugs and that was that.  Go figure!

Well, I need to start on my second proofing session soon and I sincerely hope that I don't cry when I get to the sad parts once again.  I suppose that as I'm writing the story, my mind and my fingers are just too busy getting my thoughts down onto the computer, to feel any emotion from the story.  Who knew???

I'm getting anxious to have this novel published.  I'm aiming for the beginning of December.   That gives me two more months, so I should be able to do it by then, hopefully, sooner.  I've been busy since last January, working on this years hand made Christmas items.  I make all my own Christmas ornaments for everyone in my family and their significant others; as well as hand made money and gift card holders; I've also been hand crocheting and hand embroidering gifts, as well. 

I so enjoy creating all these things.  I have been so blessed by God with these talents and I have to use them to give glory to Him.  I made about 26 scarves to take to a local nursing home.  I will be delivering them within the next couple of weeks.  I know, as an older person myself, that many of us mind the cool air around our necks.  So, I thought they may enjoy having a hand made scarf that belongs to just them.  At least I hope they do.

If anyone is interested in purchasing any of my novels, I have copies available of the following ones:
"Crafty Cruise" With a Capital "C"; "Train Trekking" with a Capital "T"; "Prolonged Uncertainties" and I will have some copies of this new one, "Returning Home."  Send me a message and I'll give you a reduced price on them.  I can mail them to you, and include the shipping cost in with the price.
You can check out the first three, here on my blog pages, but I haven't done up a page yet for the last one.

Enjoy the remainder of your week.  Smile because tomorrow is Thursday.  Soon the weekend will be upon us.  Be safe and may God bless each of you.
Susan

Yeah, I'm happy!

Hi everyone,

Well, as you can see from the title of this post, I am very happy!  I finished my writing my manuscript this week.  Now I have started the proofing, which is not easy.  I've discovered that when I read I scan the page, reading every word, but not necessarily seeing every letter in every word.  This, my friends, makes proofreading a manuscript very, very hard. 

You see, I have to read one word at a time, no scanning.  That is very hard.  It helps to read the script out loud, so that's what I do.  Of course, I do have spell check but that only helps it your word is incorrectly spelled.  But doesn't help if I have 'there' and I meant 'their'.   I am a pretty fast typist, therefore when I'm typing my manuscript, I don't pay too much attention to what I'm typing.  My fingers just type as my thoughts form in my head. 

The title of this new novel is "Returning Home."  It's a fiction novel and it takes place in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  I contains some very happy times and some very sad situations, also.  I hope to have it published before Christmas 2016.  As soon as I am finished proof reading it, I will put in on Amazon.com, KDP, for electronic reading; as well as add a page for it, here on my blog.

Did you know that you don't need a Nook or Kindle to read electronically?  You can read novels on all most all electronic devices:  PC, tablet, laptop, cell phone, etc.  All you have to do is to download the app from Amazon.com. 

If you want, you can check out my books and booklets here on my blog, or by going to Amazon.com and putting my full name into the search block.  I hope you'll check them out and perhaps read one or two of them. 

I wish everyone a happy and safe weekend, whatever you may be doing. 
Susan

Life is full of good things and bad things.

Good evening everyone,

Today is the start of the work week for many of you out there.  As for me, I'm just trying to get back into my regular routine once again.  My husband and I were away for a while.  We had a very nice time, but I'm glad to be back home once again.  I will admit that I am a creature of habit.  I know most folks think that they're not, but actually I believe that most of us are creatures of habit.  It's just that most younger people with children are always running here and there with the kids.

I am very saddened at what occurred over the weekend both in New Jersey and in New York.  I am very thankful that no one was killed, although two police officers were wounded, but not permanently.  My youngest grandson is attending FIT University in NYC, and that was just too close to him, to suit me.  I am so grateful to God that none of the students from FIT were in any real harm, but they didn't know that at the time.  There just seems to be no place that a person can go that is safe these days.  I heard that it was considered a terror attack against the US.  I pray that God protects each of us here in the USA and our families.  Please pray also for all your fellow Americans.  We all need pray.

Well, I worked on my manuscript today for about two and one half hours.  It's moving right along now and for that, I'm thankful.  I would really like to have it published before Christmas, but we'll see.  Have you ever thought that you'd like to be a writer?  If so, why don't you take some on-line classes and see where it takes you.  I believe that no one is too old to follow their dreams.  As long as you can read and think, you can learn to do most anything, even if you're a bit slow.

I know that many of us senior citizens aren't into electronics like the younger generations, but you don't have to have a lot of smarts to use a PC or a laptop computer.  You just need someone to instruct you on how to do what you want to do.  If I can figure these electronics out, so can you.  Give it some thought.  Don't give up on your dreams just because you've grown old!

I hope each of you will do something creative this week.  God loves to see our creative sides.  Creating something out of nothing, to make another person smile, is a blessing from God.  Try it!

Have a safe and a good week.  Be safe and may God bless each of you.  Please pray for peace!
Susan

Happy Thursday evening!

Hi all,

How is your week going, thus far?  If your answer is 'no so well', have no fear, because tomorrow is the last day of your work week.  The weekend is coming fast!  So, smile when you arrive at work tomorrow because before you know it, your Friday work day will be completed!

What's your plans for this weekend?  I hear the weather is to be a little cooler, just as it was today and will be tomorrow.  As far as I'm concerned, that's good news!  I can't wait for fall to finally be here.  I'm so tired of this hot and humid weather.  Okay, no more complaining about the weather, since there's nothing I can do about it anyways.

I'm still working on my Christmas gifts for my family.  When you create home made items, they take time to make.  I actually started last January.  I love creating hand made items.  Hopefully, one day in the future, after God takes me home, they will appreciate the things I made for them and think of me often.  I guess it really doesn't matter because I truly love creating anything hand made, whether others appreciate them or not!  It makes me feel good about myself to be using my God given talents.

Have you been doing anything creative lately?  I get so frustrated when I hear folks saying, "I can't do that!"  It's just an excuse to not even try it.  There is always something creative that each and every one of us can do.  God gave creative abilities to each of us.  The problem is that most folks don't even try anything creative. 

I realize that when you are raising children, your time isn't as available as mine is, but I can say that I have always found time to be creative.  It's a large part of my life and for this, I'm so thankful to God.
To tell you the truth, I don't know how my mental state would be if I couldn't still do creative things.  Especially since I can't do anything that takes much energy or strength.  Most of my afternoons and evenings are spent on the sofa with my feet up. 

You still have plenty of time to find a creative activity that you can learn to do efficiently.  How about trying to make something as a gift for someone for Christmas.  You may just surprise yourself and turn out something wonderful.

Have a great weekend and be safe.
Susan

Creatures of habit...

Happy Sunday everyone.  I was just sitting here thinking about the fact that I am, certainly, a creature of habit.  How about you?  I think, that perhaps, it comes with age.  Once your children are all grown up, with families of their own, and you are retired, whether because of illness (early retirement) or because you are of retirement age, a person becomes creatures of habit.  At least, I am and I know some other senior citizens, who are also like me.

Perhaps, for me, it's because I spend a lot of time by myself and am chronically ill.  My husband is still working a part time job and I do encourage him to go do the things he likes to do.  This of course, means I spend a lot of time alone.  I suppose I've gotten used to being alone and although I love having someone to talk to, I don't mind my alone time.  In fact, I enjoy it most of the time.  Don't get me wrong, I love being with my husband and my family, but I also don't mind being alone with my own thoughts, as long as it's not an entire day.  I guess it's because I am alone so much of the time.  This being the case, I do try to keep myself busy doing something, as long as it doesn't take much energy, and I can stay seated to do.

Here we are on September 11th, and it was 15 years ago today, that terrorists attacked the United States.  That was a horrific day for all of us.  So many innocent citizens were killed during that attack on the USA.  I can remember the exact minute that I first heard about it.  I was working and one of my co-workers came and told us to listen to the radio.  Soon after that, I went home and it was on every television channel.  I couldn't stop watching this great loss of lives.  None of them deserved to die that way. 

I remember hearing, over and over again, how some of the passengers on one of the flights, decided to take control of the situation to stop more deaths from occurring.  Of course, this meant that everyone on that flight would not survive.  But, they saved many lives that day and they received great honors for their bravery.  You see, after trying to get control of the plane, they were successful in having it crash in an open area instead of hitting a building full of people.

I don't think I will ever be able to get those images out of my mind.  They replayed them for many days afterward.  I believe that almost everyone here in the United States was in shock for months afterward.  I know for a long time after that day, I needed to know where my family members were because no-one knew if another attack would occur or not.

If you live here in the United States and were, at least a teenager at that time, you will also remember the events vividly, just as I do.  I pray that nothing like that ever happens again, and I ask for God's protection for everyone in this world. 

It's ashamed that some people can rationalize, within their own minds, that taking another person's life is okay.  Well, it's NOT!  No-one has that right, except God, and He never takes one of His children's lives out of hate.  It's people who kill other people, for whatever reason they have.

Happy Sunday!

Good morning, everyone,

Today is the Lord's Day, as you well know.  If you will remember, according to the Bible, God rested on Sunday, after spending six days creating this place we call the world.  How fitting, that we too, rest and give praise to God on Sunday.

I attended Mass thanks to Heart of the Nation, which is a Catholic Network, both on television and via the internet.  Also, you could celebrate Mass by tuning into EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network), which is also a Catholic network. 

You see, since I can no longer stay inside of a church for very long, because for some reason, I become extremely light headed and feel faint, I am blessed to have a choice of either of the about two avenues, to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days.  Of course, I support both of them as much as I can, as well as, my own Parish. 

So, I hope you will attend Mass today, or whatever worship service your church practices on Sundays.  Other than that, I don't plan on doing any work today, because even God wants Sunday to be a day of rest.  How about you?  Sunday should be a day spent with your family and loved ones.

I'm glad that Hermine didn't cause much distress here in Pennsylvania.  Actually, it didn't do any significant damage along the Maryland and Delaware coasts, either.  Although, from what I hear, it's to turn back toward the coastline later today and cause some heavy rains and high winds through tomorrow. 

Have you ever wandered why God permits these terrible storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. to occur?  Sometimes I think it's God's way of reminding us that He does have all the power.  I believe that in this day and age, too many people forget that God is in charge, not humans!   I think when these things occur that God is reminding us of that fact. 

What's in store for you for this coming week?  As for me, I plan on spending time working on my current manuscript.  I will have soon completed it and then comes the hard job:  proofing it.  Oh well, it will eventually get finished.  I'd like to have it published by Christmas, but time will tell.

I do hope that you have a blessed Sunday, however you may be spending it.  Please take time to thank God for all your many blessings.  And yes, we are truly blessed, over and over again.
Susan