The last three and a half months have been very busy for us as a family, as we had an elderly member of the family get badly injured, resulting in the need for us to provide daily (and intensive) elder care through this time period. Obviously, it was a time that we also had the incredible excitement of two of my novels being published, and one being in process of being published, but it still was a time of running day and night to meet the needs of everyone.

This past Friday, the intensity of the need lessened, didn’t go away, but lessened. It meant that this weekend, we could return to some of our “normal” activities, and do them all at a slightly slower pace. We cleaned the chicken coop, the barn, the house, checked on the bee hives, made hummus, made a great dinner, made soup and pot roast for nights this week, and finally made the first batch of cookies in a long, long time. I worked on editing, did some knitting, and took a dip in the hot tub. Yes, we also did errands for both set of our parents, took care of some things for our children and grandchildren, but did it without the sense of being at a full run. And what a joy it was to do all of them!

Now, the chores of today have been completed, and it’s time to watch some football and do some editing.