Merry Christmas!

This week was a bit odd. I spent the first part of the week racing to get my book editing done by the deadlines. It all needed to be done by Tuesday Dec. 20^th. Deborah was absolutely masterful at copyediting! She picks up on all the details I think are too picky… but are really essential for an excellent book. Is this a better word? What is the title of this person you quoted? This section switches from I to you to we too often. Can it be more consistent? Do you want Google or google? E-mail or email? % or percent? And then she makes it consistent through the book. I love it!

My financial guy with all the reports— 36 pages, 12 pages and 16 pages- was really in a hurry for his stuff. So I sent a draft and gave him the option of having it copyedited. But he was happy with checking it himself. And I think by that time, Deborah was, too. The business man with the millennial book had some fascinating and informative material about what makes millennials click and how best to work with them. He details his thorough hiring process to make sure they fit with the company culture and have the intrinsic abilities (likes talking to people if he’s hiring for a sales manager, or loves details if he wants an accountant). He hires primarily on these core values and company culture… then trains them to fit the job. And he has an over-the-top way of welcoming them their first day and making them feel valued and important. I hope his book gets the success it deserves.

After focusing on that for so many days, I felt I was less productive— at least writing wise— the rest of the week. I went back and cleaned out my inbox and sent responses and follow-ups to things I had neglected.

Wednesday Tom and I drove to Koshkonong, MO to a salvage store there looking for doors and a tub for our new renovation. They had lots of doors… just none our size. We found cabinets that would work when Deb decides to renovate the kitchen in her little house. And we found a tasty little café in Thayer to have lunch on the way home.

Tom spent a good part of the week demolishing one tub surround and pushing out a wall in the other small bath. I went out one afternoon and removed up to three layers of contact paper from all the cupboards in the kitchen and baths and took off door and drawer pull in preparation for painting them. 52 knobs!

I have become interested in cryptocurrency like bitcoin and other. And I have been doing some research and learning about block-chain and how it can help speed up transactions between banks, between stock traders, and other things like gaming. It’s secure, un-hackable, and eliminates the middle man such as the central banking system or stock exchange. I’m hoping my small bits (very small gambles) of money will blossom into fruitful investments. And if not, it’s been interesting.

We had planned on Deborah coming to visit this week and maybe staying through Christmas. But Ian got scheduled to work Friday, Saturday and early Monday morning… so it didn’t make sense for them to travel. And, in all honesty, I think her copyediting set back her time table a little bit as well. So suddenly, we were faced with a quiet Christmas.

We invited three neighbors over for Christmas Eve dinner. I made Turkey and fixings plus an apple and a pecan pie. We had a festive and enjoyable time. Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast and opened a few presents before going off to church.

We had a very nice Christmas program with some lovely musical numbers. I really appreciated that each part of the Christmas story came back to us and how we receive and accept the Savior in our lives. There was a lovely song about “No Room” that talked about no room in the inn and do we have room in our hearts for the Savior. And we got to voice our conviction that “God is not dead nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail the right prevail. With peace on earth, good will to men.”

We came home and had Christmas Eve dinner revisited and then opened presents. A nice collection of loot. I wrote some letters, took a nap, and then we went to visit some widows. They enjoyed our visit. Had some nice chats with siblings and kids. After munching on some peppermint bark, I had the strength to type this letter. Tuesday the calm will break as Miranda comes to visit. Then Jonathan’s family… then Andy’s family… Fun times ahead and we love it.

Babysitting

Dear Family-

This has been an intense week. Monday we prepared to go and babysit Jonathan and Kristy’s three youngest while they went to a wedding in Utah. That wasn’t necessarily the intense part.

I had committed to edit two books and three reports before December 22. At the time, it seemed a lot, but manageable. However the second book is very dense. It’s well written, if at times redundant, and on an interesting subject, it’s just that every sentence needs to be reviewed and checked to see if there’s a clearer, more concise way to say it. The type is 11 point courier in dense paragraphs. So while I think I’m making progress, I’m just sort of slogging through it. The guy with the reports manages to say everything in the most convoluted way… so that makes things interesting as well. And he keeps coming back asking if I can’t get things to him sooner. I promised the last report on Monday.

So while I was a Jonathan and Kristy’s I spent a lot of the time glued to the laptop! Last night I told Tom, phew, I just have about 20 pages on the last report. I should be able to do that in less than 5 hours. That didn’t sound bad. Then I thought, I have 9 pages on the book to finish (It has to go to Deborah for copyediting). I can do that in less than 5 hours. Oh… that means 10 hours on Monday to get them BOTH finished. AKK. Fortunately I think I can do each in an hour or two less, but still, a full day!

Tuesday before we left to go to J& K’s we got a text: “Sorry, the heat went out, the water’s not working and I’m sick. Really looking forward to having you come!” On our way, we stopped at Menards to get some tile. We had underestimated the amount we needed when we bought the last batch. We got to their new (rental) house about 2. Fortunately the pump people were there replacing the pump. They had a wood fire in the stove and things were nice and warm. With luck the part would arrive later and be installed in the heater.

At three we went to the old house to learn how to do the animals- making sure the pigs, cat, dog and chickens got fed. The cows and sheep were on their own. We had a chance to see the house and finally they are working and making progress. They took out all the charred wood and have reframed everything. They’ve ripped out their hardwood floor that was glued down. Apparently that was a job and a half.

The new house is smaller. It’s an older house with a bit of an odd floor plan. It’s been added on to a few times, but has new flooring and fresh paint. We chatted that night… and they got up very quietly about 3 am and headed to the airport. (Oh, and the heat was fixed by that night!)

The kids were well behaved and it was really fun to be with them. I worked with David on a writing project. Emily worked with Tom on a cookie project. We got them off to school on time, fed the animals, and I worked. Sometimes we fed us as well. I fixed dinner two nights and Tom had make-it-yourself burritos on one night. We did a little Christmas shopping and some exploring of Mt. Vernon. They have some very cute old houses! Some just itched for some fixing up!

Saturday afternoon, two things happened. One, Sister S. came to replace us as kid-watchers. So we left about 3 pm to return home. The second thing was that the weather changed. The temperature dropped below freezing with a freezing mist. It was in the low 20’s when we left and by this morning it was 13 degrees.

On the way home, we had light rain/sleet that froze to the windshield. We needed to be almost uncomfortably warm in order to keep the windshield defrosted… We also stopped to pick up new wiper blades, before we even left Mt. Vernon. They made a big difference! It was good to be home, sleep in our own bed, and drink our tasty well water.

Today I worried about the roads, but there was just the barest skiff of snow on the grass and the roads were clear. I sang “What Child is This” as part of a trio. I think it went well. Tom went caroling with the youth after church. It’s still chilly and a good day to stay inside.

Feeling Better

We all seemed to have survived the bug. Tom is back to working his normal schedule.  Nathan has been sleeping more, but I think he's mostly past the sickness.

Monday Tom and I drove to Hollister and then on to Springfield looking for flooring and other goodies for the new house. Hollister has a new Menards store. Tom had gone to one in Iowa and was impressed. It's like Home Depot but somehow feels more upscale with more variety. we found cement-board for the tile floor and tiles for the entry way and the kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. We also looked at exterior and interior doors and got two exterior ones for the garage and back door. 

We looked at Menards and at a hardware store in Harrison, and then drove to the ReStore in Springfield. They had a TON of doors, but not what we were looking for. They only had a small selection of tile. Some might have been nice, but there weren't enough of them. So we just bought a few bits of things at the ReStore and headed back to Menards for the things that we had liked. It pretty much filled the back end of the truck!

We wanted to stop at Aldi's for some groceries on the way home, which we did. But we were rushed. The Empty Nester's Family Home Evening was that night and we said we'd be there. But we could see we would not be on time. We also had to make sure the tile grout and bagged tile cement were out of the elements as rain was forecasted. So we raced home, backed the truck (mostly) into the garage, grabbed and wrapped our gift exchange items and the fudge Tom had fixed the night before and raced off. Tom thought the food would be all gone by 6:30 (1/2 hour late) but there was still food and they were just getting ready for singing Christmas carols. One sister brought chimes so 18 of us got to "chime" in during the songs. Then we enjoyed the gift exchange.

After we got home, we changed, drove the truck over to the new house and unloaded a gazillion pounds of tile, backer board and doors. It seemed like that set the tone for the race through the rest of the week.

Oh, we'd been watching Barb's dogs while she went to a show on Saturday and Sunday. When I went over to feed them Sunday evening, two were missing. So Barb came home that night to two fewer dogs. She, of course was distraught. I was less so as those silly dogs kept jumping the fence and getting out. And they were such a worry to her. It was dark and so I didn't go look. Monday I was gone. Tuesday I walked around our back pasture looking for them. Barb put up notices, notified the humane society, put it on the radio... and Wednesday someone called about two dogs sleeping in a ditch about 3 miles from us. I think they went too far and couldn't find their way back. But the nights had been below freezing, so I expect they were cold.

Tuesday I continued my massive editing jobs. I finished one book Wednesday and send it to Deborah. She worked on it for the next three days. Sad note. She edited through chapter 4 on Thursday. Then on Friday she could not find a trace of it on her computer. Not even the original download for the book! Poor dear. It was back to re-editing. We used Dropbox from then on. I've put in about 25 hours since I started these projects and I probably have the same amount to go by Tuesday Dec 22 when they are due.

Wednesday a friend's husband died. He had been bed-ridden for the last months. Tom did the funeral on Saturday and I lead the music.

Tom has been busy doing bishop things-- like funeral prep, tithing settlement, visiting sick members in the hospital, and meeting with members needing help. In between, he's been working on the new house. He gutted the bathroom-- at least the tub area. He fixed the bay window. Progress is happening, but slower that what he'd like. I went over Saturday for a little bit to help him with both of those projects. We put drywall up in the bath ceiling where he took out the old dropped ceiling. 

I was asked to sing in a trio on the 18th so I got the music and practiced some on that. Friday night was our ward Christmas dinner. I had volunteered to help serve and to bring two pies and 4 dozen rolls. Our poor RS president was stressed about the dinner and I wanted to help her. Tom went in a bit early and called to ask me to come in and help with prep. They actually had things pretty well under control, but I did spend about 1/2 hour stirring gravy to try to bring it to a boil. the pot was very large, and I don't think it sat on the burner very well. It was a lovely evening.

We decorated the house in dribs and drabs. That is, one day we got out all the decorations. One day we put up the tree. One day we put out nutcrackers and other non-tree decorations. The tree got lights. And finally yesterday, I put garland and ornaments on the tree. I was tired of all the clutter of stuff all over! Tom still plans to do outside lights....

I suppose that's a bit like my Christmas shopping. A bit here and a bit there and I really don't know if I have everything or not. sigh. Remind me next year not to take on two big projects just before Christmas. It's a good thing the books are interesting.

Today... I had a hard time staying awake today, even though the talks were good. We had a great Relief Society lesson on teaching using example, the scriptures, the Holy Spirit and love of the students to change hearts. Tom had bishop's youth discussion at our home after church. He offered them brownies, ice cream, grapes and bananas. The locusts took over... there was nothing left.

Beginning of the Yuletide Season

We cranked up our first fire this week in the fireplace, (as opposed to the more frequent leaf burning fires.) It's nice to have a toasty place to go. And it was especially needed this week as Tom and Nathan succumbed to the cold bug that someone gifted us with at Thanksgiving.

I think Tom's slept more this week than in the past month. He'd nap on the sofa in front of the fire. Then get up and move to snoozing in the rocking chair. Then try out the bed for a bit. I'm really glad that he did take it easy. I hope it helped him get better faster. Today (Sunday) he seems to be blowing his nose less and coughing less and the achy muscles and sore throat are gone.

Nathan, too, seems better. He actually got sent home from work on Wednesday because he was sick, but went back to work on Friday. And he spent several hours this week with Wally Arndt helping with a pole barn construction and then helping him with his leaf raking business. He hopes to continue helping out with leaf collection when he's not working his other jobs.

This week has been a combination of working on copywriting and working on the new house. I ended up with two editing jobs-- both if which wanted the editing done yesterday. So I have enough work to keep me busy until just before Christmas-- the deadline I gave them that I would have the work completed. I've roped Deborah into being my copyeditor to go through with a fine tooth comb and dot all the i's. So this week I've been working on the financial book. It's not bad. I won't make it perfect... it still needs to keep the author's personality, but it will be tighter and more focused.

Next week will be a business book on how to deal with millennials. I edited a page or two of his book earlier as a test. It's pretty good. He seems to have a good foundation on the matter and lots of personal experience. And is writing is pretty good, too. My web copy may have to be pushed back a bit to get these two jobs out the door.

This week we finally decided on wood flooring for the new house. Akk! What a deal. Do we buy from someone far away-- lumber liquidator or BuildDirect.com... or someone local? We finally went with Home Depot. We really wanted a floor that was easy to click together and we could try it out there. And the prices seemed to be in line with other options. But I did collect an impressive amount of samples before making the decision.

Tom dismantled the innards of the bay window to expose some rot that will need replacing. We got some water issues resolved with the help of a plumber-- too high water pressure, leaking at the water heater tank and the washer hook up. Tom went one day to find the heat not working. Gaa! It had worked fine the day before. He had me get the number for the HVAC people. Then he remembered a switch he'd seen under the house when he was putting a moisture barrier down there... What was it for? He turned it off. When he turned it back on, the heat came on. Simple Fix! And before the HVAC guys got out there to discover it.

We had planned on going on Friday to the Re-Store in Springfield and to a hardware store in Harrison to look for doors and other goodies....but Tom was really under the weather that day, so we stayed home. He felt poorly on Saturday too. It gave me a chance to log about 10 hours on one of my editing jobs, so it was okay for me.

We have had pretty nice weather this week. I finally got out into the garden and cleaned it up some. Tom took out the tomato cages and our giant (now dead) basil plant. Nathan single-handedly removed our arched cucumber and bean trellises. And I pulled some of the massive weeds that would have tangled the rototiller. Then it rained Saturday and Sunday. A lovely gentle rain. And cold weather is in the forecast for next week. So our outdoor work may be curtailed for a bit.

Today we had a good fast and testimony meeting. One person spoke about not just bearing their testimony once a month, but doing it frequently-- to the class they teach, to their children, to friends and co- workers. Just sharing the truths they know to be true. I want you to know that I know Jesus is the Christ. He is our Savior-- yours and mine. And he love you and wants you to be happy. This is a great season to remember Him.

Yesterday I talked with Mom and Sally and Kristy. Tonight we skyped with Adam and his family. It's always good to keep in contact with our loved ones.

Tonight we watched the Christmas Devotional broadcast from the Conference Center. It was a nice introduction to Christmas.