Sunday, December 4, 2016

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.



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