Ready to Rest

We had a pretty good weekend. From Friday at 11:00 until about 7:00 Saturday night, we had the whole compound to ourselves. DH's brother and family arrived Saturday, shortly before thunderstorms came in.  The quiet was gone today with the addition of a family of 6 plus an extra, so five kids under 12 plus three teenagers. The girls had been swimming most of the first so day with the exception of when we went into a nearby town to check out the waterfalls and a hiking trail. It was hot and steamy, great for the lake feeling refreshing, but not the best sleeping weather. Pup was really out of sorts, and made parts of the weekend like having a toddler along. We spent much of Sunday when DH's sister and husband got there doing more purging and making room to store boxes for saved items for the new cabin. I'm sure I over did it, and will need ice and pain meds, but a lot of progress was made. Of course there was more drama, but I am doing so well just walking away and staying out of any of it.  I think tonight may be an early bed time, and tomorrow will be an easy dress and pony tail kind of office day.  

I spent a lot of time relaxing with my stack of old magazines. and learned I really need to cut every subscription when it is time to renew.  I had grabbed a stack from a drawer that had been collecting unread volumes and several that I took, unread, had spring and fall 2015, and even a few 2014, dates! Still ask me anything about fashion, food, and home decor from the last 18-24 months and I'm your gal. (I have official confirmation that my easy dress and ponytail can look office chic.) Who new you can do incredible things with cans of pumpkin? My favorite, which I read in multiple magazines, is to take a chocolate cake mix, mix with one 15 oz can of pure pumpkin puree, and nothing else, and voila, a sort of brownie, muffin, cake thing loaded with fiber, and less guilt.  There was even one version that baked it in muffin cups and stuck a Kraft caramel in the middle. The other recipe to try is a vegetarian chili made with pumpkin.  I'm curious and skeptical at the same time. 

 I got a nice chunk of work done on my book.  It's still pretty scattered, but I think I've started to figure out how to pull each seemingly disparate pieces together. Last year I had set a goal to turn it over to my copy editor, a.k.a. DD1, by my 50th birthday. Well, that did not happen, but I'm no longer going to set a goal that is unrealistic.  I'd like to get the draft of the completed work done by labor day, but if I do not make that deadline, I actually feel like it will be done sometime this fall. Jane Austen it is not, but I'm going for something I might want to read; light, real, and about people I might actually want to know. It might read familiar to some of you-it will include my small collection of short stories written last summer in the Write and Link sponsored by Natalia at Out of the writers Closet. I.m couching the short stories within a more complete story. I don.t know-it might work.  Time will tell. 

I have a jam packed week ahead, then followed by a three day weekend again for the 4th of July.  June 30th ends the fiscal year, so many loose ends, several webinar meetings with folks around the state and across the country.  Friday will be bittersweet.  We officially launch a new data system component-a labor of love and angst for many of us involved with the program I administer.  It was a lot of hard work, and we feel confident it will resolve a lot of issues long term.  That is the exciting part.  The  sad part will come at our launch luncheon when we will be missing the IT project leader, our colleague who passed away a couple weeks ago.  Right until the end, she put her talent and expertise in it. 

It is almost time for me to call it a night.  I've got a load of laundry going, and the cooler is still sitting on the kitchen floor wait to be unpacked. If my lids will stay open, I want to take a gander at my bloggy friends posts that I have missed with my internet gap.  Happy last week of June everyone.