Lazy Summer Morning

Good morning! How is your summer going? Mine is crazy. And I'm loving it. But I'm barely keeping up with my blogs. Last week, I missed my date on Paranormal Romantics. Fortunately for me, yesterday was open and I posted about an idea I got on a road trip. 

I've also missed several Mondays here. Sorry about that. I did manage to keep up with the Weekend Writing Warriors. It's been fun sharing snippets from THE PROTECTOR (An Outer Rim Novel). Once a book is published, I don't usually read it again--since I'd probably read it a hundred times (slight exaggeration) already. So rereading it for snippets to use brings back my initial joy when writing the story. You can scroll down to see yesterday's snippet.

My Arizona family arrived just before July 4th, in time to celebrate the holiday watching fireworks from our back deck. I think our neighbors compete to see who has the best, loudest, longest displays. This year, they even obeyed the township's rule about ending by 11 pm. Amazing.

Our household has swollen from two adults to four plus a toddler, a Great Dane, and a Lab. The family will stay with us until they find a house here. Fortunately for them, their Arizona house sold and they both have jobs. Daughter in law continues her job from home and Son continues with his restaurant company. Toddler Girl plays with us. This has been a lot of fun. She's gotten so comfortable with us. She easily picks up my phone to look at pictures and play a couple of toddler-type games I loaded. I'm a sucker for learning games. I can't wait until she's old enough for the story-telling game I did with her cousins. (My StoryMaker from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) If you have young children (or grandchildren) this is a fabulous program. I type their words, they choose the images to add. Each time, I'm amazed at their imaginations.

The dogs are not as rambunctious as we expected, but having two large dogs in a confined space is challenging. Unfortunately, we don't have a fence around our yard so they don't get a chance to run around unless Son and DIL take them to a nearby dog park. Keeping them off the furniture is a bit of an issue. Not that our furniture is that good or expensive. Sharing the couch with a 150-pound animal who doesn't need to jump up (he just sits back) can be confining.

Going to the beach, blueberry picking, visiting the farmers' market give them lots to do. And summer wouldn't be summer without a visit to Captain Sundae's.

This is an adjustment for all of us. Everybody needs/wants their own space. I'd resigned myself that my writing would go on the back burner. Who wants to write when a two-year-old wants to sit on your lap? Or wants to go outside and draw on the driveway with chalk? Even better, our other two grandchildren (7 & 10) spent Saturday night here. The toddler was so happy to see them. They indulged her a lot. The three of them even slept in the same room. And I do mean sleep. The fact that the older two had spent a week at summer camp and were exhausted might have had something to do with it.

In January, I had no idea how much my life would change. As I've learned in the past, change depends on attitude. Some people resent it, fight it. And are miserable. I like to think I can go with the flow, smiling and enjoying a new phase in my life. 

I hope you have a great summer making wonderful memories.

If you're a writer, do you know about the Best Banter Contest? My writing chapter is sponsoring a contest where you can showcase your witty dialogue. Clicking on the big yellow button on the right will take you to the contest page. Good luck.