Did I mention how many dogs we have? My mother had four when she passed away—two Yorkies and two Shelties. My dd has two Jack Russels, a German shepherd, an Anatolian shepherd, a pit bull mix, and a Great Pyrenees. Needless to say, it’s been interesting blending our family dogs.

We thought we had it managed. The two largest dogs, the Pyrenees, and the Anatolian were thrown into the pasture with the horses, with the barn cracked open for them to sleep in the hay. Well, this morning, one of them was missing.

Of course, we wondered whether a horse had killed him. So, my dd and the 15-year-old male walked the property, looking in any hollow, behind every tree for a body. Then we found a section of fence that was bent beneath a fallen tree and figured he might have escaped. They drove down the highway, into a neighboring subdivision, but no Troy.

Then my dd’s old neighbors said they saw a large tan dog lounging on her old front porch…

Gah. A morning consumed worried about the dog. No more pasture. Now, we have a menagerie of animals in our large front yard. I feel for anyone who comes through the gate.

It’s lunchtime, and I decided to make myself persona non grata, so I could have some peace and quiet. How did I accomplish that? 🙂

I have cups of kimchi soup. A cup of soup type thing, only with kimchi spices. If you aren’t familiar with Korean food, kimchi is heavy on the garlic and fermented—so super stinky. My dear brother gifted me with a jar of the fresh, fermented stuff, so I added that to the top of my noodle cup. It’s soooo fragrant everyone complained, so here I am—alone at my desk. Before too long, the smell of garlic will seep from my pores. Guaranteed isolation.

Do you think they will catch on? Do you have a favorite stinky food?

So, the move update… My dd and her family are living here now! We still have some rooms where there are a few boxes left to tackle. We still have pictures we have to find places to hang. My office/art room smashup still has to be sorted and seems to get worse every day when my dd says, “Should I donate this?” and I say, “But I can do something with that!” So, natch the item joins the piles to be sorted in my space. She shudders when she comes down here. I shrug and tell her, “I’ll get to organizing when I finish this set of edits…this book…” Yeah, it’s going to take me years.

Besides the people now crammed inside this house–8!— (Okay, so not crammed, we actually have enough rooms everyone has their own bedroom!), we also started with my mom’s 4 dogs and my dd’s 6 dogs, her 4 cats, her guinea pig, and our 2 horses… We’re a truly big, blended family now. And here’s proof!

I hesitated posting this pic because the fence is bent—the horse likes to lean over it to get at the grass in the yard—and the tarp over the woodpile is shredded from a recent storm, plus our pretty horse Brandy looks bedraggled from the rain, but Malek and Brandy met at this moment, and there wasn’t a war. So, yay!

Malek’s pretty smart though. He tolerates other dogs, cats and guineas, and humans who are part of the fam. Now, horses. We’re making great progress.

My quiet life is no longer that. It’s noisy, chaotic, filled with loud voices (it’s an Irish/Scottish/German/Mexican family, so lots of vigorous…uh, debating). And I love it. If it was quiet here, I’d dwell on the losses over the past couple of years. However, I know my father built this house for his family. It’s still in the family, serving its purpose. He’d be happy that we’re happy living here. My role has changed from daughter to matriarch (although I’m happy that my daughter likes to run things). She leaves me to putter in my hoarder’s craftroom-office, makes most of our meals, runs kids to their appointments. I’m here for backup when she’s over-committed. It works.

As well, we have room for extended family to visit. Same as my mother did, we shift kids to bunk together to open up a room, use sofabeds. We expect lots of guests come summer because, hey—pool! Can’t wait to get that sucker cleaned up and ready for the season. This year, I’ll have plenty of help.

UPDATE: The winner is…Ani Stubbs!
*~*~*

Contest Reminder!

Just a quick reminder that there are still two open contests running on this blog! Be sure to enter while you can!

1. Flashback: Cochise (Contest–3 Winners! Plus an Excerpt!) — Win a free book!
2. My New Hell — Office Chaos (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

Sale Ends Soon!

And another reminder! The first book in the Danger Zone trilogy is on sale for only $0.99! If you haven’t already scored your copy, do so now! Because I’ll be setting the price back to the original one tomorrow! Click on the cover to get yours!

The Puzzle-Contest!

When my daughter peeks into my new office/craft room, she shakes her head and says,  “It’ll be Christmas before you have this all sorted! How can you stand it?”

When I quoted Einstein she wasn’t impressed. I could almost hear her thinking, “Mom, you’re no Einstein!” Pfft.

The move continues. My dd has one of the kid’s bedrooms mostly complete. There are boxes and garbage sacks full of things to unpack everywhere. My office desk isn’t cleared, but it is “sorted”. I know where shit is anyway. And I did manage to organize all my magnets on my filing cabinets. Really, that’s all I’ve accomplished so far. Oh, and I cleared a path to the coffeemaker. Priorities!

Today’s puzzle is supposed to inspire me. Ha! If only it could be this easy!!!

Contest: Solve the puzzle, then provide me another nugget of decluttering wisdom for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
*~*~*

Contest Reminder!

Here’s a quick reminder that there are still two open contests running on this blog! Be sure to enter while you can!

1. Story Cubes — Tell me a story (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Flashback: Cochise (Contest–3 Winners! Plus an Excerpt!) — Win a free book!

Office Chaos

So, if you’ve been paying attention to this blog, you know that we lost my mom on January 10th. Now, while we wait for probate to move along, my daughter is moving into the house.

We thought we’d have a little time for an organized move, which included me downsizing my footprint inside the house. I had three rooms—a bedroom/living room area, a large craft room (which was a hoarder’s dream filled with every art supply imaginable!), and an office. I am giving up my office (I volunteered it!) so that all of my dd’s children will have their own bedroom.

The problem? I have too much stuff. And I don’t want to give up a thing. Although, over the last weeks, I have filled trash bags to take to the donation center and the dump. Still, I have too much stuff.

We now have permission for my dd to move in. So she has shifted into high gear. Her first priority? Clearing my office so she can move her son’s things in. This is what it looks like when you cram two rooms of things into one when you don’t have time to skinny everything down first. My basement craft room is filled to the ceiling. The only spot of calm in the entire room is the picture my dd framed for me on the wall above my desk of “Satan Resting on the Mountain” from Milton’s Paradise Lost by Gustave Dore. It’s almost like he’s looking down at me and laughing.

But wait. That’s just one side of the room. It gets worse!

And I didn’t take a picture of what is behind me…

So, as you can see, I have an enormous problem. If I had a week of dedicated time and minions to do the physical work, I could get it done. Maybe. As it is, I have a book to finish, one editing job due by the 10th, more scheduled to come in the door soon, and stories to read for the next Bad Boy anthology. Work is priority #1.

I will only have an hour or two a day to dedicate to making my workspace liveable, and I’ve hired my dd’s oldest girl to be my minion (she’s saving for a car, so very willing!).

Today, my only goal is to clear my desk…

Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, how about you give me suggestions or calming mantras. And no, “load it into a trash can” advice, because my dd says that every time she walks into this awful space!

The winner is…Dawn Roberto!
*~*~*

Still Happenin’

These are open contests! Enter while you still can!

1. Tell me a story… (Puzzle & Contest) — Ends tomorrow night! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Tara Lain: Why I don’t need a doorbell… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

And take advantage of this offer before it goes away!

Enter the Danger Zone! $0.99 Sale! — Get a copy of Dangerous Liaisons for just $0.99 while the sale lasts!

This week…

Today’s the 26th. Nearly the end of the month. A lot has happened that doesn’t bear repeating right now. If you read this blog, you know. Writing-wise—there hasn’t been any, which is scary because I have a book to finish by February 24th (you know, Brian—my next Montana Bounty Hunters story)! But I’ll be on that tomorrow. I hope. If nothing else blows up.

We’re still sorting, clearing out stuff and rooms to make space for my dd’s furniture. My office move has been horrendous. The looks of disgust on my daughter’s face when she pulls out yet another stack of Post-Its from a tub…? Yeah, she’s not happy with me. “Mom, how many damn Post-Its does a human need?” I always raise my eyebrows and shoulders and give her my most charming smile. She’s past buying my Miss Innocent look. Oh, and I had no idea how many pens, boxes of staples, notepads, I had, but they’ll all get used…eventually…maybe by the next century.

I have an editing job to wrap up today; another by the 31st. Three new sets are coming in February—and they are for loooong books.

Again, writing-wise, I have Brian to write and publish and the next stepbrother sex-fest, With His SEAL Team, Part 6. With everything happening in the house, I will be challenged.

The one good thing is that I finally bit the bullet and bought a new computer! It’s overkill. I wanted it big and fast. I ended up buying a gamer’s dream of a computer. I sent my daughter with my bank card and told her to get what she knew I wanted. She brought me back this flashy computer with a keyboard that lights up and changes colors, speakers that change colors, a huge monitor. I’m giddy with delight. Will it be enough incentive for me to keep my butt in the chair to write? We’ll see. You’ll likely see me whining throughout February about how slow the story’s going because so much is happening in this house!

So, this week? Editing, writing, more office whittling-moving in stuff. It takes me some words to get to the point, right? Here’s hoping you have a less stressful week than me!

Contest

To win a $10 Amazon gift card, answer me this!

If your life was flashing before your eyes, what memory would you expect to stand out?

UPDATE: The winner is…Christi A!
*~*~*

Since my mom passed, my daughter has been on a mission to declutter the house to make room for her brood to move in. Up until today, she worked on the kitchen, mom’s bedroom—places that didn’t really impact me. However, today, she decided the focus would turn on me, because, guess what? Me and my big mouth offered up my office room so that every child would have their own bedroom. So, now, I have to consolidate my art room to hold all of my office, too.

It sounded easy when I first proposed it. However, step one was consolidating mom’s upstairs art room with mine—who knew she had so many supplies! And no, I can’t part with a single usable tube of paint or square of art paper. But that was accomplished. Mom’s art room is now my dd’s Cricut and sewing room.

Then she turned to my art room because I am giving up an entire art table, a storage armoire, and a coffee/fridge station to make space for my large desk. Before we could even begin there, we had to declutter the shelving to make room for mom’s and my supplies, together. It took all damn day, but at last the armoire was emptied, the shelves decluttered and refilled, the back table cleared. Only problem will be how to move around the cluttery table in the center of the space to place my desk against the back wall.

I’m so glad she’s the one in charge because I’d still be staring at it all, not knowing where to start… As it is, we’ve used a sh*t-ton of garbage bags already.

So, I used all those words to tell you why I chose my theme for today’s puzzle! Have fun solving it!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, give me one good office/desk/files decluttering tip!

So, my dd and I are busy putting my mom’s house to rights, which means going through every closet, drawer, cupboard, etc. My mother was a bit of a hoarder, so it’s going to take time, especially when we come across family photos or documents that we need to save for my siblings. The house is going into probate, so we have time to weed out what we want to keep before my dd moves in. It’s hard work and tedious, but she’s up to the task. Thank goodness she has an organizational gene (I do not), because she’s really good at making swift decisions, while I tend to look at everything…slowly… Well, if I helped, she’d never get done, so she’s banished me from “helping”.

So, that’s what she’s up to. I’m back to work. I have a couple of editing projects at the moment and a short story to finish. However, I am looking at my workspace, and it needs some cleaning. I might work on neatening before I do the real work…

I wanted to express my  thanks to everyone out there for their condolences and well wishes. It’s a tough time, and it’s really nice knowing there are folks out there who care.

Some went above and beyond, and I’d like to thank them here, because I don’t have their mailing addresses (or even all their names!) to send them cards!

For the lovely flower arrangement, thank you to author-friends, Cynthia D’Alba, Becca Jameson, Kris Michaels, Cat Johnson, Parker Kincade, Maryann Jordan, Susan Stoker, and Teresa Reasor!

For the Cracker Barrel meals and the Honey Baked Ham with all the fixin’s you provided, thank you to the Brotherhood Protector authors! You really are a very special group of ladies!

The hardest part is past. Now, it’s back to work and planning for a changed but lovely future with my dd and her family to keep me company. 🙂