Well, everywhere but one. I’ll get to that in a moment. Last week, we went house hunting in our daughter’s college town, and found a house everyone really liked. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, is in a great location close to campus, is in really great shape, and the kids all loved it. Oh, and the price was right, too–almost too good to be true (but not quite, so not enough to be a red flag). Well, after we got home, the more DH and I thought about it, the more we thought we might as well just put an offer on it, so we did. The seller’s agent says he thinks they will accept, so that ball is rolling.
Then I was looking at some numbers, and found out there is a patron saint of German majors. Well, not really, and I’m not even Catholic, but there should be. I was looking over our daughter’s account on the university’s web site, and found she’d been awarded a scholarship just last week. She is going to do a study-abroad program in Germany this summer, and mentioned that there are scholarships for that, so I assumed that was what it was for and sent her a text about it.
The scholarship was a complete surprise to her, too. I did some searching, and found it was from a man who’d graduated with a German major in 1935–and left a big endowment to the university in 2005, to be used for students of German. And it wasn’t for the trip–it’s for tuition. It’s as if all of this was meant to happen–and now. And no one is allowed to give our daughter a hard time a la “what are you going to do with a German major” any more. 🙂
My husband’s arm is getting better too. He can bend his elbow enough to touch the top of his head, but he’s still having trouble with rotating his wrist and hand. So we are continuing to hope and pray for that to improve as he works with an occupational therapist.
What I read this week: Absence of Grace, by Ann Warner. I’m still not finished, but close, and really enjoying it. This is women’s fiction, with a good romance in it. Women’s fiction usually isn’t my thing, but Ann is such a good writer, it’s in one of my favorite settings (Alaska), and the romance is so realistic and well-woven throughout, it totally works for me. Ann was one of my very first critique partners over ten years ago, and I’ve always admired her lyrical style that really digs into the emotions without ever coming close to being melodramatic. Absence of Grace is available as a free ebook–more info on her site. Highly recommended!
ROW80 Update: One thing that has not fallen into place is my writing. All this house stuff has meant that I did not get much writing done this week. There have been inspection reports to read over, paperwork to review and sign, and paperwork to collect for the loan. I did manage to meet my goal of writing–something, anything–five days out of the week, but not very much on any day, and fell far short of my other goal to either finish a scene or write 2,000 words. However, I did get a separate writing computer set up–no Internet, no games, just the writing software, on an old computer I had–so hopefully that will help. So I’m going to think positive and shoot for the same goal this week–write five days, and either finish the scene or 2,000 words.
Isis likes to come in there with me while I’m writing. That can make it a challenge, because that usually means she wants to play. Of course, she does that at my Internet computer, too. That’s the new writing setup in the upper right of the picture. In the upper left is the turtle tank. The turtle is up above, basking. I’ll put a picture of her here sometime. She likes when I hang out in that room and write, but is much less intrusive than Isis. 🙂
What about you–what good things are happening in your life now? Do you have a special place to write, or craft, or whatever special project-type-of-thing you like to do? Have you read any good books lately? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!
Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.
