Merry Christmas and another new endeavor for me

And what a Christmas it is going to be, or NOT! The world is still in "quarantine" so my family won't be traveling to Wisconsin this year for Christmas and it kills me. My parents moved to WI three and a half years ago (I live in Virginia) and every year since their move we have gone up there for Christmas. My brother, sister-in-law, niece and two nephews live up there too. Between my brothers three kids and my two boys they are like "stairstep grandkids" Their ages are 15, 14, 13, 12 and 11(mine are the 12 and 14 year olds) and the five of them get along great!

The world learned of the coronavirus on March 13th, 2020 (mind you that was a Friday, Friday the 13th) The things that have looked different this year include: going/or not going to the pool this summer, no summer traveling, no back-to-school (its all virtual now), no trick-or-treating, no celebrating Thanksgiving with anyone other than the people you live with, and now no Christmas traveling either. Also this is an election year. There were thousands of people that voted by mail. I voted in person before the election and Joe voted on the day of the election.

There are a number of positive things that have happened because of the virus, the main one being that my boys and I have spent more time together. My husband is a Methodist pastor so he is actually working harder now than he was before. Not to say he wasn't working hard before, he loves his job, but the learning curve for a lot of us has been steep. With Zoom meetings and virtual classrooms, sometimes technology is great and sometimes it isn't. At the beginning of this virus, my husband was sending out devotions daily. I would help him record his sermons for Sunday mornings but we are now back to in-person worship with no singing, everyone wearing masks and socially distanced. The handbells (which I am a part of) has been able to resume playing but sadly the choir cannot.

The other positive thing that has come out of being quarantine is the fact that I have revisited my love of writing. In middle school I loved to make up stories and in high school I wrote a number of poems. Six years ago I wrote two middle grade books, just because it was fun. I hadn't planned on doing anything with them really. They were not related in any way, just two ideas that formulated in my head.

Then I looked around and noticed that six of my friends were authors! Now some of them have their masters in literature and journalism but others don't have college degrees. Well if they can do it so can I! Being in lockdown has given me the time to write and edit my work and come up with more new ideas too.

During November I participated in NaNoWriMo, National November Writing Month, where we are to write 50,000 words in 30 days and I am proud to say I DID IT! And I have my certificate hanging right beside me. The reward for doing it is that you now have another written book under your belt, and bragging rights that you conquered the challenge.

So all of this to say, my newest artistic endeavor is to become a published author. I am in the process of creating an author website now so stay tuned!