My refrigerator has never been so full! I may have overdone it with the sweet potatoes. We had a tray of plain sweet potato casserole and one with roasted marshmallow on top – more than any family needed! LOL.  I honestly expected all the little kids (we had six) to gobble up the ones with the marshmallows the way my kids did, but nope, not a lot of sweet potato lovers this dinner!

For me the special thing to be thankful for was my French Coca Cola. My dear friend, author Olivia Sands, brought me a liter bottle from France and I have been saving it for a time when I can slowly enjoy it. Unlike the rest of the world, the French Coke has a fraction of the sugar. And on top of that, it’s real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. The flavor is a bit different but I savor every sip LOL. Somewhere I read that it’s the closest thing to the original formula available!  
 
My husband’s treat is the leftover dinner sandwiches. He looks forward to those as much if not more than the meal. The man finds a way to fit stuffing and mashed potato and turkey and cranberry sauce and sometimes green been casserole too into a toasted sandwich. Sometimes I have to make extra stuffing to keep up with the leftover turkey sandwich requests, but it’s worth it for all the smiles that come with the family eating time.
 
This year we added ham to the mix. We had so many people I thought a little extra protein might be called for. To my surprise the big spiral hams were not available the days before thanksgiving. They’d sold out weeks before and wouldn’t have more till after New Year’s. I was flabbergasted. We did however find some small black forest hams at the local market and I just sliced them up and added a little honey water to make juice and the big old spiral was never missed!
 
What I found myself eating a lot of was leftover ham sandwich with butter on those little Hawaiian bread rolls. Those suckers are tasty and I enjoyed them as much as my husband his massive sandwiches. I may have to pick up more of the bread for the rest of the leftover ham!
 
As proud as I was of my ten foot table for twelve, (thanksgiving is actually my favorite family holiday)  I forgot to take a pretty before photo, so all I have is one shot of everyone eating and then a shot of the empty after table LOL. We did two tables. One for all the adults, including my fifteen year old nephew, and one for the kids, including my two year old grandson.  We all fit beautifully, but for the first time in over twenty years I was thinking we may need a bigger dining room – LOL! Especially as the younger generations increases and the young ones grow up.
 
 
I did have one little disappointment – someone spilled on the table and it wasn’t cleaned up fast enough so I have a cloud spot on my dining table. Anyone have any home made cures for that? I seem to remember something to do with mayonnaise but haven’t had time yet to look it up. The remainder of the visiting family will be here for a couple more days.  Then it will be back to working on the new series and Neil for Farraday Country.
 
All in all, the big hit of the holiday wasn’t the dinner at all but croquet! My husband introduced my nephews and niece to the game and they have been having a great time with it. Even this morning in the bitter cold, they’re out there swinging those mallets! So much fun to watch!
 
In the meantime, was anyone able to enjoy Picture Perfect over the holiday weekend? The reviews have been fun to read. I don’t get a lot of time to keep up with reviews, but early on I do read some and it’s always nice to see that a book we all fretted over (and this one had a LOT of fretting- LOL!) was well received and gave my fans what they expect from me.
 
Do you have a favorite holiday? Any family traditions? Would love to hear from you!
 
Take care! ​

In a mad dash to get Mom’s house ready for the deluge of family – which by the way is already going very well and why I’m a day late on this post lol – it was decided that the ugly brick floor needed to be covered fast.

​So Mom picked out a nice travertine looking peel-n-stick vinyl tile and I spent Friday afternoon laying and cutting (with scissors) the tile.
 
To my surprise, it looks really nice! The photos don’t do it justice. I tried from a bunch of different angles but it simply doesn’t look as pretty in the photo as in real life.

As for the family visit. I’m getting a really sweet picture of what life would have been like had I had more children. First off my eleven and nine year old nephews are great babysitters for my two year old grandson. They all wake up at 8am and play together upstairs until breakfast at 8:30. Then they go back up to play some more. Of course my grandson spends most of his time rolling his cars or running around his cousins but the giggles and laughs are super sweet.
 
As of last night I have three extra adults and four extra children. Tomorrow I will have two more adults and two more children. The house is full and the way it’s meant to be. I hope your Thanksgiving week is going well. I’ll report next week on how the cooking and table setting went! Should be interesting.
 
Who does the Thanksgiving cooking in your family? ​

All in all we’re quite happy with the results! And even though I don’t care for the dark gray, Mom liked it. Including the blue counters LOL. 

Do you lean more toward old style design or modern trends?  Me, trend traditional. 

Okay, have to run, still so much to do! ​

It’s been a very long week – we’ve scrambled to work on Mom’s new house.  The goal is to move her and the big stuff in this coming weekend so we have a lot of painting to do.  Though we did get started. Hubby painted the walls and I followed up on the trim. Of course first I taped off all the baseboards so we don’t have to paint them again. I also started out cleaning all the dust from the repairs. There was a large sitting area in the room originally. I know from all the houses I’ve seen in the area that there must have been an option to make that either a closet or a sitting area. That or the previous owners tore out the closet – we put it back.  This made for a LOT of dust. I basically swept twice, dust mopped twice and then really mopped to have a clean floor for painting. 

Hubby snapped a shot of me up on the ladder. And I’ve included a shot of the area before, the closet under construction and that wall painted after – didn’t get a good shot of the whole room but will! 

​I used to do this stuff all the time when my kids were little. I was a stay at home mom and doing house projects myself, I would call the money I saved my salary- LOL ! As a result I know how to do a whole lot of stuff – even basic – and I mean REALLY basic – electrical. And I actually enjoyed it because I’m a one and done kind of gal. Love seeing the before and after of hard work, but hate things that have to be done over and over, like laundry LOL.
 
Any how – off to the races!
 
Do you like doing household projects? 

Welcome to November. I can’t believe we’re in Thanksgiving month already. I’m going to have an exceptionally robust holiday this year – I’ll have three first cousins and their families joining us for dinner! I’m already figuring out how to make room for sixteen adults and seven children in my dining room, and I can’t wait! Big leap for us. Until a few years ago it had always been holidays for just our little family of four! Having extended family continue to move into our state is a ton of fun!

Once I have the house organized and ready for Thanksgiving, then I speaking at local luncheon group in December. In preparation I was searching for cut scenes from the upcoming new Christmas release Picture Perfect, and stumbled across this cut snippet. It’s from Iris in the Hart Land Lakeside Inn Series. No idea where it came from or why I cut it – but here it is – just for you guys!

          “I uh,” Eric stuttered, either gathering his thoughts or debating how much he wanted to say in front of a room of witnesses.

          “Is something wrong?” Concern dripped from Iris’ words.

          “No. It’s just that. Well. We had a surprise for you.”

          This time her brows rose high on her forehead. “A surprise?”

          “You know the old house across the road?”

          Iris hesitated. This part of the country was full of old houses.

          “The one by the creek,” Eric elaborated.

          “The old Watson place?”

          He nodded.

          A cute gingerbread Victorian at one time, that old house had been abandoned since the old man had died a good ten years or so ago.

          “It’s in remarkably good shape considering how long it’s been since someone
lived in it.”

          Iris’ gaze narrowed. “And you know this how?”

          “I’ve had contractors over there all week inspecting and repairing.”

          Her eyebrows shot up high again. “Why?”

          “Because according to my lawyer, the two siblings who inherited the house are tired of paying property taxes.”

          The entire room grew very quiet.

          “Do you still think it would be a fun house to fix up?”

          Iris slowly bobbed her head.

          “I put a deposit down and pending your approval—”

          “My approval?”

          He nodded. “The contractors are ready to start work on Wednesday. All they need is a little direction.”

I’m guessing this is why they all live up the hill in Hart Land LOL. I really need to do better about keeping little things like these that I don’t use for some reason or other.

Do y’all like this sort of thing? Would you like me to share more?

Okay, I need to go clean and sort and work on the first book in the new series that still doesn’t have a name! LOL. Feel free to share any of your holiday family stories!

This has been a whirlwind week. The good news for our family - we bought a new house for my mom that brings her closer to me! For anyone with an aging parent, they’ll understand why a house less than a mile away without a traffic light in route is seriously fantastic. Especially for my sweet husband. The man drives fifteen minutes north of us to take my mother her meds every day, then drives fifteen minutes south again to go to work.  Having Mom a three minute drive will be huge for him. And for me.
 
Many of you know Mom has dementia, so some things just don’t make sense to her no matter how many times you explain it. Being forgetful is an understatement. And change never sits well. So when she sees a house and asks every day about it, you know it’s the right house to move her into. We had to do some fancy footwork (read dog not letting go of a bone) to get it, but we did!
 
There’s some work to be done to make it an easier transition for her. First thing we did was widen the entry to the kitchen – this had to be done for a couple of reasons. First, the room really needed more light (too easy to get depressed with dementia) and secondly, she needs to see the way to the kitchen easily and not just a doorway or all the doorways confuse her.
 ​
I have been over there every day for the last three days (hence why this is a day late) sweeping up after the contractor, carrying wood, fetching tools, even painting. Anything to make the work go faster and cheaper!  Yesterday the electrician was there all day – so many switches that we have no idea what the heck they go to! Took a while to track most of them down!
 
Today I get to take Mom to show her what has been done and then we have to pick out tile for the bathroom where we ripped out the tub and are installing a walk in shower. Will keep you posted!
 
How are things going in your neck of the woods? 

Well, seems I made a big Oops last week. I forgot the blog. My mom came down with an infection and we spent Monday morning at the doctor – thankfully we were able to catch it in time before she got so sick that she wound up in the hospital again. Then we had an unexpected blessing with a house for mom near me available and we had to do some fast moving and fancy footwork to pull all the pieces together. On top of that I had to prep for my long drive and great babysitting adventure starting Tuesday. I am very very sorry  the blog slipped through the cracks!
 
Now we go from the oops part of this post to the Oma part.  First, Oma is grandmother in Dutch and German, and homage to my maternal grandmother’s Dutch roots. Many of you know that I’m a grandmother and I have a sweet, and of course delightful (most of the time lol), two year old grandson.  I am coming to the end of my time to spend four  days just baby and me while his mom and dad went to an out of town wedding.
 
Let me tell you, having raised two kids from toddlerhood to adulthood there is a lot of time to forget what it’s like to have a two year old! I think I know now why I was skinny when my kids were toddlers and now, well, now I’m not. LOL. I’m also adding a question to my list of things to ask God when I get to heaven to go along with who really killed Kennedy, what really happened to Emilia Earhart, and where is Jimmy Hoffa. Now I’d like to know why did He design children with no responsibilities to have so much energy and older folks with massive to-do lists, well, not so much energy!
 
And did I mention I’m also Oma two four cats? Yep, one daughter, four grandkitties. The big fluffy one named Mr. Sofia (long story for another day) used to live with us when my then single daughter was home. My son-in-law came with a shy tuxedo that I had rescued as a feral kitten years before. Then as a newlywed couple they added Phoebe, a black kitty with a heartshaped white patch of fur on her tummy, to the mix. And then last but not least, they adopted the ever friendly Leo. A gray tabby, Leo was a barn cat at the in-laws family farm. Now he’s a suburban cat and the most affectionate of all – as you can see by the photo of him determined to stop me from writing ​and then later shown above with him snuggling with my grandson and me.
 
Tomorrow I get to travel back home, back to my ordinary routine and hopefully back on schedule to finish Picture Perfect. It was due today but I may have been a tad distracted the last few days! LOL.  If you haven’t preordered Picture Perfect yet – pop over to the coming soon page and get shopping! (P.S. Yes there will be a paperback available soon too!) 
 
Do you like holiday stories? What’s your favorite kind of story? I’d love to know! 

Sorry I’m a little late today -  it’s been a busy weekend. We had to make some changes at my mom’s house and as her dementia downgrades, getting her on board can be challenging. On the bright side I managed to get in 8000 steps walking back and forth inside her house! 
 
So, my mom’s computer room and art room are now combined – though it’s kind of sad because the truth is she will never be able to do oil paints again. It’s simply too hard for her to remember all the steps. But she still uses her computer so we’ll have that up and running as soon as I get a hold of her internet provider.
 
With the larger room empty, we moved the furniture around and are prepping for my cousin’s arrival next week. She and her hubby are going to use mom’s house as home base for the next year to help us keep an eye on Mom while they relocate to Texas.  The timing has been wonderful that we can be a blessing for both sides. Now that we’ve gotten over the hurdle of moving rooms around, Mom is very excited that my cousin is coming.
 
All the changes in society are bringing more and more of my relatives to Texas. We’re actually very pleased that this is coming together. Next on the list is another cousin from the other side of the family who may be moving here with his family from California. My daughter is very excited at the prospect of having so much family within driving distance!
 
Today has been a day of catching up on words. I know y’all are expecting Neil and Honeymoon for Five in the spring – and that’s not changing –but now we’re adding a little Christmas book.  Yep – We’ll be sharing Christmas with the Harts!  I’m pretty excited.  The title will be (so far) Picture Perfect.  I’ll know in a few days more about covers and release dates, but now I need to get back to typing!
 
In the meantime I’m sharing one of Mom’s paintings from 1956. It was one of her earliest and I didn’t even know it was in her closet. So we found a frame (she has a bazillion frames in the garage) and now it’s on my wall!

I freely admit I love the ocean.  Don’t necessarily want to be ‘in’ it but love being near it or on it!  This past week was spent mostly on the shores of St. Pete’s Beach in Florida. Every couple of years I attend a writer’s conference held at a popular resort. Though it’s not my favorite hotel (especially this year with rats—yes rats—running around the beach bar area at night), the views are always stellar.
 
My good friend, author Olivia Sands convinced me to join her in the ocean on our first day. I honestly can not remember the last time I stood in the ocean above my ankles! It was warm and pleasant and we even had a dolphin swim past us. Of course my first reaction was to reach for my phone, which sensibly was on the shore LOL! That’s one of the pitfalls of being ‘in’ the water rather than near it—no photo ops!
 
Today I’m back in landlocked North Texas but delighted to be in my own home. As much as I love traveling, and I do LOVE it, it’s always nice to come home and sleep in your own bed and be loved on by two dogs who think the sun rises and sets around you! But if you ask what was the one thing I really missed about home while enjoying the sunny shores of Florida—my teacup warmer. LOL.  This morning as I slowly sip my tea that has been perfectly warm for two hours now, (it’s a mini mug size hot plate like thing that is on my end table and plugged in always) I realized just how much I missed that!
 
Here are a couple of photos of my working week, including a last day photo with the wonderful authors Susan Stoker, Elle James, and Olivia Sands!

Here's a view from my room - you can see why I say the views are phenomenal!  And thankfully the only rainy day was the day afternoon I arrived - after that it was all blue skies and sunshine! (and heat lol) 

​Are you an ocean or water person too? (even if like me you don't go in it lol) 

​This week is short and sweet – I have landed in not-so-sunny Florida for a writers conference. Even under the cloudy skies, it’s still nice to see the ocean.
 
Having grown up within a short drive to a handful of beaches on the East Coast, living so far away from water is one o the few downsides to North Texas. I’m hoping to get my fill of squawking birds and rolling waves to last me another year!
 
Will share more photos next week if the sun ever comes out
 
Just curious – anyone else enjoy walking on the beach?