Good morning everyone!  Come in and sit down and I’ll make you a cup of your very favorite hot or cold drink.  I have a variety of options, so take your pick.  I’m drinking a steamy mug of hot chocolate, which is filled to the brim with whipped cream.  And yes, I’m being naughty and not following my paleo diet to perfection at the moment, but once and awhile we all need a little flexibility in our lives, and after a month like this… well, let’s just say hot chocolate has been sort of a saving grace for me.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that my life has been completely turned upside down these days and I hardly even know where to begin.  I suppose I’ll start off by saying that I feel completely blessed and thankful that my two oldest daughters have both survived this month.  One had her home threatened by a huge fire out in California, and my other daughter who lives in Florida was in the middle of hurricane Irma.   Both are fine now, and that’s such a huge relief!

Here at home, there has been turmoil as well.  The first week of school was a bit rough, after finding out that hubby is deploying overseas and also that our 4 yr. old dog Pippa has bone cancer.  I’m trying my best to make Pippa as comfortable as possible, but the vet said her days are certainly numbered.  She may only live a few more months which is really sad to me.  Hubby felt so bad when he found out and misses us so much, that he made a surprise visit home over this past week.  It was nice to see him, but at the same time, it was so hard to say goodbye, especially knowing that it may be another year before I see him again.

Here’s some good news though, I had been dealing with depression at the beginning of this year and I’m feeling so much better.  I was also having some physical ailments that caused me to lose 22 lbs.  However, I am happy to say, that all of those issues seem to have been resolved.  It was determined that I was having some terrible side effects from one of the meds I was on and once I stopped taking that, I began to feel like myself again.

I am presently working on several poetry books and figure over this next year that I should be able to knock a few of them out while hubby is away.  That is of course if I don’t end up with any more hiccups.  All I can do is continue to try.  It’s been very hard to stay motivated and inspired.  I had a friend whom I wrote about here.  This friend was the one person in my life, who really inspired my early days of writing.  And even though he finally contacted me and ended up explaining why he no longer wanted to be friends, it has still been very difficult to continue on without him.

In fact, as some of you know, I started my new blog just a month ago and ended up taking all of my poems off of this one.  I needed a fresh start, as many of the poems I had written on this blog reminded me of my friend.  I knew I needed to finally let him go from my heart and mind, and came very close to deleting my blog altogether.  But I decided I couldn’t quit, and so instead I started over.  I also knew that eventually, I wanted to take my old poems off of my blog anyway, due to the fact that I do plan to publish them in the near future.   So ultimately, it forced me to do something prematurely that I knew I would eventually have to do anyway.

I know I haven’t been around as much lately as far as reading blogs goes, and I apologize to many of you who I haven’t visited on a regular basis like I used to.  But life has just taken its toll on me lately and I just haven’t had as much time for reading.  It’s hard to keep life in perfect balance and I know it’s foolish to even try.  I just hope that you all know how much I really do care about you.  When I say I love you guys, I really do mean it.  All of you here on WordPress have become like family to me.  It’s hard to explain it, but when you’re so isolated because you live in a place with hardly any family or friends around, your internet buddies become everything to you.  If you’ve written a coffee share this weekend, please leave me a link so that I can catch up with you.  Hope your week is filled with love and happiness!  ~M