Contentment

[urbanforager]

I just wanted to share with you all how good I'm feeling right now. (Should have posted this yesterday evening, but that's okay.)

 

On Sunday (yesterday), I finished the rough draft of my latest novel. (It will come out October 2009.) I found out just recently that instead of "sometime in June", the publisher wants it submitted no later than May 1st, so it was really important to me to get it done by the end of this month. So I did get it finished on schedule, which felt good. The snow day we had on Friday helped a lot. Now I get to play with revisions.

When I got up yesterday morning, it was two below zero, with wind chills of -20 below. More of the same for today (10 degrees, and WC -26). I felt so content knowing that I had a warm, snug house full of good food, and that there was no reason whatsoever to leave it to go to the store. I made a batch of sourdough bread and some spaghetti with homemade sauce, and sat and wrote all day. Saturday night's dinner was a pot of chicken soup, all from leftovers, that ended up tasting just exactly how my mom used to make it. I also made two batches of elderberry extract for Christmas presents.

I have a good, stable job to go to today. I work for two days, then I'm off for five for Christmas. DH and I will spend Christmas dinner with good friends whom we love. Two more days of work next week, then off for five more. New Year's Eve is our ninth anniversary, and New Year's Day I'll drive up to Chicago for the holidays with my family, and some more deer hunting at my aunt's house.

Life is very, very good, and crammed full of blessings!

[sassenach]

Wow, urbanforager! It is great to see you here.

I love writing and part of my recent inner processing lately has been about jumping into the very work of it and producing 'stuff' I hope can reach out to folks for enjoyment and sharing of knowledge in different interests that I can tie into my own writing.

For me, writing is enjoyable and I am now willing to persist at it, and work at it, to make it the best I can. It may be the one ticket I need to more prosperity so I can have the abundance enough to set up my homestead in just so many more years and be able to provide a safe haven that is going to help take care of us as times get more challenging and maybe dangerous.

I checked out your site for a bit, just now, and I am intrigued.

Sorry, I never read one of your books yet.... but I know I will now, when I can get one.

 

I have some questions about how you might research things, how you learned somethings, like the anthropology, as I am trying to figure out how to research certain subjects that are historical in nature, for my own writing.

 

BTW, I love a good suspense novel, and mysteries as well.. I am quite sure I would love your writing.

Thankyou for posting your note..... be proud ! You have done well!

 

If you have some tips off the top of your head, please PM me. I would appreciate anything you might want to share. I have always wanted to write for a living. ( My father was a fine photojournalist and newsman in the sixties and early seventies, so I was raised around writing and photography and art. )

 

My father gave me a love of history and books, and I am just curious about how to research some things, for example, the old wooden ships.... I am having a very hard time figuring out the right key words to bring up stuff that pertains to them! ( Say I wanted to write a book involving historical piracy...)

 

Maybe you have figured out exactly what I need to be doing. I am not computer illiterate at all, but I just don't seem to have the knack to get the stuff to come up, like that, and it is frustrating! I am also looking for design of ships and descriptions of them. I was in the navy for ten yrs so I am fairly familiar with nautical terms.

 

 

 

[HSmom]

Urbanforager, I am glad to hear how you are enjoying the life with which you have been blessed. Just today, I have been really caught up an emotional & relational issue. Your words remind me that while some people may disappoint me, I still LOVE MY LIFE!!!

 

If I may add my little pleasures:

 

Yesterday I made a yummy, hearty soup as well as homemade bread. The kids made Christmas cookies, and are only allowed to eat the broken ones. You wouldn't believe how many keep getting broken!

 

Today, I tidied up the house and we - as a family played hard together. My dh also taught me something new - and I grasped it quickly - one more small task in which I am now self-sufficient.

 

I have a great job, but am off until after Christmas. My kids will have their fondest wishes fulfilled on Christmas Day.

 

 

[Stephanie]

Contentment is a powerful place to dwell. I am content too! I have not accomplished everything, but I did accomplish a lot over this last year and I'm looking forward to the year to come when I can do some fine tuning.

 

We have our little homestead with chickens and goats and a catfish pond. We have this God inpsired extra large family that is busting at the seams with love and adventure. Life is good.

 

 

[JCK88]

Ah Urbanforager--nothing like a deadline well met!!

 

Happiness is wanting what you have. What a great feeling!

 

Hugs and best wishes on the novel.