I may qualify for the world’s most infrequent blogger award, if there is such a thing, but… I have been very busy! I know people say that, and if they genuinely are, I hope their busy-ness is more enjoyable than what we’ve had going on here. When it comes to being over-extended-not-by-choice, the past few years have been hard, the past two harder, and the past several months the hardest. Brad is currently in the hospital; tomorrow is my surgical clearance appointment for the surgery I’m scheduled for at the end of this month; and Em is waiting on another set of lab results, which we’re hoping will explain why she’s feeling so badly, and what to do about it. In the meantime, she’s miserable because all she can do is wait, I’m miserable because I really need this surgery, and Brad is probably miserable because low-sodium is no picnic. We took him to the emergency room on Sunday for severe abdominal pain, for which the CT scan found no cause. But, his electrolyte balance wasn’t, and still isn’t, so he’s in for another night. All of this is just the latest in a very long string of medical issues. Em was in the lead for quite a while, but with my hospitalization in August and now Brad’s, we’re catching up. Both of my appointments tomorrow are in the building right beside the hospital, and connected by a skybridge, which is nice. We may be able to have lunch together, because of that. There are lots of things to be thankful for, in the midst of it all.

I’m not being flippant when I say we experienced an amazing miracle recently. Every good and perfect gift is from God, as the verse goes, and I was praying specifically for help, so He gets the credit. How else can one explain how a single squirt from a water bottle took a dog that was severely unresponsive to reprimands and direction, and turned him into a model citizen? I can’t believe how well-behaved, and quiet Arctic is now! Really, it is a miracle, and I’m hugely thankful for it. He’s 80 pounds, built like a tank, and he needs to be on his best behavior while I’m recovering next month. Now, I know he will be. He already is!

Writing is still happening, though much slower than I’d like. “Ashes of Roses”, Miles and Anika’s sixth book, is on page 323. That’s a pretty good page count, and since it won’t come close to the epic length of “Uncertainly Yours”, the end is in sight. I’m hoping to wrap up before 400. It’s the lack of consecutive minutes in which to write that’s causing the most difficulty. A significant amount of those minutes is spent re-reading in order to get back in synch with the storyline, which is unavoidable when life gets demanding and hectic, and hogs my focus. Despite how often that’s been the case throughout the course of writing this book, it is nearing completion, and for that I am very grateful!