Just Me

  Happy Halloween!   This month was quite a challenge for me on many levels. I was sick for weeks and that put a dent in my ability to write. Fortunately, I DID get some writing done. Yay! I also managed to finish writing the October ebook this month. Woot! I actually finished writing it today. What a nice way to celebrate Halloween! And a nice way to end a month. Now for NaNoWriMo!   My kids also had their birthdays this month. My oldest is now 21 and that was quite a change! I’m both happy and sad he’s 21 now. He’s just growing so fast! My youngest is now 15 and all he can think about is getting his driver’s permit.   This month’s books I read include books I finished reading which I started reading last month and books I read this month. The numbers reflect how many books I have read so far this year. I was very pleased to see that I have read over 100 books so far this year. Awesome! I think it surpasses one of my other reading challenges for a year...

Photo Credit: Taylor Friehl on unsplash       Ten days ago – October 12, 2022 – was a very important date in my life. It was the date in which I celebrated being sober for five years. Usually, I blog about my soberversary, but this year, I did something different: I celebrated the occasion online.   Through social media, in fact.   I am usually on Facebook and Twitter every day (my personal Facebook and Twitter, that is). So, I figured, since this was an important day for me, why not celebrate it online with all the peeps I usually interact with?   Yes, I have done this before, in addition to blogging about it. But I wanted to make the day all about an “online celebration” through social media. Not much else. (Yes, I celebrated it with my family, but it’s not like we threw an actual party or anything.)   So I posted about it on Facebook and announced it on Twitter. Then I spent the rest of the day responding to comments and thanking oth...

  Photo Credit: Shutterstock Today is the last day my youngest attended middle school. (It’s also the last day of my oldest’s summer vacation! He starts summer term at the university on Monday.) My youngest had their promotion ceremony yesterday (8 th grade graduation). When I shared pictures and a video from it on Facebook, I got to talking with some people about everything that my youngest has been through during middle school.   To say the least, middle school was NOT easy for them. They experienced bullying, harassment for being gay, a physical altercation with someone trying to steal something from them, problems with teachers, their mental health issues affecting their learning experience, and a serious sense of feeling lost and alone. (This was made worse when they started losing friends due to their social awkwardness and poor social skills.) I honestly contemplated transferring them to another school because it got so bad. But they insisted that they wanted to ...