Oh, boy!

I’ve spent 49 years with the same man, as of Friday, Aug. 21st.  Happy Anniversary to us:)  Our daughter, grandson, and his wife are coming up to celebrate with us.  On Saturday, not the official date but close enough, we’re making one of the fanciest suppers we can to celebrate since none of us go to restaurants at the moment.  Duck breasts with cherry sauce, crab cakes, a Greek salad, and chocolate pavlova with sliced strawberries and whipped cream.  All of our favorites.  All of us together.  It’s going to be great.

Looking back, WAY back, HH and I got married three days after he was discharged from the army.  While he went through basic training and got sent to Vietnam, I taught my first year of first grade.  His friends teased him that he was jumping out of the frying pan (military service) into the fire (the horrors of marriage).  We’d been engaged for a year before we drove to a retired minister’s house whom we both liked and said our I do’s.

Back then, I had no inspiration of being a writer.  All I wanted to do was teach grade school.  How times change!  And maybe it’s a good thing we can’t see too far ahead of us.  If I’d known the many bumps in the road ahead, I might have wimped out.  When I had my girls and decided to try writing a few short stories to see if I could sell them, I had no idea how many rejections I’d get in between every sell I ever made.  And honestly?  Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.  The good…and the bad…shape our lives and make us who we are.

I didn’t want to hear that when I was young.   When people said things like “Challenges make you grow,” I wanted to skip all the crap and get straight to the best-selling author part.  And to this day, I’ve only done that once.  It was fun, and I’d love to do it again, but it’s not so easy to accomplish.

After 49 years with HH and lots of years of writing, I still haven’t accomplished lots of my goals.  And maybe that’s a good thing.  I still have lots to do to make my writing better, my marketing smarter, and my pocketbook richer.  So I don’t expect to get bored for a long time.

Wherever you are in your journey, happy writing!  And happy life!