The Importance of Family | Why Modern Families Are Falling Apart (And How to Fix it) (video title)

Corn and more corn

The corn harvest is done!

Hubby and I started this morning picking the corn from the garden and cutting down the stalks. We shucked corn and ended up with this:

We used the electric knives to cut the corn off the cobs and estimate that we ended up with 84 cups of raw corn. Then we cook it with a recipe from hubby's grandma:

Then we leave it to cool in trays on the counter:

The taller container here was raw corn waiting
to be cooked. The other pans were the cooling pans.
You can also see a couple bags of corn in one
of the Rubbermaid containers.

We then measure it out and bag it. This year, we bought some Rubbermaid containers to keep the freezer bags of corn organized, and they stack nice in the freezer and don't slide all over. We ended up with around 68 cups of cooked corn, so it does reduce in cooking a bit.

It's amazing how much corn you get off of one cob, so we don't have to plant a lot in the garden to get all this. We lost all of our previous cooked and frozen corn last year when the upright freezer was left open overnight by mistake, but this more than makes up for it.

It's a delicious recipe, but the corn we've been planting is so sweet that we have to reduce the sugar of the original recipe. The recipe also calls for butter and a little water and salt.

Now we're restocked on corn for a long time. It's been two years since we did this, and next year we won't plant as much corn.

In a month or so, it'll be time for pumpkins.

Now, it's time for some painting of oldest kid's room. THEN I can get back to edits. At least I'm on the last round, or expect that to be the case.

Life is interesting.

God bless!

quick editing update

Edits are progressing very well on Book 20, almost too well. I'll need another round after I finish this current round.

I really like the story of Zaer and Shen and some brief glimpses of their adventures together, but I still had some rewriting that leaves me thinking I need one more editing round before it's ready.

Very soon, though! After this, it'll be back to writing... starting Book 23. I'm getting close to the end.

Thanks for reading!

Are you saved? (video title)

 

LEARN YOUR FAITH! The Queenship of Mary | Dr Scott Hahn (video title)

Busy week

The editing on Book 20 slowed a bit with an unexpected early finishing of the big project.

I still can't say what that other special big project is. It's gone into the beta testing and tweaking stage. I've selected a few trusted individuals to provide their feedback.

But now that it's to this point, I can switch gears to focusing on editing again. I have a week and a half to make my goal. I'll be digging in to finish that and get Book 20 published.

It'll be a while yet before the big project is ready for a public announcement, but it's going to be great.

Stay tuned!

Part 2 of 2: Understanding the Sacraments. A New Summary! Explaining the Faith w/Fr. Chris Alar (video title)

How Becoming Catholic is a Story of Awakening to Something More (video title)

Is The Rosary Demonic Deception? - A Catholic’s SHOCKING Answer and Message... (video title)

progress on the projects

I am close to getting sick of fresh garden peas. Yes, even for those of us who love fresh peas, we can reach our saturation point.

Around a year ago, I had a lot of peas put away in our freezer, along with some other frozen foods from our garden... until the door of the upright freezer wasn't shut properly and stayed open overnight. Everything thawed. I discovered that mess the next morning when going into the garage to head to work. We lost a LOT of work and food last year, including all the peas I had picked and shelled and measured and bagged.

I've been waiting to restock that. This year, I planted different peas, but they're good and they are indeed mildew resistant. I had always been losing my 5-6 ft. peas (we give them fences to climb) by this time. I was low on those, so this year, I ordered new peas from Gurney's, and they were sold as mildew-resistant. They are. They're short, however, only 24-30" tall. But, boy, do they produce! Not as much as the other plants, but they haven't stopped, so I've been able to refill what was lost.

We also learned from that loss two things: 1) Don't put the kids' preferred foods in the upright freezer, and 2) put a lock/latch on the door to make sure it can't open. Hubby put a child safety lock on the upright, so it's not a locking lock but a safety lock to keep little kids out of a fridge. When we secure it each time we close the door, we can be sure that door will stay shut.

And, we learned that putting the bagged frozen garden produce into large, stackable Rubbermaid containers help us make a lot better use of the space in the upright freezer. The upright is great for being able to see everything and not have to dig around, but it does have that door-closing issue. Putting bags into bins really helps to keep it organized. AND, if it ever does have a great meltdown again, that will reduce the mess!

Writing Update

I've been editing Book 20 and it's going well. I overcame the whole extreme fatigue issue and really gained a good focus for editing again. It's going well and I still have two weeks until the end of this month. I won't say anything, because I always tend to have something go wrong that delays publication. I'll just keep my eye on the target while giving it the attention to detail that readers deserve.

And once this is published, I'll get into writing Book 23. I can't believe I'll be in the final three!

Other 

The other project is jumping ahead. The development is nearly done and all the little pieces are settling into place very well. There's still a refinement stage, but the major part is done. And I already see how this could expand and grow. It could turn into a full-time job, and it could also turn a profit; but for now, it will start small. I hope to make a public announcement by the end of September. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

God Loves You as You Are, Not as You Wish You Were (video title)

quick update

I need to get to bed, but before I do, I want to leave a quick update on the status of Book 20 editing.

I've started the second round of edits, but already in the first round had added 3,000 words. I'll be more into the editing mode this round. I expect more detailed edits of rearranging things and refining them in big ways. Right now, the story is around 46,000 words.

After this next round, I expect two more. Hopefully not a fifth. Book 19's editing about soured me on editing. That was six or seven rounds and I couldn't have done any more, but it was for the best.

Book 20 shouldn't need that much, but the first round was great. I enjoyed getting back to review pieces of the lives of Zaer and Shen after so much time away.

The goal is to finish by the end of August. Barring any interruptions like July pulled, that is very likely.

And work on the new non-writing project has begun. It'll take a month or two to be ready, but that's not as important as the writing.

In the meantime, the description for Book 20 is now posted:

When a Starfire shard calls out to Nya in desperation, she immediately transports the Iludrin to a world where they discover game hunters.

Afraid that the hunters are there for the Keepers, Nya and L'Ni, with an escort of Altorin, are taken to the surface by Zaer and Shen on the Cartegos. There, they find one of the small hunter vessels, but no one is present. While the hunters are away, Shen has an idea to disable it. However, when one of the local creatures attacks, the ship, with Shen on it, crashes over a cliff into the sea and sinks beneath the surface.

The hunters aren't alone, however. Zaer and the others are forced to escape the world with the shard, but what arrives reveals that the creatures of that world were not the only ones being hunted.

Thanks for reading!

Book 20 is coming soon!

Effect of Charity & the Need to Practice It More ~ Fr. Ripperger (video title)

Fr. Dan Reehil, Exorcist: Can Horror Films Attract Demons? (video title)

animal lovers... cat squad pics

Since I haven't done so in a while and was cleaning out pictures, I thought it might be fun to share some of the most recent pics of the cats. I'm also taking a break from editing Book 20 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. The first round of edits is halfway done and different than most first rounds of edits--I'm hitting the ground running as if already in my usual second round of edits.

Anway, here's a series of cat pics for the animal lovers:

The old boy has become pretty tolerant of Bilbo.

a rare moment of our torbie tolerating being close
to one of the boys (torties/torbies are always girls)

Bilbo content in daddy's arms

The two tuxedos (blue and brown) bird watching

They love their catio, which has an opening so they can
 freely move in and out between the house and the catio.
Only the two big boys--the old Siamese and Bilbo--lay in the hammocks.

The trio of oldsters. They love the cat cabinet (which was designed
for litter boxes but which became their toy box and also their window
ledge, with a pet pad added for comfort).

Bilbo has fully settled in. He's been with us for over eight months and it's like he's always been here. Ironically, the one cat that liked him least--the oldest, our Siamese--is the one usually snuggling next to him, albeit reluctantly. Nevertheless, the Siamese is the most likely to allow Bilbo to lay next to him.

And Bilbo is a daddy's boy (the person holding him in the one pic).

The Devil in Our Culture: Hollywood, Freemasonry, Yoga & The Occult | Dr. Dan Schneider (video title)

Who fights for you when you can’t? The invisible battle you can’t ignore. (video title)

I've always had an interest in angels, which should be evident by my longest-running book series (Starfire Angels). Those fictional angels aren't real angels, but I did intend them to be as close as a mortal creature could be.

But I have a particular attachment to St. Michael. I've learned that when we're drawn to a particular saint, it's because God has assigned them to help us in some way for our spiritual growth. (I use the common image of St. Michael in Book 22 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds, along with parts of the Pope Leo the XIII's St. Michael prayer and the guardian angel prayer in a way that fit perfectly in the story, but neither is referenced to the source. Those who know will know.)

I've recently purchased stones from the cave mentioned in the video and noticed a change for the better in my prayers in the vicinity of these stones. They were also recommended by one of the exorcists I listen to, and he had said they are powerful, but they're sacramentals, not relics. They're something different, because they come from the cave in Gargano, Italy, consecrated by St. Michael, the angel tasked with sending Satan and his minions from heaven.

We all have a guardian angel, but St. Michael commands the armies of heaven.

St. Michael, defend us in battle!

God bless!

Here's a longer presentation about this powerful defender we can call upon to help us, not because God won't but because God made angels for this purpose: