{SQT} Book Deets, Newsletter Fanatic, And Another Use For All That Cardboard In The Basement
I know I said I’d save updates for my newsletter, but I figured these were important for everyone. Please read with the appropriate level of enthusiasm.
1. My book, tentatively titled ‘Finding Joy in Difficult Circumstances: Equipping Parents of Children with Special Needs’, is being published by Our Sunday Visitor! They accepted my proposal, contracts were signed and now I just need to finish the manuscript and get it to them by mid-2019.
When I first started writing a book, I envisioned a moving memoir. But after years of writing in circles I realized what I wanted more than anything was to write a book that helped parents. It took working with a great editor to properly flesh out what that book looked like, but going forward I’m confident this title will tell not only a good story about our family, but will be useful to parents whose lives have been turned upside down. Ultimately, I hope all my readers, even those without special needs children, will find valuable information and insights in this book.
2. If you want tedious book updates, and other insider information. Join my mailing list, as it’s becoming where I share all my favorite links, exclusive giveaways, and a new weekly gratitude feature beginning next week.
3. If you want to keep abreast of developments of the special needs conference I’m organizing, that’s another email list altogether! You can join it HERE, but a sign up form is also available on the conference website HERE.
Surgery recovery, a book, a conference, homeschooling; it sure seems like I have a lot on my plate! But hey, why not one more small thing????
4. WE’RE MOVING!!!!! Maybe I should’ve led with that? But I feel like the mid to lower placement rewards those who read the whole post. We put an offer on a brick rancher on Sunday, and it was accepted! We are hoping to close, do a bit of work, and be moved in by Christmas.
5. WE’RE RENTING OUT OUR HOUSE!! Ideally, we want to keep our old home as a rental property, but if we can’t find a renter, or find renting to be a big hassle, we may consider selling. Right now I’m reading tons of books on how to be a landlord and dealing with a surprising number of requests considering it’s only been listed a few days. It’s a good problem to have (Thank you St. Joseph!), but trying to get this house in order to show (or specifically get the kids bedrooms clean enough to show) is daunting.
After ten years of living here, there’s a whole sappy post of feelings I’m planning to write about my love hate relationship with this place. There’s also a whole post about why we’re leaving our rural property for a small town and into what some people might consider another ‘starter home’. But those will be for another time- along with pictures of homes, old and new.
6. Fulton is recovering nicely and getting out of the house a bit more. We finally attended Mass as a family for the first time since his surgery last Sunday. There’s been a couple other short outings, and Fulton remains comfortable without pain medicine more often than not. His six-week follow-up will be October 31st, so hopefully all goes well and he’ll be out Trick or Treating with the best of ’em.
7. Long time readers need not be reminded of my Halloween costume making obsession. It’s going to come down to the wire this year! Ultimately, we didn’t need much cardboard for armor, so all those boxes I’ve been saving since August can be used for moving. I also signed our family up for trunk or treating at Teddy’s school and of course the pressure is on since we won an award last year. Thankfully, we do have an idea already and all I need is a milk jug and some gold paint to make it happen!
Any exciting developments for your family? Write them down then link them up below! Be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!
Oh my gosh! Congratulations on the book, and moving. How exciting! I am glad recovery is going well. I will be praying for you as you work on this very important work.
Wow, lots of changes and I like your ideas on the placement to determine who is really reading and who is just skimming above the fold. There don’t happen to be cash prizes for getting all the way through, do there?? Just curious.
Congratulations on your book deal! I have always been impressed by the way you have handled your difficulties and challenges with so much joy and faith–I’m sure your book will be a great help to so many people!
Also, good luck on the move. It’s so hard–we moved less than 2 years ago from what we thought would be a “forever home” in NH, where we’d raised our 5 boys (we’d been there for 26 years, and believe me, there were lots of feelings, lots of nostalgia, even tears!). At pushing 60, we moved all the way down to VA, into maybe not quite a starter home, but a house that is definitely a step backward from where we came. But we are close to 4 of our grown sons and their families now and moving was the best thing we ever did!
Your book sounds so neat, and I’m sure God will bless many people through your words.
Congratulations on all of the huge life changes! I hope that the move goes well, and I really hope that renting goes well-I’ve heard that being a landlord is a ton of work, but that it can be a good experience. You guys will do great!
I’m not sure why this posted here…feel free to delete this!!
I read your blog alot/follow your Instagram. I really appreciate your writing but congrats on your book deal!! I actually scoured your website when we first started with health issues with my daughter bc some symptoms were similar to sma. I linked for the first time tonight…