This Perfectly Imperfect Life

An enchanting and safe day & night to one and all! We have been away from.The Portable Homestead, up in the mountains at our camper since last Saturday, and for once I can say this vaca has truly been a relaxing one for the Marine! (Long overdue and well deserved). Much to share when we return! 

I have been biting my tongue for a couple of weeks now, until all of the details were worked out, but now it's time to let y'all in on a little ( BIG! ) secret:  Southern author Sarah Addison Allen is going to do a chat with my Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads *and* we have 3 ARC's of her upcoming novel, First Frost , to giveaway to 3 lucky members on November 4th!  I believe First Frost is a followup to her debut novel Garden Spells . Holy cow have I been excited to share this news!! For all of the info on the chat and giveaway rules, click here .  I can't thank Angie from Sarah's publisher enough for reaching out to me to set all of this up with Sarah and for sending me my own ARC of First Frost!!! Now, these sweet looking little candies came with my copy of First Frost and they were supposed to be a part of the photo above, but... Just before I set everything up, Mama kitty decided to make herself comfy and in the p...

It has been a rough couple of weeks (scroll to previous post or click here ), and this Thursday was an awful living with disease day, but this week has also been a productive one writing wise. Usually in the morning, after I wake and before morning pages journaling and breakfast, I add my favorite moments of the previous day (or what I was most thankful for the previous day, or a goal I want to accomplish) to my happiness jar. (For the down low on happiness jars, click here  to be taken to author Elizabeth Gilbert's post).  As I was finishing up my note paper for Tuesday, 10/7, the day I had an MRI after which I was in awful pain, I wrote down "Finding books I have had on my list for some time on the bargain rack! Simplest pleasures = greatest joy!!!"  Simplest pleasures = greatest joy.   I continued writing about this in my journal. In a nutshell: Simplest Pleasures = Greatest Joy will be a new featured post here at The Portable Homestead an...

Autumn is well under way at our Northwestern NJ home as you can see here. We awoke this morning to a crisp 37*! Such a beautiful day. Well, let's see... Autumn arrived on a Monday and I threw my back out on Wednesday. And that triggered the worst sciatic nerve flareup I've ever had and the worst pain I've experienced in a decade. This past Wednesday, a week to the day this all started, I went to my Rheumologist and was treated to two shots, one in my spine and the other in my upper right... Glute. Heh, hem. He increased the anti inflammatory and nerve meds I'm already on for at least the next two weeks. In two days I go for a MRI to see exactly what's what because it's not getting significantly better. On a pain scale of 1 to 10, I started at 1,000 and I've been hovering at 990-995 since the day after this all started.  I have to alternate between lying down and taking short walks because sitting only aggravates the nerve something awful. Of cou...