Kaffeeklatsch

Hey, guys. I'm sure a few of you are wondering, what the heck's going on with Lynn? A few things.

Hey everyone!
My most memorable valentines was the year it landed on knitting circle and Lou ate some of my candies. ( she ate hers already )

Hello, world! Josie FINELY left her computer!
I've been planning this for weeks!

My name is Snow Apple Bear. I am thirteen ( in bear years ) and married to Little Anne Mama.

"And it looks like we made it once again....."

My sister's favorite band is The Monkees. They are not my favorite band, but they are close to it.

I think I told you guys we were going to sell our extra lot. Well, we put it on the market and it sold--with a backup offer--nearly full price in less than three days.

This is very good news. It means we'll be mortgage-free. It also means we'll lose our big yard, and I'll finally say goodbye to a dream I had for myself: urban self-sufficiency. Ever since I bought this place I wanted to have a big garden, chickens, maybe a wood-fired oven.

But first I got divorced, and my gardening nut ex-husband moved out. I remarried John, but he really hates yard work--despises it. And then I got sick. So there was this yard, slowly going fallow. Nothing I did to get help with the yard worked. I had my chickens, but it became an enormous battle with the kids to get them to do their chores and feed them.

So really, it's clear. That dream is never going to come true. I don't have the family support, and I don't have the strength. I'm Not That Guy, as we say around here, though I really wanted to be That Guy. The sale of the lot means financial relief, but it also means goodbye to my chickens, who are already in their new home. And it means goodbye to the idea of me as an urban farmer. Bye, Farmer Lynn.

I miss my chickens already.

Looking for a good Halloween read? Novelist MJ Rose--a longtime TNH sponsor--is releasing her romantic thriller The Reincarnationist as a free ebook between now and the 31st of October!

Photojournalist Josh Ryder survives a terrorist's bomb, only to be haunted by near hallucinatory memories of a past life in Rome as a pagan priest whose dangerous congress with Sabina, one of the Vestal Virgins, poses a transgression so serious the lovers will face a certain death if exposed. Scents of jasmine and sandalwood and images of furtive liaisons and violence descend on Josh at will, pulling him to an ancient yet strangely familiar Roman burial chamber harboring the remains of a woman clutching a wooden box.

A trail of present-day murders takes us deeper into a labyrinth at whose heart lies the enigma of a collection of ancient gems or memory stones whose origins trace back to both ancient Egypt and India. The stones' promise to "assist the wearer in reaching his next incarnation" sets the ancient and modern worlds on a collision course.

MJ is releasing the second book in this series soon, so you'll want to read this one quick!

I point to this every Halloween because it's just too damn funny. There are some naughty words, so if that bothers you, don't click.

A friend of mine is a BIG fan of Hannah Montana. I have relised all the girls I know like, Hannah Montana, while me and Lou like the
Monkees, Heart, and Beatles.

Well! That summer just ripped by. We didn't even get summer here in Oregon until July, and then poof, it's September. Josie turned 11 yesterday (!), totally took me by surprise. Well, not that much; we have a party planned and everything. Just snuck up on me.

This has been the busiest summer in memory for us. I got a new bike and have started riding as much as possible. This is monumental. Less than two years ago, I couldn't walk to the end of the block, and I wasn't allowed to drive. We NEVER thought I'd be able to do some of the things I can do now.

We went camping. I am not a camper. I'm still not a camper. The people we camped with didn't understand that if I don't sleep the night before, I am no good the next day--really no good--and I will do what I have to do, namely take it very, very easy. We learned a lot about what we need when camping, though, and next time it'll be easier. Next time I'll remember a copy of Roberts' Rules of Order and motel reservations down the highway, just in case.

I completely lost the will to knit. No idea why. Today I finished two socks that have been sitting on the needles languishing, waiting to be bound off. I feel in the mood to knit again, in fact, even saw something in the new issue of Knitty that I might attempt.

And I've been writing. A lot. Nothing I can show you here, but it's felt very, very good indeed.

This is Henry:

Hello, dear ones! Things are nuts, and I am being torn in several directions right now. I'm still here checking on things, and eventually I'll be blogging more as I get things straightened around in my head and my life. But for now, hey, new pictures!

John, Josie, me and Louisa, taken in April--I think on Lou's birthday, but I'm not entirely sure.

Me and the girls, taken the same day. Pix courtesy Gramma Arlene (hi mom!). I'll be back, I promise!

She won! she won! she won! squeal! If you heard screaming, it was the girls and me.

You KNOW how I am about Dancing with the Stars. Kristi totally pwned the boys tonight, though, you know, I am so not sad Jason and Cristian made it to the finals. Holy cats, them are two gorgeous men, and I could look at them a lot longer than these last few weeks. But Kristi deserves it, completely and utterly. She is shorter than they are and still stood head and shoulders over them all.

Go Kristi!