Harvest Fun and Cover Reveals!

Well, I am having the time of my life! I am knee deep in cowboys, ranching, weddings (fictional!), revisions (real!!!) and harvest at the farm.

Throw in a passel of cute kids, messy faces, scraped up knees (we have two 4-year-olds who are riding two wheelers on our big stone driver with no training wheels. OUCH!!! We wipe out often, but they climb back up! So cool!

Of course that fun load of work means there hasn't been much in the way of cookin' goin' on 'round here, and that's okay. Most nights! But tonight I made Lindi Peterson's Mac and Cheese...

And ol' Dave is grilling pork chops later so we've divvied up the work. And with this being Derek Jeter's LAST WEEK OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL....

sigh.

There's been a lot of ballyhooin' going on around here! And if you want to see what all the hullabaloo is about, just imagine a 20 year career in the majors and NEVER BEING EJECTED FROM A GAME.... Plays like a gentleman. #loves the game.

Here's the Gatorade commercial they put together and released last week,

"The Captain says Goodbye to New York."

....runs.... grabs tissues..... recognizes these streets, this side of the stadium, the local bars and grills and eateries.... and the normal folks, coming to see a Hall of Famer in their time.
Okay, back to HARVEST!!!!

Oh, wait, cover reveals first! Silly me!!!

First there are these (and forgive me if you saw these in Seekerville, I posted them Monday, but I cannot resist (nor would you want me to!) showing them again!

Our soon to be released Seekers "Hope for the Holidays" historical collection:

 I ♥ History!!!!

AND....

Our also soon to be released "Hope for the Holidays" contemporary collection!!!!

Release date is November 10th and the price for EITHER COLLECTION is $2.99.... How cool is that??? 4 delightful novellas from old-time America or 6 wonderful present day Christmas stories of faith, hope and love.... and (being romances!!!) the greatest of these is love!

And then yesterday I got THIS!!!!

Scheduled release is February 1, 2015 and look how stinkin' sweet that is? My story "Prairie Promises" was so much fun to write! A very pregnant Irish immigrant has become a young widow, but will she give up her homestead? Throw in the towel? No, she will not! She teams up with the older widow on a neighboring claim and when the older widow's son comes west to bring his mother home to Philadelphia, well.... let's just say Jack's got a fight on his hands. A fight that ends with home, sweet home and the happily ever after neither one expected and both deserved!

AND THEN!!!!! A little later in February, there's THIS!!!!!

Charming, delightful, fun, poignant, I got to take 8 years of working in the wedding industry and be part of this amazing collection! Thank you, Zondervan and Becky Monds for including me! This story was so much fun to write, I don't want to belabor it because we've got a few months, but oh... DELIGHTFUL STORY AND OPPORTUNITY! I owe this to my friends at Bridal Hall, the wonderful family business run by the Hall family in Rochester NY. The Halls gave me a chance to work with brides and their families to put together each girl's wedding of her dreams. #love!

Okay, Harvest Stuff.... Kind of! Because in lieu of cooking, I promised facebook folks we'd let the scarecrows out of the CLOSET!!!! They've been in there for years, and this year I had Casey and Christina grab hold of some fall bounty and decorate!  SO FUN!!!!

Here's some of their handiwork:

Stinkin' cute, right? Scarecrows, blossoms and veggies!

And then they got creative with this:

And this!

And this was Seth's job over the weekend, bringing up pumpkins....

And lest you think I squander the minutes between writing bouts, this was my GUILTY CONSCIENCE pushing me to... yes.... I admit it.... wash curtains.

Sigh.

Here's a kitchen glimpse for you, LOL! I won't tell you how much dust and how many webs I destroyed to attain clean curtains, but yes! They're clean and ready to be re-hung. Who knows how long that will take????

I love doing cooking stories and blogs, but the past few weeks have been grab this and that, but soon....

Oh, soon!!!! We'll be cozying (once the firewood is in the garage!!!) inside at night, not rushing around doing this and that, and the busyness of spring/summer/fall will morph to a quieter time.

And then I'll cook again! And look what happened two nights ago!!!

Sweet babies! We always love to see sweet babies here on the farm!

Now, whilst Jan and Mindy are meeting up with sweet Seekers and Villagers in St. Louis, we'll stay here tending animals and brush-burned knees, grilling pork chops and grabbing a quick tuna sandwich, a Ruthy mainstay and celebrating how blessed we are to be Made in America!