I finally have a quiet day to write. School is in session for the second week, but it’s only now that I’ve been able to be free from all the flurry of activity and appointments it entails. I intended to write this summer. I made a quetsch tart – quetsch being a variety of plums that are small and long (I cannot find an English equivalent). Do you see how beautifully it turned out?
In the end, though, I have not yet had time to put the recipe up on my blog, although I haven’t given up hope that I will still be able to do one. So I won’t go into detail just yet about how it’s made.
I went with my kids into Paris in August to visit two tourist destinations. I had meant to blog about those, but I’ve abandoned that hope as the tourist posts take a great deal of time to research and I no longer have it. I will say here that we visited The Musée de l’Armée in the Hôtel des Invalides. This is what the Hôtel des Invalides looks like (in a not great photo) coming across the bridge from the Champs Elysées.
If you’ve been to Paris, you’ve surely seen it. It houses the Musée de l’Armée inside, which has all the canons from the Napoleon era and before through the world wars. You see swords and sabres and guns – even the messenger bag from Napoleon’s aide de camp. It’s absolutely fascinating for someone like me who writes Regency.
What’s interesting about this museum is that it’s free through the age of 25. That makes it an affordable family destination. And there are all sorts of cool canons in the interior court you can get up close to (and sit on). Here is a view of the interior court as seen through the legs of Napoleon.
Speaking of which, I’m reading an incredible book in French about one of Napoleon’s soldiers who was made a baron by the general. It’s the story of one of my friend’s ancestors and her uncle transcribed the written diaries and had it published. Putigny (the soldier) was a peasant and he taught himself to read and write. The writing is so fluid and descriptive, though simple at the same time, and gives a glimpse into barrack life between 1793 and 1815. It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve ever read.
Another place we visited was the Panthéon. It’s right next to the Sorbonne and is not the first tourist destination people think of.
But it’s got a special meaning for me because I used to go to a Sorbonne annexe here in 1994 and walked by it every day. And my husband’s aunt was living a couple streets over at that time. Who knew if I had crossed paths with her then?
The Panthéon is also free for under 25 and has the Foucault pendulum to prove that the earth rotates. Although it’s not the original, Foucault installed it in 1851 and the concept has not changed since. It also houses the tombs of all the famous people : Voltaire, Hugo, Curie, Rousseau to name a few.
So this was my intent for my blog – two Paris tourism posts and at least one recipe post, not to mention these flashes of ideas I have to share about other things – life, and topics of faith. I haven’t done so, however, because I seem to have reached some sort of threshold where I can’t fit a single extra thing into my life other than what is already on my plate. Or shall I say in my cup. Any other thing I try to add just spills over and gets lost.
On the ministry side of things, we’ve taken over the responsibility of the teen ministry in our church. There are 38 teens if every one were to come to an event. We will have our first meeting this Sunday so up until now it’s only been in theory. On Sunday it will all get real, and I actually had a nightmare that I was trying to drive in a dark tunnel in a strange car and I couldn’t find the lights. I inched forward towards the light I could see ahead, only to find out that it was another tunnel with cars coming the opposite direction and straight at me. The dream made me laugh. Nervous much, Jennie? We need to push through any feelings of inadequacy, however, because two of our own children are teens and we have a pre-teen as well. The teen ministry is something we need to get a grip on for the sake of our own children.
On the writing side of things, I’m finishing up the final draft of my sequel to A Regrettable Proposal to send to the publisher. Putting out books is not such a simple thing as writing a few hours every day, followed by… I don’t know, shopping? Gardening? Coffee in Paris? I’m still trying to earn my living from writing and don’t have enough books in the same genre yet to do that. So I feel pressure to write faster. And I also beta critique for those authors who are doing the same thing for me. All this while researching (tons of research) and marketing and reworking categories and ads and covers and planning new books… it’s time-consuming.
On the personal side of things, I’m adjusting to my kids getting older and both more and less autonomous. More because they can do some of the transportation alone that I used to have to do, and less because they really need guidance to grow in self-care, responsibility, homework, and not spending 7 hours in front of screens as happened with one yesterday. (Ahem). We’ve got someone coming to help with our garden next week so we’ll need to do our best to prepare for that and remove as many weeds as we can. We’re still dealing with court cases for our house and the financial pressure that comes with legal bills (which sends me back to writing in a panic).
And somehow with all this, I don’t have time for anything else. I don’t have much time for friends or leisure or blogging anymore, really. So while you’ve come to expect the slowing down on this blog, this here is perhaps an announcement of even more slowing down. I do still love this blog so I can’t bring myself to say I’ll stop. (And recipe posts are pretty easy to do without spending a huge amount of time so there might be more of those – the historical, biblical and personal posts take much more).
If you happen to be one who reads my blog for me (not necessarily for the recipes or the French tourism or the faith posts) – hello friends! – I do put out an author newsletter once every two weeks and it always contains some personal news. I also have a reader group on Facebook that you can join which has more interaction than my blog or newsletter. I mean, if you don’t read clean romance at all, there’s probably no point because both center around that genre. But if you do like this particular genre and want to hear from me more often, those are two possible ways to stay connected with me.
Sign up for my author newsletter by clicking here or join my FB reader group by clicking here. I’m also on Instagram pretty regularly with short videos, photos and news here.
I’m not sure when and if things will calm down. It’s hard to write novels then pull away from that and put on a different mindset to write non-fiction (whatever form the blog post requires). So I’m not sure what my future will be here. I just know I’ve reached a threshold where I can’t keep up both a regular blogging and author schedule at this time. And life is always full of surprises so we will see what’s in the future. Maybe a plum tart before too long?
We still have a bag of plum halves in the freezer.
