Rachel Stafford Writes

If you live in the Heartland of America, then there's a good chance that you're experiencing snow and ice right now. As an Illinoisan, snow and ice are just a part of our everyday lives during the wintertime. Last winter was rather dry, and we only had a small dusting the entire season. This year, however, Mother Nature has decided to make up what she had missed. This past Thursday was a balmy 61 degrees when I walked into work. Eight hours later, the temperature had dropped to 41, and by the time I made it home at around 10:30 PM, it had dropped an additional ten degrees. By 11:00 PM, it was sleeting. The sleet continued until early Friday morning and eventually turned to snow. Personally, I LOVE snow! Fall and winter are my favorite times of the year, and snow is one of the few things in life that hasn't lost its magic as I've aged. I love sledding and snowboarding (even though I recently bruised my tailbone by pretending I'm still 17 and agile, not 27 and app...

Hello, my lovely readers! I sincerely hope you and yours had a magnificent Christmas and New Year's! Ours was very busy and fun. Noah and Jase were extremely pleased with Santa's appearance this year. 😊 In between the family gatherings and too much food, Josh and I have been working our butts off on remodeling 'our little house on the great big hill.' Our home is 24 years old, and so were the carpets. We have all but one room finished, and are hard at work to make it as nice as possible. Brand new plywood floors and painted walls!  My hiatus from blogging and writing is coming to an end as I get myself together after all of the holiday festivities and house stuff.  Over the break, I did manage to get one thing accomplished: I got on Fiverr and ordered the cover art for my new project. You know, the secret one I've dropped a million hints on? I'm very pleased with the outcome and have the entire story outlined, and about 1/3 of the project written o...