An Apology and An Explanation

First, the apology ~ to all of you who have been kind enough to stop by my blog and post a comment, my sincere apologies for not acknowledging your kind words. Every comment is appreciated and I am grateful to you all for them.

Second, the explanation ~ in October of 2004, my husband suffered his first heart attack. In November of 2005 he suffered his second heart attack, this one much more severe and life altering for our family. He was working as a self-employed remodeling contractor and had to cut down considerably the amount of time he could work as well as the type of work he was able to do. So, for most of 2006, I worked basically what amounted to three jobs to make ends meet around here.

In December of 2006, he suffered his third heart attack, this time barely surviving, and leaving him with considerable damage to his heart muscle. It was obvious that he would no longer be able to work but as I was still working as a paralegal and making good money, we thought that if we tightened our belts we could make it without too many changes.

However, less than a month after his last heart attack, I was laid-off from my job. As I had barely seen my family for the past year, I cashed out my retirement account and stayed home with my husband and daughter for the first half of 2007. Also, during this time my husband qualified for disability which took some of the burden off financially.

From August of 2007 until May of this year, I was working a part-time job which I was led to believe would lead to full-time with good benefits and a raise. However, I was finally told that none of this would take place until October 2008 so I made the decision to leave that job and look for another full-time position. Before I was able to find another job, my husband became very ill due to the heat and for the months of June and July I was afraid to be away from home longer than it takes to run to the grocery, drug store, etc.

Because of all the factors involved, we are now in a position of having to make some pretty big life changes. We have been working with our mortgage company and are not in immediate danger of losing our home but we have accepted that even if I were to land another full-time paralegal job, with the current economic situation we are still unable to afford to stay where we are. We have never lived lavishly and have made more financial cuts where we can (having the phone disconnected, cutting back on our cable services, etc)but it's definitely time for bigger changes.

This is not as bad as it could be: for several years we have discussed moving to the southern part of the state and renovating my grandparent's house which has been sitting empty. Our current goal to be moved by the end of the year which is actually exciting to me for a number of reasons but also very overwelming in that I will have to do about 80% of the sorting, packing, moving due to hubby's health. Just trying to deal with going from a slam-full 1500 square foot house to one that is barely 800 square feet and has no closets has my mind reeling. (I have over 1,500 books alone that have to be dealt with one way or another).

All this to say: I apologize for not having posted during the World Building Month as planned, not having replied to the lovely comments which have been left and please forgive me if my mind has not been on worldbuilding or writing of late.

I do believe that "this, too, shall pass" and that by the end of the year, we will all actually be in a much better place and under much better circumstances. My grandparent's house is situated on 80 acres and I am already dreaming of a flock of geese, a few goats, and bringing the garden site back under control in time for spring planting.

I do still read quite a number of blogs on a daily basis and will try to do better at updating this one as much as possible but pardon my absences when they appear.

Blessings to all of you and yours,
Wintermaide