. Hi Reader, I hope your week has started out better than ours. I don't mean to be a downer but my blog is "The Way it Really Is" and it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Trigger warning: death is discussed. A week ago was the 9 year anniversary of when my dear grandpa died, whom I was really close to all my life. Saturday was the 10 year anniversary of when my father-in-law died of cancer at the young age of 65. He never got to meet our kids, which is so sad for all. He would have had so much...

. Hi Reader, I hope your week is going well so far! This week I finally did something that I've been wanting to do for decades, I wrote a children's book! It's full of cute fall graphics, rhyming words, and is perfect for ages 3-6. Though I have to admit, I read it to my kids last night (7yo twins and 9yo) and they loved it too! It's an eBook that you can purchase on Etsy or Teachers Pay Teachers. You can use it digitally or print it out. Now that I've written and published one eBook I'm...

. Hi Reader, I hope you had a great week and that you were able to get some decluttering done! I know we need to do a lot more, that's for sure. It's been oddly hot here in MN, it reached 90 the other day...that is not typical for October in Minnesota. Typically it's in the 60s or cooler by now. It's been weird, but I also know that soon enough it'll be super cold and I'll be longing for these hot days. :) As you probably know by all the ads and whatnot, today is the start of Amazon Prime Big...