The Year in Review

Pss. 6: [2] Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
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Well I have to admit this has been a year of roller coaster riding. Up and down, then back up and then down.


January -- Found my dog hit by a car and for weeks I nursed her back to health. With ice packs, and the mounted up snowfall, January started off on the lower section of the roller coaster. The shoveling was taking its toll on my back, but I plowed right through. Hey, I’m young, right?


February- March -- Found my dog healing and finally the medicare kicked in for Steven and he was able to get to the eye doctors, one that God chose, not one that anyone had referred him to. We were high on the roller coaster now, things looked good from up here for a bit.


April-May -- These two months found us in high spirits with the opportunity arising that a cornea transplant would come soon. With a doctor visit; the physical was done, and now  he was on the transplant waiting list. We did just that, waited. And waited. In the meantime there was mowing to be done, a yard to tend to, weeds to pull, but the cold air was hanging on tightly and May was just too chilly to really get out there and sink my hands into the soil.


June-July -- These months warmed up nicely. Weeds were sprouting everywhere, so much so I could not keep up with them. Adam and I mowed and yanked weeds. I planted and pulled more weeds, and my back was crying in pain but I went on. You just pull your big girl pants on, swallow the pain and become friends with Mr. Heating pad! I’m not one who likes to pop pills to relieve pain, so just some stretching exercises and nice relaxing days.


August- September -- Ahh the start of school! I had to get Adam in for a dentist appointment. He got a cleaning and two small fillings, then a clean bill of health. The school year started off on a good note this year and he’s been doing pretty good with his grades. I guess home schooling all those years before high school made him a well adjusted teen. Good job! Here we were still waiting on the cornea transplant to arrive and the long summer wait was now turning into a Fall wait and see. Patience my friend, patience.


October -- We got the long awaited call...the cornea had arrived. On the 10th, the operation took place and after an initial scare, which took us to Omaha five times in the month. My back was beginning to feel the pressure and an excruciating toothache held me captive the entire month. The month ended with sight restored and an amazing miracle as Steven could see his hometown in full color after two and a half years of being blind!


November -- This was the month that as Steven healed, my body crumbled. I had a tooth extracted, but the infection in my mouth was needling at the nerves in my back. A back x-ray showed that I had facet-joint arthritis and as I looked into more info on it, it flares up in the presence of an infection in the body. The dentist didn’t think the pain in my back related to the infection in my mouth, but then again she had no idea that I had arthritis which is just another name for inflammation.


December -- Found me at the dentist again with some not so great news. Close to ten grand needed but a down payment would get me and all the work needed started. She may have sympathy on me and possibly only 4500 will be needed but still she says this to a woman who hasn’t a penny to her name. I am poor, and found myself actually begging for my life. Literally.
Where is Steven in all of this? Well, he is on Social Security, and medicare, and if not for medicare, medicaid and the Lions Club, he would not have been seeing all the lights this Christmas. It will take a year of healing, and possibly the sutures on the cornea may not be taken out; the doc will watch him closely for a year.


I’ll end the year not knowing what tomorrow will bring or the New year, but I can say, I AM BLESSED! My family of writers/ artists, my church family have all surrounded me and comforted and help me in ways, you can only dream about. I am loved. And the year isn’t over!


I will rejoice in the New Year. I hold my head high and rejoice in the Lord and Savior, for it is He who carries me through each and every day!!! I WILL heal and I will come back fighting to the writing world! But for now... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


Read more at: BenningsWritingPad

Talk-o Tuesday

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce
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Well it is official, my beaus blog audiobook-heaven has become popular enough to plagiarize. He found his reviews while surfing audio book blogs and lo and behold, there sat his reviews, under a trumped up name audio heaven. The blog thief, I will not justify with a name so you don’t click to see for yourself the insensitive treatment of what plagiarism looks like first hand or the atrocity of stolen work, or to give this guy hits!!!

The reviews are being RSS fed, to this persons blog, and this person is using many bloggers in the audio book industry’s work. He is changing a few words here and there to make it not show up on the scale of search engines but his mistake is that his blog on audiobooks, is one of few blogs that report on the audio book industry. It showed up on the search engine, as my beau’s search engine spot disappeared. Two of the same posts put one in front of the other apparently.

I’m not up on search engine placement, or stats and hits. I’m just here writing. If I get one visit a day, I’ve done my job in giving a message. But beau, being blind, has something to sink his teeth into while awaiting the cornea transplant that will give him his sight back. He has his two blogs that occupy his day and in some way fulfills the wait.

My beau works his tail off on writing the reviews. He is contacted by publishers to do reviews, he contacts publishers and asks if they’d like reviews, and all in all, his work is on a Sci- fi site and other audio book bloggers, BUT with his permission. They love his writing skills and his honesty in his reviews. Although he didn’t give one book a great review, and the publisher never sent him any more books to review. Which was fine by him, because that one book may have spoken volumes (pardon the pun) about what the other books were going to be like.

Two years ago he went blind. I told him to maybe try blogging as I knew he had good writing skills and I knew by getting things off his chest through ‘journaling’ might help ease the anxiety of his sight being taken away. That is when The Drums in the Deep was born. A blog about his journey and other stuff.

Then he had been listening to so many audio books, that he began writing reviews, then had the idea, an audio book review site. It filled his day(s)! He became a techno geek on the writing, placement, stats, followings of everything audio book related.

He also helps give audio book sites assistance in easier maneuverability with a screen reader. They ask, he offers. It’s a win win situation. But to see someone steal your work, that hits hard! I’ve created a monster in the blogging world with my beau, but it is a kind furry, loving monster, so don’t be afraid to CLICK his site and visit, audiobook-heaven. You won’t be disappointed and it will support him in all his efforts. :)