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Please forgive my neglect but I’ve been dealing with yet another plot twist.

trishmercer 1 Comment

Hoooh, boy.

Over a month?! THAT’S how long it’s been since I last recorded?

Sheesh. That’s . . . that’s awful.

If you are frustrated with me, I hear you. I’m frustrated, too.

Would it help to explain that my life has been slightly chaotic? Yeah, I know everyone’s life is chaotic. But my recording “studio” is no longer even my possession.

Here’s the situation: we moved back to Utah nearly two years ago from Maine so we could be part of two of our daughters’ weddings and two of our sons’ babies’ births. When we moved back, I had a clear impression from God that we would be in our rental house for two years, enjoying these milestones in our family. And then . . . ?

The housing market in Utah is the worst in the country. I had been hoping for the past two years that it would cool down.

Nope. The rent on our house went up last year, but this spring it went up another $400/month. And prices for a mere two-story townhome in our county is $425k. Forget a regular house.

I’m a school teacher, making mid-$50k. My husband was an academic advisor at a university, making about the same. You don’t need to be a mathematician to realize the numbers don’t add up to us making Utah our permanent home again. We can’t even make rent anymore.

God gives me insights into my future, but only in snippets. After our initial two years here, He hadn’t shown me what would come next.

Probably because He knew I’d never believe it. That I had to be pretty desperate to do it.

And by March, we were feeling pretty desperate, with every last rental in the valley over $2,000/month, and out of our price range.

Cue the next plot twist.

(Yes, dear Father, I do love a good plot twist, but so many?!)

Last summer one of our sons moved to Florida to help his father-in-law open a few franchises. When the news of our inability to afford living in Utah was shared with our family, one of our adult daughters jokingly said, “Dad should go manage a store” for her brother. After all, my husband has managed big box stores in the past.

We laughed.

Then we thought about it.

And prayed about it.

And got ridiculously excited about it, even though Florida was never a state I’d consider moving to. (And God knew that. Not a mountain anywhere.)

That was in March. By April the decision was made, and for the past several weeks we’ve been packing, including my walk-in closet recording studio.

Three weeks ago I took off a few days of teaching and drove with my husband, sons, and a moving truck to Florida. I left them there. I flew back to Utah so my youngest daughter could finish her school. She has several camps lined up for the first half of summer here in Utah, and since my contract to teach at a residential treatment center requires me to work until July, that works out for her.

But leaves us rather nomadic for a while. We’re house sitting for various friends taking care of their pets while they’re away, crashing for a week here and a week there at our adult children’s homes, and waiting for the day we get to drive cross country (again) to live in our new home in Florida (where we could actually afford to buy something).

My hope is that I can get to recording again, once the dust settles (I’m still cleaning out the last bits from my old rental house this weekend, although I can’t live in it since the carpets were cleaned). I look forward to dull, peaceful days with nothing to clean or pack, just lessons to create for summer school. And maybe I’ll have a few free hours to sit in my car (or an unsuspecting friend’s walk-in closet) and record a few more chapters before my new teaching job at a private Catholic school in Melbourne, Florida begins in August.

I still plan to finish recording these books. I stopped mid-way through chapter 2 of The Mansions of Idumea and Perrin is pacing anxiously in the background of my mind, waiting for his chance to speak again, while Mahrree is more understanding about the hassles of moving 2,400 miles and tells him to just let me figure out where I’m sleeping tonight.

So please forgive my lack of productivity. It’s been shifted to more necessary tasks.

But good news: my new house in Florida does have a lovely walk-in closet.

In the whirlwind weekend I spent in Florida unloading a massive UHaul truck into a storage unit, touring several houses for sale on the market, and buying food for my family before leaving them, we had a spare 30 minutes to spend at the beach. I hope it will be more in the future.

“I’d rather fight the current”

trishmercer 6 Comments

Not long ago an acquaintance asked why I seemed distrustful of the media and government. She was embarrassed by some of my comments and posts, and thought I was “coming across as a little paranoid.”

Only a little? Clearly I’m not doing enough.

I chuckled sadly and told her, “My parents grew up in Nazi Germany.

“My formative years were filled with warnings and advice about putting too much faith in an entity that promises to fix everything.

“My father was adamant about preserving and protecting freedom, especially of those with whom he disagreed. He wrote many letters to the editor insisting upon maintain our freedoms.

“My mother watched the news carefully and analyzed every word.

“They were so proud to become citizens of America, and feared it may fall.

“It was as if they knew I’d be living at a time when the world forgot how dictators create dissension and discord in order to overthrow a country.

“I’m grateful that they passed away a few years ago and can’t see what’s happening now to our history and freedoms.”

My acquaintance simply shrugged and said, “I don’t really know anything about the World Wars,” and walked away.

I wasn’t surprised. Very few people really want to know anymore. Too many in America seem to revel in ignorance, which is ironic since at no other time in the history of humans has information been so plentiful and easy to access.

Sadly, a section of our population prefers to be told what to believe and what to do, and believe that taking the seemingly easier way will be the better way. Free everything for everybody, and if it’s not given, then just take it. They seem to think the end result will be a country of easiness, equality, and handouts for everyone.

If they knew anything about history, they’d remember that in thousands of years, that result has never, ever occurred. Whoever ultimately achieves the “top seats” immediately pounces on the lower folks who got them there.

We’re being used by going along with every new edict, rule, and illogical mandate forced upon us without vote, without representation. I suspect that COVID-19 has now become a testing ground of sorts to see just how much citizens will put up with for the sake of the “common good.” How many freedoms and privileges will we give up for a virus that has a 98% survivability rate? We’ve been thrown into a massive experiment which has long since lost its initial purpose of flattening curves (they’re flat, very flat) and now has become a test of just how much control we’ll accept.

I’m encouraged by how many people are beginning to grow tired of the experiment, are beginning to question the “wisdom” behind many mandates, and are quietly beginning to take back their freedoms.

Together, we can fight the current and live.

The joyful heartache of growing up

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I seem to stay the same, but all around me children are moving on. The semester is ending this week, my students will wave good-bye and new groups will come in, many I’ve had before but are now older, many seniors for whom this will be the last semester of high school. Then they’ll walk away.

At home, I will have new grandbabies this year, a new in-law joining the family, and adult children on the move in all directions. I feel the need to chase them down, as I did when they were toddlers racing to the toy section of the store. But now, they run faster than I can.

My only consolation is that my adult children with families also express their happiness at their babies’ milestones, then complain that their children are growing too fast.

I think every generation for thousands has endured the same joyful heartaches.

Children grow away

 

Actually, it is . . .

trishmercer 2 Comments

Anytime we make simple, generalized statements about how something “is,” and ignore the variables that prove otherwise, we take away knowledge and the freedom to question the assumptions.

The sky is not blue. There’s always so much more going on. And even the blue is an illusion. So the really worry is, why do we pretend it’s only blue?

5 sky is blue tactic

Send me your favorite lines from ANY of the books and I’ll send you a new bookmark (eventually)

trishmercer 2 Comments

What are you favorite lines from the Forest at the Edge book series? I need them! To meme them!

Now that I’m teaching high school full-time again, I don’t have the luxury of blogging to draw attention to my book series. Then I had an idea: Let the books sell themselves. Why not just publish lines or segments of dialogue a couple times a week on social media?

So in my spare time I’ve been glancing through my books trying to find lines that I think are intriguing or memorable, but honestly I don’t know what is intriguing or memorable.

That’s where I’d appreciate your help: Send me lines from ANY of the books that YOU like, and I’ll put them in a meme. I figure: you’re a reader, so you’ll know what will draw in other readers and get them interested. (I’m a genius, I know.)

So respond to this posting, or go to my Contact Me page and send me an email of lines I should meme. If I get organized, I’m going to make new bookmarks and send you one as a thank you by Christmas. (That’s the dream–it may be spring, who knows.)

I might post memes in order of the books–what do you think? For example, below is the first meme I’ve made. Should I go in order? Or should I throw out memes from all the books in any old order?

King Oren killing squad name change

I’d also like to thank you for your reviews of Book 8, The Last Day. Your reviews are helping the series get more exposure, and I really appreciate that!

So send me your lines, your opinions, your ideas, and (eventually) I’ll send you a bookmark as a thank you!