For the past month, my life has taken a turn for the simple. I stay home, make food, give my girl her pink medicine. I wipe off the kitchen table with a hot cloth, make chicken soup on the stove, re-heat my morning coffee. Again. If you knock on my door, I’ll answer it but that’s about as intentionally social as I am able to be.

Once the kids are in bed, The Man and I watch Alaska: The Last Frontier and I fall asleep on the sofa.

After nine days of sick, the kids are all back in school and I turn my full attention back to the manuscript that is due in a little over a week.

I put down the quiet words, treasure them up, wait to see if they’re worth keeping. They simmer and I do, too. I come back the next day, read them back, shake my head, start again.

The words come slow on my commitment work, and I feel a pull to come over here to write in a place where the words are open and immediately received. I can’t take them back that way. Sometimes that’s good for me.

It’s the last day of November and I had every intention of sending out another newsletter this month. But then I realized that all I would have to offer is something like hey y’all. Whatchya doin?  and I didn’t think it was worth it.

And so I come here with not much in my hands today. But I wanted to come anyway just to change my writing pace a bit and also ask if you’ve seen Alaska: The Last Frontier? And also, do you live in Alaska? On a frontier? Because if you do I want to hear all about it. Or even if you just plain live in Alaska. The whole sun-not-coming-up-until-ten-and-setting-at-two completely fascinates me. And also gives me nightmares.