This has been a month of changes for me and my family. Morrigan of course got home, after separating out from the navy. There’s been a lot of packing and prep to move into our new place, so the housing situation has been very transitional. And just barely, I’ve begun writing again!

Back before my family moved to Boston in 2014, my cousin Jen and I lived about five minutes drive from each other. For several years, we got together weekly to write, alternating houses. We also did a lot of walking together at the local hiking trails nearby. About six months after I moved, her life circumstances changed and she returned to work. Even after I moved home, we were rarely able to get together. She now lives on the other side of town, but starting this month, she changed to a job with more flexible hours and the two of us began to meet up again for walk-then-write sessions weekly. While I haven’t been writing anything decent, I’ve at least been writing again those days, which is awesome.

This was also Thanksgiving month, of course, which I talked about yesterday. It was nice to see so much of my extended family and I look forward to seeing even more this upcoming month.

Reading
Started the month in a slump, which ended when I opened Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. Ended up reading a total of four books in November. Tuesday Mooney was definitely my favorite of them!

Watching
There was not a lot of time for TV/movies this month! I did finish the final episode of the Great British Baking Show this season, and watched one movie on my backlist: Yesterday, which was very different than I was expecting and quite cute. Even though I’m not a Beatles fan.

House
We decided to wait until we move to put this house on the market. This way, it can show vacant, and we don’t have to deal with the whole “five cats” issue. Or our old furniture that won’t exactly show nicely. Etc. We’re still stripping things down, packing all but essentials, scrubbing and cleaning and generally sprucing the place up, but it’s a lot less frantic than when we were trying to push flat-out last month.

Health
Transitional months aren’t good for me. I really did try to get things going again this month, then had a PTSD breakdown and spent the rest of the month in gentle self-care. Then ten-year anniversary of my original weight loss journey just passed on November 27th, and I remained about exactly where I’ve been the last few years. I’m kinda tired of repeating myself like this, I admit…and I also feel like the new house will be a bit of a new start for me. There’s one specific reason that I’ll discuss in a future post, but I have a feeling that exercise at least will be easier for me in the new place.

Highlights of November
Other highlight of the month include:

• watching Laurence’s most recent performance, in James and the Giant Peach
• Ambrose made the most amazing chocolate bavarois for dessert one night, mmm…
• those Taylor vs Cat memes – they just get funnier every time. I’m such a dork.
• making Christmas wreaths with a wonderful group of friends
• I began the process of going back to school in the fall!
• my new literary cats mug!!!

Coming up in December
It’s a big month. Beyond Christmas (a huge deal in my family) and New Year’s Eve, it’s Jason’s and my 20th anniversary on the 22nd. Also, we’re supposed to close on our new house in just a few days. So yeah. Lots of stuff about to happen, hopefully we have some breathing room somewhere in there right??