Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Update: Where I've Been

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Wow, I can't believe that I dropped on the ball on posting for so long. I cannot apologize enough for this. I love interacting with everyone, but life just sort of swallowed me up. Let me see if I can do a quick rundown of life over the past 6 months or so.

As some of you know, my oldest son has cerebral palsy. This prevents him from being able to drive. He's also taking college courses so I became his official driver and tutor. This takes up a lot of time and while I have no regrets, I didn't learn how to balance everything else along side of it. It's a new semester now and we're gone even more than last semester for his classes. 

On top of that, we have the house issue. Unfortunately, that's ongoing. We were supposed to buy the house in May, but due to circumstances, I cannot get a loan. The owners, even though we've never missed a rent payment in over 15 years, would not sell to use on a land contract. What does that mean? We're living here on borrowed time while I desperately attempt to save up about $16,000 to allow us to buy a used trailer so that we can move out of here. It won't be the nicest home, but it will be ours, and a safe space for myself, the kids, and the cats. As you can imagine, this is very stressful and also interfered with things.

Due to my feeling of urgency to move, we took the summer and downsized our belongings and took a weekend to completely gut our barn. We didn't know it was leaking and so many things were ruined. It broke my heart and my bank account, but we filled a dumpster and now everything is packed away in totes. No carboard allowed out there.

I'm sure there were other things, but those were the big ones. It's been a stressful and busy time. Now that the semester has started, I'm hoping that my editing work picks up so I can continue to put away money so that we can get out of here before the owners kick us out with nowhere to go. I'm also hoping to start the next book in our cat series by the end of the year. I know I'm behind on that and all I can do is apologize.

One good thing that I have added is Twitch streaming! That's right! Every Thursday night, you can tune in and listen to me read stories from my books. Right now, I'm reading from Return to the Toy Store. This is also a great time to have the opportunity to chat with not just me, but people from all over the world. I promise that it's a great time and completely safe for your children to tune in and listen too! Just head over to http://twitch.tv/katieroets every Thursday night at 8pm eastern. The streams are just over an hour so not a huge time commitment and something that I'm very much enjoying!

Okay, I've kept you long enough. Just know that I'm still here and doing my best to stay on top of things. I hope you're still here with me! 






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Monday, September 16, 2024

Crockpot Monday: Creamy Veggies

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Creamy Veggies:

Ingredients:

12 oz fresh broccoli

16 oz fresh green beans

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

2 whole jalapeno peppers (don't chop them up, just lay them nicely on top)

2 Tablespoons water

 

Directions: 

Wash and trim your vegetables, put into crockpot. Cover them with the sour cream, cheeses, butter, spices, and add your touch of water.

 Cook on low for 4-5 hours.


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Friday, February 16, 2024

Announcement: We hit $500!

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Guys, I am so excited to be able to say that we hit $500 in pledges on the Holidays at the Toy Store pre-order campaign! This pre-order period has been rough. I've been fighting getting sick again (I was diagnosed previously with copd), running the oldest around everywhere, and working. On top of that, the campaign itself is just moving slow. I've had my ups and downs with it, but I've never given up hope that we'll make it. Today, that hope has been rewarded!

What does that mean for all of you? If you pledge to the campaign, you will get an ebook copy of Apo's Army automatically if we fund. Plus, I'm going to be going live on Twitch to read at least two stories from Holidays at the Toy Store. It's your chance to get a sneak peek at the newest book! 

Want to get in on the action? Click this link right here: 





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Monday, February 5, 2024

Announcement: Kickstarter Update!

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Hi, everyone! We're almost a week into the pre-order campaign and we've raised 20% of the total needed to bring the book to print. I'm super excited! Only about $1200 more to go. I have total faith that we can do it. Remember, this is for our very first coloring book as well as Holidays at the Toy Store.

I did want to give you a little incentive though. For every $500 we raise, I'm going to give everyone an ebook copy of a book. They will be:
$500 - Apo's Army
$1000 - Origins #1 by Jessica Judd
$1500 - Cobalt's Castaways

These books are not available elsewhere on the campaign. The only way to get them for free is to pledge and get us to those individual levels. Easy peasy, right? 


Until next week's update,






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Monday, January 29, 2024

Crockpot Monday: Turtle Pudding

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Turtle Pudding:

Ingredients:

1 (16-ounce) box brownie mix

1 large egg

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup water (room temp, or slightly warm)

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

20 wrapped soft caramels (unwrapped)

whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)

 

Directions:

 Use a 4 or 6 quart slow cooker with an inserted oven safe dish.

 In a mixing bowl, combine the brownie mix, egg, oil, and water. When batter has formed, stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour batter into your dish. Unwrap all of the caramel candies and press them into your brownie batter. 

 Add 1/2 to 1 cup of water into the bottom of your slow cooker, then lower in the brownie dish. Be careful not to splash any water into your batter.

 Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours, or until the edges have pulled away from the sides and the center has set.

 Unplug your cooker, and let the dish set in it for 1 hour with the lid off before removing. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.


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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Announcement: Kickstarter Campaign

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It's up! Eric did a smashing job and finished 95% of the graphics. The others will be done soon and inserted, but that was enough to get it up and running. It will launch on January 31st, but if you want to be notified when it happens, I'm going to share a link with all of you. You just click that and then click notify and you'll get an email when I hit the go live button!



I can't wait for all of you to see this book! I'm super excited about it. Remember, if you want to be notified, just click the title of the book here: Holidays at the Toy Store






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Monday, January 22, 2024

Crockpot Monday : Apple Crisp

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Apple Crisp:

Ingredients:
9 smallish apples

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar plus another 2 Tablespoons for crumb topping
1/4 cup orange juice

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

1 cup crushed gingersnaps or graham crackers.

 

Preheat your crock on high, and butter the inside of the crockpot. Chop up the apples and place them in the bottom. Cover with the remaining ingredients. Cube your butter. Toss the orange juice, cubed butter, brown sugar, vanilla and apples together.

 Mix your crushed gingersnaps/graham crackers and add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Layer on top of apples.

 Cover and cook on high for approximately 3 hours, or until apples are sufficiently tender.


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