Rachel’s new book. Rachel Held Evans’ new book, Searching for Sunday, just came out. I’m trying to finish my current murder mystery (which is amazing) so I can read it! You can get it here or here.

APL Cat Lady. She used to have a Facebook page called “Sticky and Co.” about her kitties. She adopted some black kitties with asthma and then started fostering kitties for the Ashtabula County Animal Protection League, focusing specifically on black kitties. When we were trying to find homes for my boys and Freya, she made some beautiful signs for them and she was really wonderful to me when Edda disappeared and when Cullen died. Her Facebook page is here.

This story. When my grandfather was in his last days and living at a nursing home in Washington, Mom brought me out on the train to visit him. He was missing their cat Emily so we found him a stuffed cat to have so he could pet it. We asked him the name of his cat and he replied, “Grendel”. Given how far gone his mind was, it was a flicker of his normal sense of humor and we were joking about how the stuffed cat liked to eat “Great Danes”. It’s been 9 years since he passed away and I still miss him dreadfully.

Being a regular layperson. I’m going to help with a funeral at church this morning and I’m seriously looking forward to being just an extra set of hands instead of “Pastor Jon’s wife”. Don’t get me wrong -I do enjoy being pseudo-clergy most of the time – but it’s kind of nice to just be “Jen” on occasion.

Having my taxes done a month early. It’s nice not to have any pressure this week.

Go love up Jenna and the others.