Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers out there!

It’s certainly been a long year so far, so it’s all the more important to take a moment to let those you love how much you appreciate them – and today is a great day to let a father (or grandfather, if available) how much you love them. I know there are many families that are still separated by quarantine concerns, but fortunately, despite the continued issues that the nation and world are facing, we live in an era where loved ones are no further than a phone call (or video call) away.

Stay safe and Happy Father’s Day! 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there!

I know I have talked about my son living here in San Antonio and our daughter living in Washington, D.C. I’m a first-time grandmother of the most terrific two month old (and I’m very un-biased in saying that!) – and due to this awful Coronavirus, my husband and I haven’t been able to hold our favorite grandbaby… let alone be in the same city as she is. I am so thankful that we live in a day where we can still be in contact by phone or by the visual technology that is available today!

Stay safe and Happy Mother’s Day! 

Unfortunately, we have lost another in the Cozy author community recently. Sheila Connolly passed away toward the end of April at the age of 70.

Sheila Connolly was the author of multiple very popular Cozy Mystery series, including the Orchard Mystery Series, the Museum Mysteries Series, the Relatively Dead Mystery Series, the Victorian Village Mystery Series, and the County Cork Mystery Series, the last of which I wrote a blog entry about. Under the pen name Sarah Atwell, she was also the author of the Glassblowing Mystery Series.

Rest in Peace, Sheila. You will be missed by many, and our sympathies go out to her family and friends.

Just a short note today… everyone please be sure to stay safe during these very trying times, and try to do your best to stay positive during any stay-at-home anti-virus plans that your government might be implementing.

We just entered shelter-in-place status yesterday (Wednesday), but have been self-isolating for a while now… the virus isn’t hitting our area particularly hard compared to many but it’s still better to be safe rather than sorry, so we’ve definitely been prioritizing safety over convenience.

I’m sure this will start to wear over time – I like to go out at least once a day just to not be stuck at home, so that’s definitely impacting my routine. My husband is not as impacted – he is more of a “homebody” than I am in many ways and would be just as happy to “self-isolate” more or less year round I think… but we’re both definitely missing our son, who visits on a fairly regular basis but who we probably won’t see until the duration is passed. Still, it is good to know that he is taking the isolation seriously as well. Also, we have recently invested in video conferencing with our daughter so we are “seeing” her fairly regularly still… which was a happy coincidence – we wanted to be able to “see” our daughter more often, even though she has always been good about keeping in touch with us via email and regular calls.

So, that’s what’s happening here with us in San Antonio… again, try to stay safe and keep your spirits up! I’m sure we can all weather this storm.