Flames are curling around the logs in my wood stove as I write this, creating a cozy, warm glow that we need as it is very cold and raining outside.

Tomorrow, temperatures are supposed to be higher and more manageable so we might not need a fire. By Thursday (Thanksgiving) night, we will be back to lighting the fire to keep the house warm.

Heating oil has been through the roof for two winters now so we have been glad to have a wood stove that heats much of the house and helps us cut down on that bill. We have electric heat upstairs so that helps some but this year the state deregulated electric so now that is also going up.

I don’t usually write share a tea and chat post in the middle of the week but this week I felt like I wanted to just chat with visitors to my blog.

Don’t worry, this isn’t an affiliate post, which you might be seeing more of from time to time here on the blog. I am not really a fan of affiliate posts, to be honest, but our family can use all the financial help it can get so I’ve decided to at least do a few a month. I doubt I will make anything, honestly, but I’ll never know if I don’t try.

That’s one thing I wanted to talk about in this post – to assure my regular readers that this blog isn’t going to become just an advertising blog. I will link to some products I like but they won’t all be affiliate links. Sometimes I just want to show you somewhere you can grab a copy of a book or a journal or find a movie I liked. I am working with a couple of different sites but many of the links I provide won’t be affiliate links – just informational ones.

And I won’t even link to products all the time. I don’t have time for all that, for one, but I also like just sharing for the fun of it and not to get something in return.

With that being said, I’m going to go back to rambling now.

Tonight I am watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman as I write this. I’m watching the Pilot episode which was a 90-minute movie first aired in 1993.

I used to watch this show every Saturday night when I was a teenager. It’s not holding up too bad – at least based on this pilot episode. Of course there would be people who would call it racist or cultural appropriation, or who knows what, these days, but for me it was one of the first show where I saw Native Americans portrayed as they are, not as stereotypes. It was a show that also showed the prejudice against them by white settlers and the army. It showed me that what our country did to the Native Americans was wrong and, in almost every way, unforgiveable.

I need the escape right now so I am sure I will continue watching it the rest of the week.

Life is heavy sometimes lately, right?

Like it isn’t just me?

So many people, including my family, are struggling financially. Where it was just a few here and there before, it’s not a lot of people around me and a lot of us are embarrassed to say anything.

An author friend and I finally had to admit to each other we are broke and can’t send out books for free or giveaways anymore. It feels good to be honest, even if I am embarrassed that I’m a grown woman who feels like I should be more financially secure at this point in my life.

Every time I feel like we are ahead, though, we get kicked back with either heating costs, things shutting down, rising food prices, or a doubling of our health insurance premiums.

I don’t want this post here to be too much of a downer, so I’ll say that even as I worry and we stress there are good moments too.

There are some successes and a lot of laughter and joy in our family.

Yesterday our daughter was talking to a friend on the phone and they were playing an online roleplaying game (safe one. I checked.). Little Miss said to her friend, “I just think you need to break up with him.”

The friend said back to her something like, “I will but messing with him is fun right now.”

God bless whomever that young lady dates later in life.

Little Miss was watching Bambi on her phone the other day and I quickly texted The Husband:

“Should I warn her about Bambi’s mom? I mean she about flipped out when she thought Chance was going to die in Homeward Bound. I should probably tell her.”

The Husband: “She has to grow up sometime. She’ll be fine.”

I look at her and it’s getting closer to the scene and I finally say, “Listen, about Bambi’s mom…”

“Yeah, Mom, I know. She dies. It’s fine.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, good, I’m glad you know.”

“I’m more upset that they have a man voice acting Flower’s voice.”

“You can’t enjoy the movie because a man is voice acting Flower? Not because Bambi’s mom died?”

“Yes.”

A quick Internet search later to double check I am right: “Honey, Flower is a boy. Bambi just called him Flower because he thought he was a flower. Also, his voice was done by three different male actors of different ages.”

She lets me know then it is fine that a male voice actor provided the voice and she can now enjoy the movie.

We are going to my parents tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner. What are you doing? If you are in the United States and celebrate it, of course.

Whatever you do, I hope you have a good one. I’ll touch base again this weekend and see how it went.