Turning Another Page!

And so, we turn the page... not only to a new month, but also to the 4th — and final — quarter of 2026.

I have been absent from here for a while, in part due to family obligations and in part due to being busy with preparations for the first outside arts and crafts show of the fall and holiday season, which took place this past weekend. I attend these as a seller of my artwork, in hopes of supplementing our meager income.

Sadly, the event didn't bring in much, and I worry that the rather sketchy economy here in the USA is going to take its toll on people selling any kind of "non-essentials," which definitely describes what I create.

In talking to other people at the fair I attended, I really noticed how people are finding it more and more difficult to keep a positive attitude, these days. It seems like virtually everybody is undergoing some kind of hardship, and generally arrive at the consensus that they "have never experienced anything like it before."

I'm not sure whether that reflects the actual truth of our times, or whether it is simply a reflection of every generation thinking that their problems are unique and different.

Regardless, I'm going to do the best I can to keep my eyes on looking forward and I'm doing the very best I can during this final quarter of 2026. While I'm well aware that maybe my artwork isn't going to sell particularly well, I also know that I have other things that I can focus on and hopefully they will help keep me afloat for another three months.

At the moment, I am wrestling with the insurance company that handles the homeowners insurance because they are threatening to cancel our policy unless certain repairs are made within the next few months. And that's pretty much impossible because we're not going to have the money on hand to make those repairs it said short notice. While we were definitely planning to get a new roof and not too distant future, that was a plan for 2028, not for the next three months. Meanwhile our whole house heater is also in need of some maintenance and repair.

That is one of the definite downsides of owning the place where you live: when the bills arrive they usually arrive in very large amounts, and they typically can't wait for very long. That is a very difficult situation to manage when your income barely is enough to cover your regular monthly expenses, let alone extraordinary expenses like roof repairs and heater maintenance.

But this seems to be something many households are facing, here in the USA. The scary statistic that more than half the people are only one unexpected car repair from bankruptcy seems to loom larger and larger, every day. When I run my errands in town, there seems to be a new closed shop almost every time... and the number of "For Sale" signs outside houses is growing rapidly.

Still, what can we do... but keep moving forward, one day at a time?

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Friday!

How about YOU? What are your hopes and plans for the next three months? Are you going to make the goals you set for youself, for 2026? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.10.02 01:28 PDT
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