Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 15th

         Every week I tell myself to jot down little notes on highlights of my daily life for my weekly wrap up...and every week I do not do this! Someday I need to do a blog post about procrastination. 

 

Monday - This was Martin Luther King Jr day, so I had the day off.  Just got caught up on household chores and did some crocheting.

Tuesday - All I remember is this was a super busy day at work. I know that our customers don't understand that we were off 3 days so we already come into the work week one day late, but I wish they could be a bit more patient. My biggest pet peeve are the ones that send me an email, a text and then still call right after to see if I received the email and text!

    Wednesday - I took mom to Walmart in the evening. The Walmart we go to during the week is about eight miles away. We used to enjoy going to Kmart there until it closed. We would make an evening of it by having dinner first, but now it seems that all the restaurants we used to love have really bad food and even worse service, and they are so expensive it's not worth it to go and be treated badly just to eat horrible food. Most of the time we just grab a burger at Jack in the Box.

    Thursday - Just a typical day of just working, nothing exciting.

    Friday - I was never so happy to see a Friday, I was exhausted from trying to get caught up at work. I also knew that I had a nice weekend planned. My sister Lisa had planned a get together with our good friend Lupe. We had not seen her for quite a while, so I was really looking forward to the weekend.

    Saturday - Woke up to a drizzling rain outside, I wasn't sure my mom was going to be up to heading out to go shopping which is her favorite thing on Saturday...but she was ready. We headed out around 11 am and first stop was her favorite fabric store. I wish I had thought to take photos of the inside of this store, but here are some photos from their website. It's an amazing place!

I believe these are polyester. Look at all those bolts of fabric!

Check out those prices $2.99 a yard and $3.99 a yard! And that huge box of zippers!

It's just amazing to walk threw a row like this and touch all the fabric.

    As you can see; just rows and rows of delicious fabric; cottons, flannel, felt, satin, silk, polyester. Fabric for curtains, upholstery, quilting, dresses, wedding dresses, bridesmaids' dresses...anything you can think of. The prices are ridiculously inexpensive compared to fabric at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby. They also offer buttons, zippers, thread and beads. The only downside is trying to slide a big roll of fabric from the bottom, they are so heavy. But they have lots of people roaming around offering help.

    Then we had lunch at Lorene's Coffee Shop. I don't really care for this place, but I may have to rethink it because I ordered the burger and fries on the senior menu and check this out! It was as delicious as it looks and the fries were perfection. Mom had the chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli and garlic bread. I will definitely go there again whenever I want a good burger.

    But we weren't done yet. We went to another favorite store and again I did not get any pictures. Mi Hacienda Rustic Furniture store has the most amazing hand-crafted items by Mexican artisans. 

http://www.mihacienda.net/

    Mom and I are putting together a basket to be raffled at our family reunion in February 2024. We want it to be unique so that it will raise a lot of money. There was one special piece that we wanted to buy and we were lucky they had one in the color we wanted. I can't show it until after the raffle because it's top secret.

    Here are some photos of the items available. It is like visiting a museum, you could spend hours in there.

The little cats are so sweet. I love all the bright vivid colors.

I would love to have those teal vases, I'll have to check out the price next time I am there. Love the bowl with the green pears, that would be so pretty in my kitchen.

These two little guys would look lovely in a pretty garden and I adore the turquoise owl!

Now this is pure happiness right here. Can you imagine serving a frosty Margarita on the patio in the summer in one of these?

They also have custom leather saddles and purses.

    After that mom was about done. She gets tired really quickly. I made a quick stop at a grocery store to pickup up some strawberries and cream cheese for a special dessert I was going to make as I was going to a dinner at my sisters house with our friend Lupe. Lupe was spending the night, I was supposed to also, but my bed was only two blocks away and sounded much more comfy to me!

    Lisa had wanted to try a recipe she found on Facebook. It was a recipe for making Beef Stew, or was we call it in Hispanic households Caldo de Res. This was all she had for the recipe. She wanted to try it because we had never heard of putting apple juice and/or apple cider vinegar in stew before.

    This is how it turned out. It was actually very good. I really think the Apple Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar made a big different. 

    You are supposed to put it in a slow cooker I guess, doesn't really say, but even after 5 hours of cooking it was not done in the slow cooker. I was still practically raw, so she transferred it to her soup pot and it was done in 45 minutes. She also added cabbage because she loves cabbage. 

    For dessert we had the cheesecake stuffed strawberries that I made. Actually...these were made by Lupe because she wanted to learn how to make them so she could recreate them for her grandchildren. Recipe HERE if you would like to make them, they are low carb as I use Splenda instead of sugar. 

    We had a great playing the game Trouble, it's fun to play a game you used to play as a kid as an adult. Game took forever though. Remember playing this? What was your favorite board game as a child?

    Then we played Pon Uno, Pon Dos. I had never played this before, but we had fun. Pon Uno means put one, Pon Dos means put two, Toma todo means take it all. So you pull out all your change and you spin a top kinda like a dreidel and if you get Pon Dos, then you get to choose two of whatever coin you want. Say you put two quarters in the pot, then everyone puts in two quarters. When someone spins and gets Toma todo that means take it all, so they get to take everything in the pot. Cool little game, I enjoyed it.

    Then we sat around drinking wine and catching up. It had been a long time since the three of us were together. We used to go camping a lot, but Covid changed all that. Do you find that your friendships changed after Covid? 

    Sunday morning I got up and went back over to Lisa's house because I was supposed to be spending the night there. We had coffee and sat and chatted...why is it we never run out of things to talk about? Then I made us Chilaquiles. I didn't get a picture but mine are very similar in look to these.

    Chilaquiles are a traditional Mexican breakfast dish consisting of corn tortillas cut into strips and lightly fried, then you add scrambled egg. I did it differently this time, I fried the egg, then added crushed tortilla chops and shredded cheese and salsa. I've never had anything I didn't love if it had tortilla chips in it!

    Then I went home totally prepared to watch a great football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills and promptly fell asleep. I woke up about halfway through the fourth quarter so I did get to watch a very exciting end of the game and I was very happy to see the Chiefs win, even though the Dallas Cowboys are my team.

    That's it for my weekly wrap up, I feel like I've written a book! For those of you that read every word and made it to the end...thank you!

My Magic Dry Erase Board

          We have a magic dry erase board in our house. It’s magnetically attached to our refrigerator. To look at it in the picture below you would say, “Hmm, what’s so magical about that?” What is magical about it is that when we write grocery items on it that we need, they magically appear. I kid you not!

 

The other day we ran out of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate packets. These are the only ones that my family likes. I once made the mistake in 2018 of buying Nestles Hot Chocolate packets and they are still sitting there to this day, but they love the Swiss Miss!

          I had also run out of the Sugar-free Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Packets and these are so good! I like to have one when I want to sit down and be cozy and read my book so they last me a while.

          I wrote each one on the board. I am a visual person, if you tell me you need something the minute I turn around it’s out of my head. However, if you write it down, I will remember it till the day I die and beyond!

          So, I write things down that I want to remember to get at the grocery store and on my way out of the house I snap a picture on my phone, it’s so easy!

          The other day, my sister Lisa took our mom to a doctor’s appointment. Somehow when Lisa was here, she noticed that I had Swiss Miss regular and sugar-free written on the magical board. Mom also noticed and remembered. After the doctor’s appointment, they stopped at the grocery store, so look what I now have!

 

        Isn’t that crazy? We are set for the rest of the winter months. Since this board is magical I thought I would ask for something a little less ordinary…let’s hope the magical dry erase board comes through with this one!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Do You Truly Listen or Listen Only For Your Turn to Talk?

I follow a blog called Spo-Reflections and most recently read a post “Resist the urge to hurry” and while leaving a comment I felt the urge to write a post about his second New Years resolution – Pause before speaking.

My comment to him was as follows:

“I cut people off because I THINK I have a gist of what they are trying to say. It’s wrong of me to do that because insightful as I think I am, I’m not always right and I should listen. In recent years I have noticed that there are many people in my life that don’t tend to listen because they are so busy creating a response in their head. Everyone wants to be listened to, whether we do know what they are going to say or not…so I like your second one, I’m going to keep that one in mind in 2024.”

Most people, myself included listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. As I listen to clients, co-workers, family, and friends, in my mind I am putting together what I am going to reply. I’m not truly listening; I’m waiting for my turn to talk…and sometimes it’s frustrating to wait.

Ralph Waldo Emerson himself said ‘There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk. I think a lot of us are just waiting for our turn to talk.

What is truly listening? I think truly listening means putting aside our own thoughts and feelings about what we are hearing. We shouldn’t hear just to plan what to say, how to argue a point or get someone to understand our point of view.

When I was a youngster in school, I truly listened to my teachers and elders because I was young and ignorant. I didn’t know anything yet, I had not lived life or read books or studied theories, so I listened to those that had and soaked up what they had to say like a little sponge. Doing that made me the person I am today, someone that is so full of herself and so sure of her knowledge that I don’t listen, truly listen.

What do you think, do you listen, truly listen or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?

Please visit Urspo at Spo-Reflections, he is a very gifted writer and he’s funny and creative and I enjoy reading his posts.

Waiting for Alzheimers - It Runs in the Family

     I know, it's a strange title, but stick with me. 

     My earliest memories of my maternal grandmother were of visiting her house and at the end of the visit we would find things missing that we had brought with us, toys, keys, purses. My aunts who were her caretakers always knew where they were, they were in her petaquilla a Spanish word for an old-fashioned steamer trunk. I thought my grandmother was just putting things away for safe keeping. No, this was just a symptom, keep reading.

   
 My grandmother was a smart lady and a believer in tough love! I remember once, when I was a little girl, I had a fingernail that I had smashed in a door; it was almost ready to fall off, just hanging there, but I would not let anyone touch it. My grandmother asked to see it and I right away put my hand behind my back, she kept asking and promised she only wanted to look at it, she would not touch it. My mom warned me to be respectful, so I tentatively reached my hand out to my grandmother and she yanked that little fingernail off before I had a chance to blink or register pain! Everyone laughed at the look of astonishment on my face and off I went to rejoin my cousins and play.

My Maternal Grandmother Tomasa, my mother is her namesake

     Several years later we visited my grandmother who lived with her two daughters that were her caretakers. I remember arriving and seeing her in her wheelchair, her gnarled fingers clutching the arm rails. My mom hugged her as did my dad and siblings but I was fearful, my mom insisted. This was not the grandmother that I remembered, she had never been a very affectionate grandmother, being rather stern and serious as you can tell from the picture above; but now she wasn't even really there, she was muttering strange things and looking down, she never looked up, even when her daughter, my mother, her baby, the youngest in the family, walked in. 

     My mother was getting upset that I would not greet my grandmother so I forced myself to go up to my grandmother and reached out my arms to her. I led head first, not wanting really to put my body at risk of getting too close to her, in case I had to take off running. Big mistake...she grabbed my ponytail and started moving her arm left then right, then left again and my little legs struggled to keep up with her arm and I began hitting her, her legs, arms, I wasn't really aiming, just trying to save myself. I was screaming and crying and terrified!

     My aunts grabbed her arm and held it steady while they pried her death grip off my ponytail, finger by finger until I fell at her feet, crying and sobbing and my mom reached down, pulled me up, swatted me on my butt and told me to never hit my grandmother again.

     I didn't know it then, but I know it now, my grandmother had Alzheimer's Disease and it was pretty advanced by this time. She got gradually worse and eventually died from it.

    She died from it and she also lost a son and three daughters from it. My mom has told us for years that she was going to get Alzheimer's it runs in her family. We kept reassuring her that she would not and she would get angry with us. I think to her it was a badge of honor. Her people died of Alzheimer's and dammit, she would too.

Mom in red was about 5 years ago, the older picture is when she met my dad around 1956'ish

    Mom just turned 87 this December. She still walks and talks and does her own laundry and cooks her own food. She loves shopping and watching YouTube videos about beading and jewelry making. She makes beautiful bracelets and earrings and rosaries. She sews blankets, quilts, bags, hats, dresses, almost anything you can think of, she can sew it. She still keeps track of her four kids and keeps us in line and that's not an easy task!

    She has a mind like a steel trap, she doesn't forget anything. I'm so happy that Alzheimer's didn't get her, even if it is the disease of her people, the chain had to be broken along the way. I'm hoping all four of her children, their children and their children's' children will never get that awful disease. 

What Would You Do?

 

I’m reading a book that has me thinking! What would I do, if someday I became a quadriplegic? A quadriplegic is someone that has had spinal damage that has left them paralyzed from the neck down. That would mean that you can’t walk, run, sit, or stand without help. You would need someone to feed you, cloth you, bathe you, clean you up after you urinate and/or have a bowel movement. Nothing would work, except for your brain.

In the book by Jojo Moyes titled Me Before You, 35-year-old Will Traynor was a partner in a prestigious law firm in London. He was hit by a motorcycle early one rainy morning as he was crossing the street and awoke as a quadriplegic.

Can you even imagine that? One moment you’re young and strong and have the world by the tail and the next moment you need help to do the smallest of things, like blow your nose.

In the story, Will agrees to wait six months; at his parents request before he goes to a place called Dignitas, which come to find out is actually a real place. Dignitas is a non-profit organization that offers access to assisted dying in Switzerland. His parents want him to take the six months to think about everything he would lose and would miss if he were to commit suicide. But for Will, he’s already lost everything, he already misses everything. He doesn’t want to live trapped in his body which will gradually weaken and he’s in constant pain.

In walks Louisa Clark aka Lou aka Clark who becomes his caretaker for the six months. She doesn’t know she’s just on suicide watch although she notices that he’s got scars along his arms which look very much to her like a suicide attempt, she finds out it was. Will was left in his wheelchair very close to a window that had a nail sticking out of it and by the ability to move his wheelchair back and forth he was able to cut his arms open and almost dies, he is found just in time.

Will has had to move in with his parents, he has his own private rooms and a physiotherapist named Nathan that comes in daily to exercise him and take care of the bodily functions that Will has. Louisa is hired to relieve Nathan and eventually she finds out that she has been hired to watch him to make sure he does not hurt himself again. She later finds out about the six-month waiting period before his parents will take him to Dignitas so he can end his life. It is at this time that she makes it her mission in life to change Wills mind and show him that he still has a reason to live. I won’t tell you any more about the story in hopes that you decide you want to read it. It’s a book worth reading, I could not put it down.

It made me wonder what I would do? Would I have the courage to go to a place like Dignitas and leave everything I know even though now it’s so different? How could I leave my mom, my kids, my siblings and all my friends, extended family, and people I love. How could I expect them to stand by and watch, knowing what my decision is. Would I ask them to be there for my last moments? Would I want to be alone instead?

What would be the other option, to live trapped in my body and make myself a burden to others. I know there are many people out there in the world that are quadriplegic and are living happy, productive lives, would I be one of them? It just makes one stop and wonder.

I think it takes a certain person to live as a quadriplegic and in the same way it take a certain kind of person do commit assisted suicide, either way it takes a very strong, determined individual to do either choice and I hope I never have to make that choice. My worse nightmare is to be a burden to someone else.

Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 8th

 

        So, this week was typical, not much going on except work. That’s the one constant in my life….work. I really do enjoy my job but I do have a handful of clients that are really demanding and not at all gracious or grateful for what I do for them, but anyway…

          Monday – I was physically out of sorts, not feeling well, but I’ve started eating better and I knew I just needed time for my tummy to sort itself out. I chopped up a bunch of Romaine lettuce and had thawed out some ground turkey for salad for dinner and lunch during the week. The minute the turkey started to cook it smelled horrible, I guess I didn’t freeze it in time. Turkey is very, very delicate and can go bad quite quickly! I was bummed as I had looked forward to a salad all day.

          Tuesday – Work as usual and I had an appointment at 4pm for a thyroid ultrasound/sonogram…not sure I get them mixed up. I had thyroid cancer in 2008, you can read about it HERE, so annually they do these exams to make sure it’s still all gone, it should be since they removed both my thyroid glands and it’s been 15 years but I guess you can’t be too cautious. I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some fresh ground turkey, called my sister on the way home and she was planning to make tacos, I told her to come have turkey taco salad with me and I would go the next day to have tacos with her, she agreed and we had a nice dinner with mom as well.

          Wednesday – Work was busy as usual and mom had an appointment with her primary care doctor and my sister Lisa took her so I didn’t get any tacos that night! But I had a turkey taco salad, so I was still a happy camper.

          Thursday – Was planning on taking mom to Walmart and The Dollar Store but had a long day at work and I was exhausted and mom was too. I had a turkey taco salad again …I’m telling you I can have this 24/7 and it never gets old! 

        Friday - Was a tough day of work because we have a 3-day weekend coming up as Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day and we won't have to work that day. I woke up out of sorts again, super grumpy for no reason at all. I emailed my sister and told her I needed a sister night was she available and she said yes and asked if I want to go out to dinner or stay in at her house with wine and yummies? Wine and Yummies please! Here's pictures of what my sister considers yummies, Kabobs with Steak, Chicken, Sausage, peppers, red onions and zucchini! They were delicious. 

Kabobs straight out of the Oven, she also made some in her Air Fryer, we preferred oven.

Kabob on fine china ...hahaha! 

Kabob off of the skewer and on a plate, Yumminess overload!

First a shot of our favorite tequila, Agavero. I needed this after the week I had!

        So that was our Friday, even though it was a tough day it ended with sister time, good food, good wine and a lot of conversation and jazz music.

        Saturday is usually mom's day. I do whatever she wants to do. Almost all the time what she wants to do is go shopping. So we did just that. First stop was Goodwill, mom loves a thrift store. They were remodeling our favorite store so there was not much of a selection, mom bought nothing which was out of the norm for her, I found and bought this bag.

        Pardon the bad lighting, but it's the only place in my bedroom that I had a hook available to hang this. Beautiful hand beaded bag in mom's favorite colors. It had a super long strap.

Close up of beadwork, it's just stunning!

You can see how many beads of varying sizes and styles were used.

View of the other side of the bag.

            Even though I loved the bag, I saw my mom's eyes light up when I showed it to her, so I bought it and as we stepped outside of the store I gave it to her as a gift, she could not believe it!

        Our next stop was a Ross Store. I bought a dress and I had always wanted a stackable mug set and this one was perfect! It's Valentine's Day theme, but I have the Corelle set of dishware with pink hearts that match perfectly so I can use them year round.

Aren't they adorable?

The cups match my plates perfectly.

        So after Ross we went to The Dollar Tree because I was hoping to find some Valentine's Day Decorations for my living room. I'll post pictures of the finished decor in another post. Somehow I've lost some of my decorations so my decor was pretty skimpy. I did find quite a few things, but my favorite was this little pink bear. To make her "valentiney" I crocheted a little red heart and sewed her hands to it so she looks like she's holding it. 

        After that we had burgers and fries at Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. That's not on my approved food eating list, but I'm not going to limit my life, when it's being out enjoying the day with mom I'll eat where she wants to eat and enjoy myself!

        Then we went home, happy, tired and full of burgers. Saturday night was when I crocheted the heart for my bear above and enjoyed my new mugs with some sugar-free hot chocolate and whipped cream. 

        Sunday started out great. My sister Lisa and her granddaughter Roselyn came over for coffee and then Lisa's son Isaac came to surprise his mom and ended up at my house with a big box of donuts...of which you will be happy to hear I did not partake.

        I did some chores and started learning how to crochet roses while I watched football. I am so devastated that my Dallas Cowboys lost against the Green Bay Packers. They fought their way back to a respectable score...but too little too late.

        As I write this it is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day and I have the day off. Probably Dr. King's most popular quote is his "I have a dream..."

        But my favorite quote of his is "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

        Everyone have a good week. Mine will be a 4-day work week so although it will be hard, it will be short.

How Far I Have Not Come

 Was reading a blog post by Oddball Observations during my lunch hour and the post today was called Way-Back Wednesday and in it he goes back on his blog and reviews what he was doing in January ten years from today. He was doing a lot, you can see the blog post HERE. 

He also shared a cute story about a daughter writing back home to her parents and brothers regarding life in the Marine Corp and how it was so much easier than living and working on a farm.

But the reason for this blog post and the title "How Far I Have Not Come" is that I went back to January 2014 on my blog and found that I am still doing the same thing in 2024 that I was doing way back then...struggling with my weight and trying to eat healthier. 

My first post on Jan 1st 2014 was about making Jalapeno Poppers and I've made them twice already this year only because they are a low-carb food that I can eat at any time and they satisfy my cravings. 

My second post on Jan 2nd 2014 was about being a carb addict and included a recipe for Cajun Chicken Drumsticks, another low-carb good that is spicy and filling and satisfies my cravings. 

My third post on Jan 3rd was about voices and my dad...so at least I managed to stay away from food for a day! God only knows what I ate that day, probably left over chicken drumsticks with jalapeno poppers! 

My fourth post on Jan 6th was about going back to work after the holiday and no change there as work is just as stressful as it was then, if not more. I'm happy to think that soon I will be retiring. This post also talked about food and I had low-carb lettuce wrapped tacos and a boneless cajun chicken strip...starting to see a pattern here on where my head is most of the time, focused on food!

My last post on Jan 13th was again about food, this time low-carb pancakes with sugar free strawberry jam! 

It's a little disappointing, sad, discouraging, demoralizing and depressing...why do so many words for dismay start with the letter D? I never realized that.

It's not that I'm horribly overweight, it's just that I've never been satisfied with my weight. Here's  a picture of me at the beach in November 2023. 

But knowing that I've struggled with my weight my whole life makes me feel all those D words. Ten years ago, I struggled with how I looked carrying those extra pounds. Ten years later I struggle with how it is affecting my health. It's sad to think that I have not gotten very far with learning how to eat and sticking to it.

Maybe 2024 will be different. Anyone else struggling with eating healthy? Have any tips of how to control your food cravings? 

If I'm still around in 2034, I'll let you know how the next ten years went, for now I'm going to go make myself a quick turkey taco salad for lunch and wash it down with water as I'm off diet soda completely.

Wish me luck!

Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 1st

 This was a short week as I had Monday off for New Years Day, but even with a short week I felt like I had worked a 10-day work week. Trying to get caught up after the holidays is almost impossible. So many people take vacation time starting at Thanksgiving and continuing through New Years day so that makes the rest of us have to pick up the slack while still getting our own work done. It's brutal and frustrating. Next year I think I am going to join in on the vacation taking and let someone else pick up the slack.

New Years Day I took down the Christmas tree as it was making me claustrophobic and the room seemed too full. I did leave up the rest of the decorations and will be taking them down today while I watch football and I will replace Christmas with Valentine's Day decorations so we will still have something pretty to look at. 

Did not do much crocheting this past week. I did make a bookmarker for my journal and I did a bit of journaling, so that was good. I also managed to do a few blog posts...Yay me!

I was so happy to start this week with my brand new desk calendar! Every year I try to buy one that has inspirational quotes or motivations, but this year for some reason what caught my eye was one called The Daily Bitch.  I am really enjoying the quotes and the women on each page, so pretty and fashionable and opinionated, just like all the women in my life. It's nice to start the day off with a giggle!

Yesterday I took mom for one of our Saturday shopping days, even though it was rainy and dreary. It had been a while and she was more than ready. We went to Hobby Lobby and they had great clearance sales going on. 

I bought two of these pretty little framed prints for $3.49 each! They are only 9 x 14 but they look very pretty in the spot I needed them for in my living room.

I also could not resist this little guy. I always seem to find a little Valentine's Day llama at Hobby Lobby each year. He was 40% off so he was about $4.00 so he came home with me!

Mom and I also made a stop at her favorite thrift store, the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. She always finds a lot of things there and it's the place where I get most of my books. I bought this one by Fern Michaels. The back of the book says it cost $16.95 new and then you can see a sale tag was added somewhere along the line for $10.49 but I bought it for just $1.00. I very rarely buy a brand new book.

To end the day yesterday my sister invited me to her house for a glass of wine and nachos. She's recently done a lot of remodeling in her home with a brand new kitchen and she got new carpeting in her living room and just yesterday the workmen put her furniture back in, so we celebrated. It was a great end to the week. 

So now I'm going to leave you, I'm off to cook some bacon for breakfast, then I'm going to put away the rest of the Christmas decor and put up the Valentine's Day decorations while I watch the Minnesota Vikings play the Detroit Lions, neither are my team, but it should be a great game.  Hope to squeeze in a nap somewhere along the way as well.

Have a great week everyone!

Books I Read in 2023 and 2022

 I started keeping track of books that I read way back in 2012 using the website goodreads  

I also started doing a blog post every year with pictures of the books I read each year, but I believe in 2022 I was a slacker and didn't do it...so this is a twofer, you get two years combined in one post. Yay you!

Well you don't have to read this post much because mostly I just want to have a record of what I've read, although Goodreads keeps the record on their website as well. But hey, if you read any of the books I read, let me know. If you have books you want to recommend then recommend away.

2023

I'll start with 2023. I challenged myself to read 25 books and I exceeded that goal by 4! Below is the list:

2022

Now on to 2022 where I challenged myself to read 50 books but I only read 34. Luckily in 2023 I was more realistic.

Just for my own records and for posterity since I'm sure someday when I'm dead and gone my kids will probably come back to this blog to remember their mom and I want them to remember that I gave them a love of reading and I hope they always read; I want to keep track through the years, so here's the list from 2012 to the present. Isn't Good Reads great to do this for us?

I've already started 2024 with a bang, I'm reading Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. Jo Jo is my new favorite author and I have her book The Ship of Brides up next on my nightstand. I think I may only read JoJo Moyes books in 2024, she's definitely got enough of them!

Are you a reader? What are you reading? What's your favorite book?