I gushed last week about WinCo, so I’ll try to keep it down this week. We went back to WinCo this week and picked up a pineapple for 98¢ and some chicken breasts for about 98¢/lb. Of course, we picked up some other bulk items too.

Bottom line for this store is to know your prices. My sister buys her groceries with Walmart pickup, so this isn’t as big of a draw for her because they don’t have a pickup option. But I’m a really good sister and I will just text her when I see a good deal, like those chicken breasts and the spare ribs for 98¢/lb again this week.

I found the lower fat cheese sticks to be cheaper than I usually get them, as well as lunch meat. Oh! We love their cheese. Such good cheese for $3.28/lb or it might have been $3.48/lb. It was delicious. The mozzarella is creamy and the gouda! Delicious!

Books . . . Reading

So, we managed to beat the system with our local library last week. You see, we were notified that we would need to renew our library cards on Wednesday but our books were due on Thursday and we still had one time we could renew this round of books before returning them to the library. However, if we had to renew our cards, we’d have to go to the library and wouldn’t be able to renew the books from home.

So on Tuesday we renewed the books. Now we don’t have to go to the library until next week. But that means I need to get busy and read any of these books I am wanting to read. I decided in order to get the majority of the books read, I’d read them by how many pages they have that way I’ll be finishing as many books as possible.

I’ve got Cages of Steel on my kindle that I’m reading. It’s an interesting sci-fi by Isaac Asimov. I finished up another book this week and have started a third but it is so odd that I think I may start another one to give my head a break from this sci-fi oddity. Seriously, it’s odd–the main character’s father is a mountain, his mother is a washing machine, he has 3 brothers that are nesting dolls. Too weird!!! But I’ll keep pushing through it.

Modern Calligraphy

I’m really enjoying the class I’m taking. We’re working our way through the lower case letters of the alphabet (they’re called minuscules). I’ve gotten up through k now. Consequently yesterday I decided to write a few simple words. It was lots of fun! I am so glad I decided to continue with this. It’s very satisfying.

I struggled a bit with the k yesterday because it has two advanced strokes which I hadn’t practiced yet. I was having a tough time with the last leg of the k. I kept getting a point on the bottom, like a checkmark–not good.

I really enjoyed writing some small words with the letters I have done. I keep practicing them, so that I get better. It was nice to put some together.

Well, that’s it for me today. I hope you have a nice weekend. I don’t know what I’ll be doing for sure but am looking forward to a peaceful one.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Wow, a normal week! How wonderful. Okay, the guys have been home a bit early most of the week but that is fine. (Do you ever realize that you are saying the same word too much? It is more obvious when I’m writing. Then I used a synonym and realized that I wasn’t sure which homophone spelling to use and being too lazy to look it up, I did the only logical thing and chose another word. Thus the sentence did not start and stop with the word okay. )

I saw a video on youtube last month from a lady that used to work at Ross who shared that towards the end of January they’d be doing some big price reductions to clear out some inventory before they end their fiscal year. She said these prices would be as low as 49¢ for many items and many items would be found at $1.49 and such. She showed how to find them–basically look in each department’s clearance section.

Tiffany and I dutifully went the middle two weeks of January. While we did find some items on clearance, none were ridiculously cheap. We left each time empty handed.

Then the other day I saw a video from the same lady on her clearance trip to several Ross stores. She said that she’d shared on her instagram that the 27th was the day to start looking. Soooo, Tiffany and I went again this week. Evidently there were a LOT of others that saw the notice because we did not find but a couple of items that were drastically reduced in price. I did find these mittens in the men’s department.

They were regularly $9.99 and I got them for 49¢ for Tiffany. She tried them on and loved them. She’s also needed some ‘play in the snow’ gloves/mittens for a while. Now she has them AND they’re adorable.

Tiffany did find a really nice black and silver sparkly dress for only $3.49 BUT although it fit, it just didn’t flatter her and she probably wouldn’t wear it much, if at all. So we didn’t get it. So sad.

This is the last week of the free Show My Your Drills pre-lettering class I’ve been taking. She has done a giveaway all week for the workbooks for the next classes (which are not free, btw). The entries have all been different and some have been fun. If you look on my instagram, you can see all of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t save them outside of instagram, so I can’t put them all here for you.

I think this one is my favorite though. The prompt was to teach the drills to someone and she said that you could get creative with it if you didn’t have someone to teach. Well, I did have people I could have taught but I didn’t want to because I doubt they’d be interested. So I looked around for one of my snowmen, which will be put away at the beginning of next week, that could hold my pen. Success!I even included my finger pointing at the directions. The instructor liked it.

OH! I nearly forgot that my nieces spent the night. They enjoyed playing with their cousins. They all got on Roblox and they girls introduced Sean and Tiff to Bloxburg. You do have to pay a one-time fee of a dollar to play the Bloxburg portion but they all loved it. Yes, even my 20-somethings.

My sister came that day and we had a good visit. One of the things we talked about was how we go to do one little thing and it takes hours because nothing can ever just be simple. So then our tasks accomplished for the day don’t look very productive but we know the truth.

Well, that is how my week has gone. I still haven’t gotten to finishing the front pages of my bullet journal for 2020 but I’m hoping to get to it this weekend. Michael would really like to have my art items out of the kitchen and back into the craft room. Plus, I’d just like to get the pages done; not that I will get through it quickly just to get it done though.

I hope you have a good weekend,

Michele ºÜº

Well, let’s see . . . what have I done this week? I’ve been consistently working out with the Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch. I actually enjoy doing it and yesterday I even wanted to play it again later in the day but of course I didn’t because I’m already sore. A good sore, the kind that let’s you know it is actually doing some good, but sore all the same.

I’ve gotten back into my normal routines, pretty much. The mopping and such hasn’t happened yet but I’m confident I will get to it on a regular basis again quite soon. I made my new chore page in my new bujo and really like it. It is appealing, so I may actually look at it a bit more often and thus get it done more than not.

In the past several years, I’ve really liked sparkly washi tape; so my go-to washi tapes were my glittery or foil ones. However, so far this time around, I’m preferring florals. It will be interesting to see how the rest of my pages turn out.

Speaking of which, I’m way behind in getting my pages set up in my bujo (bullet journal). It’s really quite sad. At least I finally started using my new one. I just decided to skip a bunch of pages for the rest of my planned collection pages and for some future collection pages and even skipped a couple extra pages for my beginning monthly pages. Then I just started with a to-do list last Friday. I did draw a pretty little banner for that day but nothing else. I haven’t used it every day but I have used it several days.

I’m feeling so behind this year. Michael and Sean have been home for the last several weeks and that always throws a kink into how my days go. But they’ve gotten some work this week and it has been wonderful to start getting back into the groove.

I started the Show Me Your Drills month long ‘class’ for learning the basic strokes of modern calligraphy. It started on the 6th, so we are nearing the end of the second week. I didn’t accomplish the drills every day this week but did manage to do quite a bit yesterday.

Tiffany and I made our first library trip of the year yesterday as well. They are remodeling, which is great and horrible, all at the same time. It was quite loud and the children and young adult sections are not all available. But Tiffany and I both came away with our allowed ten books each. We’ll upload a video on our Joyous Jabbers youtube channel tomorrow sharing what we got.

We popped into Ross this week when we ran into town and we found this really lovely journal. It’s called Talk to me Jesus, His words to you. I read a few lines of it in the store and my heart was pricked by some of the words.

“I talk to you day and night. I love to talk to you, to tell you things, to teach you, help you, and guide you.”

“Come! Come to Me, dear one. I hear your heart. I hear you when you lack energy and courage. I hear you when you are tired. I hear you when you feel pressured and stressed at life’s demands. I tell you, lean into Me and rest for a moment. Breathe in My presence.”

“Listen for Me early. When you awaken in the morning open your eyes and your ears at the same time. As the new day coaxes you awake, allow Me to kiss your thoughts withMy words. Allow My voice to caress your mind with Mine.”

Isn’t it pretty?

I read those snippets from the first several days and a couple other snippets as I thumbed through it and was sold. For $3.99 I had to bring this journal home with me. On the facing page to the writing for the day is a journal page to write my words to Him. Yesterday I chose to respond to the words on the opposite page, with my feelings about them and how they made me feel. I really think this is going to be a treasured keepsake. AND I think it is an answer to prayer.

You see, just a few days ago while in the shower I was praying and asked God to help me want to want to spend more time with Him. For him to help me hear Him better and deepen my relationship with Him. Then I found this journal. Yeah, I think it is an answer to prayer.

Well, I think that is enough from me for this week. I hope you are having a great week and working towards accomplishing your goals for this new year.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Well, I don’t really know what to say about the last week. It’s been a slow one around here with Michael and Sean home. We finished our Lord of the Rings marathon, complete with the Hobbit movies.

I’ve been working out with the Ring Fit Nintendo Switch game. It really does give you a good workout. Yesterday was my tenth or eleventh day using it and my muscles are definitely feeling it. Of course that’s a good thing. So maybe I’ll actually get fit. Now if I can just close my trap and stop exercising my right arm (to mouth ) I might actually lose some weight.

I cleaned out my table and moved the art stuff I don’t use on a regular basis to the craft room. Then I started cleaning off the shelves in the craft room, sorting out the stuff that I no longer need to keep but that the kids may want for their future home educating endeavors.

I’ve gotten two shelves cleaned off and sorted on the floor. But I stopped there for the day and have yet to get back to it. I keep getting myself sidetracked from finishing it.

I’ve started working on my bullet journal. I just wasn’t ready to do it earlier. Tiffany was sick and the guys were home and so I just wasn’t into working on my bullet journal pages or even writing in the new one at all. However I’ve been working on it for two days and only have my Year-at-a-Glance (Future Log) and about 3 other collection pages completed.

I realized on Monday that we’d completely forgotten to do a video for our youtube channel the week after Christmas and then Tiffany wasn’t feeling good last week and we didn’t get one done then either. So, hopefully we’ll get one done and up in the morning.

I’d add more pictures but I’m too tired to do so today. I’m working to be a bit more productive next week.

I hope your new year is going well.

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

After Christmas Tiffany got sick. Yuk!!! Then a day later Michael got sick too! I talked to my sister about whether we should get together on New Year’s Eve (like we usually do) or not. Tiffany and Michael felt that they could med up enough that they could feel like being there, so we went. Especially since last year we didn’t get together because my niece had a fever.

When we arrived I finished my taco bites and we all munched on the snacks available. There were pigs in a blanket, pinwheels, meatballs, chips, dip, oreo balls, peanut butter balls, and chicken wings. We ate too much–yes, several others proclaimed that they’d eaten too much as well. I even had some of the off plan foods (with lots of pleasure )

I didn’t snap a single picture that night. So all these pictures are thanks to family members who had mercy on me and sent them to me.

Ashlee wanted to play their Banned Words game. We formed two teams, younger against older, and had fun. Before you go thinking that it wasn’t fair to the younger ones, you should know that first, the youngest one is eleven and oldest on their team is twenty-two and they won.

This is the older team without Sean in the picture.

After that we played Tenzi and used the 77 Wqays to Play Tenzi cards too. We were able to talk my parents into playing it. The selling point: you don’t have to think to play it.

If you haven’t played Tenzi, you really should try it. It’s fun with a group. And it is super simple, even young ones can play. I wrote about it before here.

After that we were within an hour of the new year, so we began cleaning up the food. Michael to those things out to the car right away. By that time, Sean started packing up the xbox and stuff he brought and put it in the car too.

Then we got out our sparkling juices and Mom began to pour, while Tracie searched for a countdown on tv. I’m still not sure which one we ended up watching but I think it was the New York re-run (seeing as we live in the central time zone and NY is in the eastern time zone and thus an hour earlier than us)

Mom got these tiaras, hats, and necklaces, along with some horns many years ago. The horns have since died and many of the necklaces have disappeared or broken but we still use these for a few minutes each time. Thankfully our menfolk humor us and join in on the fun.

Sean is still wearing his coat from taking his stuff to the car and waiting as Tracie finds an appropriate countdown. (Hey, if you have an online suggestion for me, I’d love to know. I think streaming would be so much better.)

Not the best picture of Michael and I but remember, he wasn’t feeling good and I was caught off guard. Looks like I might even have just taken a drink too.

I’m so glad that Brian and Lauren sent us a clip of their countdown with Liam. Soooo cute!

Cheers!

We clinked glasses, gave hugs, put up our glasses, removed our hats/tiaras, and were out the door by 12:01 according to the car clock.

Somehow I think that maybe the car clock may be off a few minutes.

I hope you all had a great kick-off to 2020 and that we all get and stay healthy this year!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº