Month: November 2022

#WednesdayWisdom: Flow with the seasons

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I started titling this “MondayThoughts” so maybe our first bit of wisdom for today should be get the day right.

It never hurts.

It’s a gray day, and it’s cold and windy so the last day of November definitely feels like November. Wear your cozies if you’ve got ’em.

Unless you’re in a part of the world where it’s early summer, then you probably don’t want to do that. Fair enough.

OK I’m back, had to put on some fuzzy socks. Like I said. Cozies.

While the cold weather brings its challenges and its chill, there’s something about layering against the cold. About soft, tactile fabrics and mugs of steaming hot drinks.

About letting the weather outside do what it’s going to do as you get on with what you’re going to do, separated by a plane of glass and a to-do list.

The flavors that you see now, the mints and and the chocolate and the gingerbread, and the fruits we get this time of year.

We are meant to flow with the seasons, to fortify ourselves against the risks of them but to enjoy their unique gifts as well. Look for what you can only find right now, at this time, in this moment, on this last day of the second-to-last month of the year.

And have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts or #TuesdayVibes? Hmm.

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First things first, #ChatTuesday! This week it’s “When it did hit me.” And now on to Tuesday.

Still thinking about a different tone for over here than Chat Tuesday, and I’m wondering if moving to Tuesday Vibes is the way to go. Though honestly I don’t really know the difference.

I thought the vibes were supposed to be more positive, but I’m not sure.

We could do with a guaranteed positive post once a week. Would I be in a position to write it?

Maybe. It might be good for all of us.

We’ll see.

We were told it would rain today, but here it is, sunny as anything, a few streaky clouds in the sky but not the kind that rain. Maybe that’s rain way down on the horizon.

It’s really too difficult to tell.

I’m moving a little faster and a little better than I was yesterday, metaphorically speaking. In terms of the moving. That’s metaphorical.

Can’t say my clarity is up though. Apparently.

Anyway, that’s it for me today. Have a fantastic Tuesday, with a lot of the positive. See? Not so hard.

Ish.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: Monday moody

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November is hanging on by mere minutes, it feels, and I’m really not ready for this year to be over. It felt like it just started; it feels like it’s lasted a lifetime.

It’s funny how technical difficulties always seem to come in packs, but I’m almost on top of them, I think, finally. Almost back to coasting, in essence.

Coasting is nice.

Meanwhile it’s a very sunny day, not too cold, but I’m Monday tired if you know what I mean. That kind where it’s difficult to get into gear, where everything you have to do seems wildly overwhelming until you’ve done it and then you wonder what the fuss was until you get going on the next thing.

We all have those weeks, I think.

Maybe you don’t, and that would be awesome.

Maybe your secret is coffee. Maybe your secret is that special kind of sleep that starts when it’s supposed to and ends when it’s supposed to and only contains enough dreams to keep you amused. The kind where you wake up like in an ad for breakfast cereal, bounding out of bed.

Congratulations, that sounds amazing.

Anyway, that’s it for me today. Have a great Monday and a fabulous start to your week.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: And that’s done.

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First, #TVWatch, “End to me.” This one is full of spoilers for the final season of Dead to Me so if you haven’t watched and want to be surprised, wait until you have!

And now Friday.

Well, that’s Thanksgiving in the books. It was actually a more pleasant day than I expected, between the cooking and the Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving episode marathon I coerced my dad into watching. The food turned out well, the dessert was amazing, and we made it through.

I guess the weird part is not being entirely sure if it’s our first Thanksgiving without my mom or our second. Last year she was in the hospital, unable to speak. I think she’d been placed back on the ventilator at that point, which, in retrospect, may have been avoidable but for the rehab place.

She was still there but also not there,

This year she was not there, but also everywhere.

Weird times.

But now it’s the Friday after, and though it’s Black Friday I don’t really see the need to buy anything. Maybe there will be an ad to entice me, but the deals don’t seem very deal-y. It’s not bad to consume less.

That’s what I should have told myself yesterday before I ate myself into snake-swallowing-an-alligator territory.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. I hope you have a wonderful Friday and a fabulous weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts AND #WednesdayWisdom: Scale it down

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Wow, I wrote this and never published it yesterday. So you can have it today, when I was going to go postless. Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!

And the actual post:

I had plans for a semi-complicated dessert to make for tomorrow. But then I decided…

Nah.

I didn’t feel like the work. I didn’t feel like hassling with a cheesecake water bath. So I decided to scale down. I’ll probably make cheesecake bars, all of the taste, less of the work.

Not sure why it’s easier, but it is.

It’s a strange time of the year, and the pressures are constant. But we don’t have to accept the pressure, we don’t have to give into it or live with it.

We can just do something else.

It’s OK to do something else.

Some years I’d enjoy the challenge of something more complicated, but I can say without reservation this is not one of those years.

So I’ll go easier. Maybe I’ll go completely different.

We’ll see, I haven’t yet settled.

But whatever it is, I will give myself permission to scale down. And so should you.

Have a great holiday tomorrow if that’s your thing, and a bearable one if great is out of the question. Not sure yet if there will be a prompt.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts: If nothing else

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It’s Tuesday so time for #ChatTuesday! This week: “The Weird Holiday Wagon.”

And now Tuesday. I still haven’t come up with a new Tuesday theme, I’m sure something will arise organically. Or not.

I got my COVID booster yesterday, finally, apparently cases are on the rise again I’m pretty much fine, my arm hurts a bit. I’m sure it will be better soon, it’s just the way it goes with these things.

It’s sunny today and not terribly cold, as though the weather is trying to pretend last week never happened. Or lull us into a false sense of security before it starts snowing for real.

It’s tough to tell.

Went shopping yesterday for Thanksgiving, my dad and I decided I’d make a meal at his place. In past years we went out to this packed little family-owned steak restaurant that sadly no longer exists.

This year we looked for takeout, but the menus seemed so overworked, like they were trying too hard. One restaurant had the perfect menu, but it was dine-in only. And honestly I didn’t have the heart for that this year.

But I know what I’m making and how I’m making it, my dad will do most of the knifework and a lot of the prep and we’ll see how it goes.

Last year we had the most incredibly depressing meal in a hospital cafeteria, the only real seasoning aside from salt the worry and uncertainty. So if nothing else, this year will be different from that.

Anyway, that’s it for me today, and if you’re in a similar boat (or wagon, as I put it) do check out my Chat Tuesday. I hope it can help, at least a little. Have a great Tuesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: Scattered glass.

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It’s super sunny and pretty cold I think. I guess I’ll take it after a week of heavy gray and snow that never added up.

Last night, I was putting some groceries away when my elbow hit a bottle of vinegar, and smash.

“Well this sucks,” I said aloud, glass scattered, the smell of vinegar rising. Seconds before my problem was getting the yogurt in the fridge; now it it was getting the yogurt in the fridge around broken glass.

But I managed.

I don’t even smell the vinegar this morning but it’s possible that’s because I became used to it. the vinegar now part of everything. Or maybe it dissapated.

It’s hard to know for sure.

But that was yesterday and today is today, and as the old saying goes, don’t cry over spilt vinegar.

Or something to that effect.

And that’s it for me today. Have a great Monday and a fantastic start to your week.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: Haven’t been my favorite

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It’s FRIDAY! So #TVWatch this week is Thanksgiving-themed, and I’ve ranked the Bob’s Burgers holiday eps in order of my favorites here in “Thrill the turkey.”

And now Friday.

Twitter seems to be on the thinnest of ice. I haven’t made a definitive move to another platform, I’ll hang with Twitter until there’s no Twitter, I think, but after that, I will make sure you can still find me on other platforms. And of course I’m always here.

Well not always, that just made me picture myself hanging around the blog, waiting. A funny head image.

When I started writing this morning, the sky was low with heavy, dark clouds but now that I look up from the screen, it’s pretty sunny. There are still clouds, but who knows if they are serious about it.

It’s been a very volatile week and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to calm down soon. Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed the leadership torch to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the perfect person for the job; Twitter seems to be going the way of the dodos because of one particular dodo, though who knows if it’s accidental;nand Republicans somehow solved all the problems they kept bleating about before the election because now their only issue is Hunter Biden’s laptop.

So.

And I have to say without reservation the last few years haven’t been my favorite. It’s amazing how much people you’ve never met can impact your life, both for the bad and for the good.

That’s it for me this week, I hope you have a good Friday and a great weekend. I’ll still be here Monday even if Twitter isn’t there.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts ten word photo prompt: Deadlines

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Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

It’s Thursday! Which means it’s time for our #ThursdayTen!

Using the image above as a prompt, write a ten word story. EXACTLY ten words.

No problem, right? That’s what I thought.

OK, ready?

Here’s mine:

And that’s why Alicia hated group projects. It’s due tomorrow.

#WednesdayWisdom: Eventually.

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And we’re snowing again, but today I think it’s going to stick. It was going to have to.

Eventually.

Somehow I cricked my neck while sleeping, and it’s bothering me. I did yoga to try to ease the tightness but it didn’t seem to help. I’ll work it out.

Eventually.

Somethings we want right now. Like unsore necks.

And some things can wait a while. Like a full coating of snow.

But most of the time, we really have no control over either. Probably especially the snow, but hey, you’ve to got to be optimistic.

The best we can do is adapt. Grab the cold weather gear. Watch out for patches of ice.

Don’t push it with the neck.

I feel like I’m missing an opportunity with not sticking your neck out but it’s not exactly relevant, no matter how appropriate the wordplay.

Alas.

Anyway, back to that point drifting off in the distance, there’s much we can’t control, but if we adapt, we can do our best to deal with it.

Eventually.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.