Tag: "7th of the month"

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August 2025’s “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to another “7th of the month” journal post, which will highlight the previous month — from the 7th of July through the 6th of August. As I’ve done ever since I started writing this kind of post, I’ll be following the same pattern — by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler,
  • Persona, and, of course,
  • Writing.

Holler Happenings

Hello, again, from “my holler in Kentucky”! This month, I spent time watching a few home design shows (including “My Design Rules”, a series that was filmed in South Africa), and in so doing, I got some good design ideas. In addition, I asked one of my “AI assistants” about interior design, and I got lots more ideas for the holler house. Then, on 11 July 2025, Sweet Thing and I mad another home purchase: a BIG (16 cubic foot) chest freezer! Consequently, I spent quite a bit of time this month making room for it in the pantry — the only place it would fit. After I made room for that BIG freezer, we moved “my” freezer from the laundry room into the kitchen, where the freezer Sweet Thing got from his parents used to be before he gave it to one of our neighbors, who had lost theirs in a garage fire a while back. So, yeah… Lots of shuffling of freezers this month. The only other “exciting” bit of news to report was that one of “the boys CAUGHT A MOUSE… in the pantry where I was working! Sweet Thing was asleep when the catch was made, so I had to wake him up to deal with Kasha’s “catch” since I’m way too squeamish to deal with that aspect of “the circle of life”. Needless to say, he was a bit grumpy, but he dealt with the situation and then went back to bed. Kasha’s definitely a good mouser!

Personal Events

As I mentioned in June 2025’s “7th of the month” post, I started yet another “quilt-along” class on 10 June 2025, so I spent the rest of June and into July working on “Pine Valley”, this summer’s “quilt-along” quilt. “Sticks and Stones” is the name of this quilt, and it is actually a “first” for me: This is the first time that I’ve used a “jelly roll” (a collection of 42 2.5-inch-wide strips of fabric in lots of different colors and prints that are “coordinated”) to make a quilt. It was definitely an experience, primarily because I had to get used to mixing and (not) matching different prints together! I was able to finish the quilt top for “Pine Valley” this month AND show it off to one of our neighbors, a couple who have made some quilts in the past. While there, I also asked them more about how that had made their quilts. I found out that they used a sewing machine to piece their quilt tops together (like I’ve been doing) and that they did the actual quilting (putting together the three layers of the quilt: pieced top, batting, and backing) by hand — like the Amish do! So… That is what I eventually want to be able to do! I figure that “if they can do it, then so can I”! Before I reach that point, though, I’m going to use “Pine Valley” as a lesson in learning how to do the quilting myself since I’ve always had Liz, the “quilt-along” class instructor, do the quilting for me on her long-arm sewing machine. I’m going to have Liz teach me how to use my own sewing machine to quilt “Pine Valley”. Only time will tell how successful I’m going to be in this endeavor, so wish me luck!

Moving along… In addition to asking my “AI assistant” for information about home design (as mentioned above), I also asked about creating a capsule wardrobe, so I’m in the process of going through my closets — to figure out what fits, what doesn’t, and what specific pieces I still need to complete a capsule wardrobe for the upcoming seasons, specifically fall since summer is almost over now.

On 13 July, I was outside making room for a metal shelving unit that I took out of the pantry (to make room for our new BIG chest) when I got a VERY unpleasant surprise. I moved a cardboard box, and then I got stung TWICE by an unhappy flying “squatter” — some kind of flying AND STINGING “insect” (Wasp, yellow jacket… I’m not sure which it was since it happened SO FAST.) that had taken up residence there! First, the bugger stung my left pinkie, and then it flew up and stung my forearm, and man, did it hurt! It didn’t take long before both my hand and forearm were so SWOLLEN! I ended up “sleeping the sting away” for a few days, VERY grateful that it was my left hand/arm that were affected — instead of my right/writing hand!

On another health-related note, I had a tooth extracted — after having a toothache for a few days. The last time I saw a dentist, she kept telling the dental hygienist (instead of Me!) “That tooth has got to go!”, BUT she never gave me the referral to the local oral surgeon, so I could have it removed. Thankfully, Sweet Thing gave me the name and contact information of the oral surgeon who had pulled one of his teeth a while back, so I was able to schedule an appointment with him and then have the tooth pulled (I think “extracted” is probably the more precise term) the following week.

Las winter, I started a tradition of “binge watching” holiday movies on Netflix, and this month, I started another tradition related to Netflix: “binge watching” the movies that they’ve labeled as “Leaving soon” — those movies that have a deadline for watching before they are removed from the Netflix Web site. This month, the deadline was July 31st, so I went through all of Netflix’s offerings and made a list of all the movies that were going to be gone after the end of July. Then, I put the names of those that interested me onto slips of paper and put ’em into a jar. Whenever I was in the mood to watch a movie (almost a daily occurrence), I would draw out a slip and then watch that movie — sometimes with popcorn and a soda and other times with dinner. I can’t remember how many movies I watched during this month’s “Leaving soon” movie marathon, but I enjoyed almost all of ’em so much so that I’ll probably be continuing this tradition for as long as I have access to Netflix!

A “7th of the month” post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning family. I enjoyed several lengthy phone calls with my “darlin’ daughter”, including one before they headed up to Sequoia National Park for their annual family camping trip as well as one after they got back home. It sounded as though they had yet another enjoyable trip AND had a “first”! This trip was the first time that my “darlin’ daughter” was able to experience a cave (“Crystal Cave”) in the area, one that I didn’t even know existed! From the photos she shared with me, it was definitely a sight to behold, AND it makes me want to check out some of the caves Kentucky has, including Mammoth Caves (which my daughter has visited but I haven’t) and a more local one, too. As far as that “favorite (and only) son of mine” is concerned, I sent him birthday greetings — both a birthday card and an e-mail message. In addition to sending my son birthday greetings, I also sent my sister and my two aunts e-mail messages in honor of National Sisters Day (08/03/25), which I hope they all appreciated.

And on that note, I’ll move onto the third, and final, category in August 2025’s “7th of the month” post: my writing!

Writing

Since I had so much fun “chatting” with my “AI assistant”, I asked it to come up with possible plots for short stories — both Amish and historical romance. Who knows… I might be able to turn one of those plot ideas into something I can then publish — either on my author Web site or the more traditional way. As with my quilting, only time will tell how successful I’ll be in this endeavor.

In addition to receiving possible plots for short stories from my “AI assistant”, I also thought of a few ideas of my own. During a recent “quilt-along” class, I got an idea for an Amish romance that I think I’m going to pursue in the coming weeks and months as I work to go from idea to finished manuscript! In addition to this story idea, I’ve also got a couple of ideas for new journal posts to feature on my author Web site, so stay tuned for more information about both my Amish romance story idea and the new journal posts!

Since reading and writing go hand in hand, I’m always on the look-out for new books to read, and I discovered a series of children’s books through one of my nightstand books: the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Since I’d read that particular entry many times and was curious each time this series was mentioned, I did a bit of onine research about it, and I discovered that this series of books is autobiographical in nature — in much the same way that the “Little House” series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder was for her. So… I’m now even more curious about this series of books! Thankfully, the series (of ten books) is available for purchase through Amazon (What isn’t these days?), so I think this series of books will make an enjoyable birthday and/or St. Nicholas Day present for myself!

On that note, I’m going to close August 2025’s “7th of the month post. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my personal (AND professional) life. and will stay tuned for yet another one soon. As always, I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.

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July 2025’s “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to this month’s “7th of the month” journal post, which highlights the previous month — from the 7th of June through the 6th of July. As I’ve done ever since I started writing this kind of post, I’ll be following the same pattern — by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler
  • Personal, and, of course,
  • Writing

Holler Happenings

Hello from “my holler in Kentucky”! I did some (a bit of) “spring cleaning” by sweeping off the front porch and front walkway as well as the solar panels since they tend to get covered with grass whenever the lawn is mowed. During the hot days of summer, I started “binge watching” home improvement shows on Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix (like “Flipping Boston” and “My Design Rules).

In addition, we finally managed to get to the local county “dump” — though doing so was quite a nightmare! It seemed as though everything that could go wrong DID go wrong, turning it into a VERY CURSED trip to the “dump”. After postponing this task to the point of having absolutely NO ROOM in our collection of trash cans, we finally finished loading all of the trash cans onto our “hauler” and set out for the dump. Not more that a few miles away from the house, we heard a gosh-awful noise, so then Sweet Thing managed to find a place to pull over and investigate. It didn’t take long to discover that one of the tires on the “hauler” had blown out, thereby ending our first attempt at getting to the dump.

The next trip was successful at getting us and the “hauler” full of trash cans to the dump, but the curses continued. While filling his pickup truck with gas, Sweet Thing got stung by something that flew out when he opened the gas tank cover. Unfortunately, the gas station didn’t carry any first aid supplies, so Sweet Thing just dealt with the pain as best as he could. However, as I just said, the curses continued. After unloading much of the trash, Sweet Thing needed to move the “hauler”, so we could unload all of the trash in the back of the pickup truck. Well… In doing so, Sweet Thing slipped and fell in the mud that was left over from the rain the day before. He landed on his bum with the tongue of the “hauler” in his lap. Needless to say, he had trouble sitting for a few days after our cursed trip to the dump!

Speaking of the dump and trash cans… Since we now had LOTS of empty trash cans (both the big “Herbies” that I think I’ve mentioned before as well as some little ones), we needed a more permanent place to store them, preferably (for me) somewhere that was out of sight from the top of our driveway. So… We batted around a few ideas (including the buillding of a platform similar to the one currently in front of the reliquary) and then FINALLY decided up the idea of just using pavers. Armed with a vague idea of the amount of pavers we’d need for this project, we made a trip to our local “big box store” where we purchased about forty pavers. After offloading the pavers, I spent the next day laying ’em down in rows next to the barn — on the reliquary side of the barn, the one that is out of sight. About halfway through the project, I realized that we hadn’t bought enough of the pavers to completely finish the”landing pad” (as I started calling this project). Fortunately, there were enough rows upon which to place ALL of our trash cans! Still have to go backto the “big box store” to get more pavers to finish up that last row, but at least all of our trash cans now have a place to call home!

Personal

Most of the news in this category revolves around my newest hobby of quilting with a bit of sewing added to the mix this month. On the 7th of June of June, I started looking for fabric to use during Summer 2025’s “quilt-along” session. The first searches I did were online, but because any fabric I ordered online wouldn’t arrive before the start of the first “quilt-along” class, I ended up going to the local fabric store the day before, where I purchased my very first “jelly roll”, a collection of forty-two 2 1/2″ strips of fabric, that would be used to make this summer’s quilt.

In addition to getting ready for the start of Summer 2025’s “quilt-along” class (on the 10th of June), I also worked on “Butterflies”, the second of the quilts that I started during the last “quilt-along” class. (I gave the first of these two quilts (“Purples”) to my daughter as a college graduation present.) I finally managed to finish the pieced top, and then I gave it to Liz, the “quilt-along” class instructor, so she could do the actual quilting for me. I was REALLY excited when I first saw the finished quilt, probably because “Butterflies” is the very first finished quilt that I am keeping for myself! After getting it home, I felt like showing it off to someone, so Sweet Thing and I visited one of our neighbors, who used to quilt, too. They liked it, AND I was able to learn more about their quilting experiences, including how they hand-quilted all of the quilts that they made.

Quilting wasn’t the only times when I used my sewing machine this month! In addition to the “quilt-along” sessions, the venue where those sessions are held also offered a variety of sewing classes. During these sewing classes, I made such things as a “hobo bag” and a “zipper pouch”. Haven’t used the”hobo bag” much since I predominantly use the tote bag that I made there last summer — when I was relearning how to use my sewing machine! However, I use the “zipper pouch” A LOT since its use prevents me from having to dig down to the bottom of my tote bag for such things as my keys and my wallet.

Other than quilting and sewing, I started a “Summer Movie Night” by watching “Geostorm” with Sweet Thing. Since it’s difficult to find movies that Sweet Thing likes to watch, my “Summer Movie Night” tradition continued with me watching movies by myself — either with or without popcorn. I always enjoy sharing a movie-watching experience with Sweet Thing, but watching movies SOLO isn’t so bad either. In addition, no “7th of the month journal post would be complete without mentioning calls from my “darlin’ daughter’ — of which there were at least two this month. It’s always good to hear from her — even though the news isn’t always good.

Writing

As far as my writing for this month is concerned, most of the focus was on updating my author Web site (this site), and I managed to publish several “Tasty Tuesdays” posts as well as my “7th of the month” post for June. It’s been a while since I’ve focused on my true love: romance, especially historical romance. Consequently, I was hoping to get back into writing fiction with this month’s GWIC (Global Write-In Crawl… NOT the Global Wave International Commission or Wyoming’s Ground-Water Information Center) event Fourth of July weekend. Sadly, though, I completely forgot all about this month’s event! This was too bad since I really enjoy “riding the rails” and “visiting” so many fun and interesting stops around the world. Eventually, I want to host an Eastern Kentucky stop on the “GWIC Express”! Only time will tell whether I’m able to make this dream/goal a reality. The first thing in making it a reality is to REMEMBER the next event, which will be the first weekend in November, a month formerly known as “NaNo-vember” for me)!! Once summer has officially ended and another “trip around the sun” begins, I’ll be focusing more on writing fiction, so stay tuned to this author Web site of mine (and other “7th of the month” journal posts) for more information about what’s happening with regards to my fiction projects.

And on that note, I’m going to close this “7th of the month” journal post. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my personal (AND professional) life, and, as always I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.

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June 2025’s “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to yet another “7th of the month” journal post highlighting the previous month, which, for this entry, spans from 7 May through 6 June 2025. As Ive done ever since I starting writing this kind of post, I’ll be following the same pattern — by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler,
  • Personal, and, of course,
  • Writing.

Holler Happenings

Hello from “my holler in Kentucky”! This month, I spent some time working outside — once I finally recovered from whatever was ailing me the first two weeks of May (more on this later)! During my “spring cleaning” sessions outside, I picked up trash that either marauding raccoons or a neighbor’s dog had found while rummaging near the barn, where we keep our trash cans; got all of the burnables, recyclables, and trash out of the house and carted off to where they belong; and cleared off the “wood processing” side of the front porch, so we can start stocking up on firewood this summer.

In addition to doing some “spring cleaning”, Sweet Thing and I spent some time talking about our plans for the holler, and we came up with a “plan of attack” — an ordered list of what we want to accomplish in the coming months (and beyond):

  • finally build a place to store all of our trash cans;
  • relocate the trailer to the “back 40” (which will eventually become my “writing retreat”) AND get at least one load of gravel;
  • build a storage shed behind the reliquary;
  • build a ramp up to the front porch (I’ve never liked stairs, so I’m REALLY looking forward to getting this project finished); and finally,
  • build the much-anticipated “loft storage” in the reliquary (so we can turn half of the space into a guest house and the other half into a workshop).

Hopefully, the price of lumber will come down enough to allow us to tackle ALL of these projects between now and the end of this calendar year.

Another “Holler Happening” occurred on 21 May 2025 when we experienced a late-night power outage. I was exercising on the treadmill when the power glitched for the first time, and I was almost thrown off the treadmill when it quit working! Unfortunately, that experience seems to have had a lasting effect on me: I’m VERY leery whenever it’s time for me to get off the darned thing! I need to look down at my feet to check — and double check — to make sure that the moving belt on which I’m walking is no longer moving! Hopefully, I’ll get over the trauma that this late-night power outage seems to have caused.

Anyway… The power was out for two hours and ten minutes, and once I’d recovered from the “treadmill incident”, I spent most of the time shutting down computers: Denny, my desktop computer, and Zenny, my laptop computer. Since I tend to have A LOY of open tabs on both of my ‘puters (being affectionately called “The Queen of Open Tabs” by Sweet Thing), the power outage proved to be agreat time for me to do something about ’em — bookmarking those I wanted to revisit and CLOSING all of them! In addition, I saved and closed all of the documents and other things that I had open. Shortly after I’d finished shutting down both computers, the power was restored, but I can’t help but wonder just how many people were late to work that morning. I am a “night owl”, so I was well aware of the power outage and was able too reset the clocks in the holler house. So, yeah… I wonder how the “early to bed/early to rise” folks fared during/after the late-night power outage.

Well… That’s about all the “news” I’ve got to report about “holler happenings”, so I’ll now move on to the next category: “Personal Events”:

Personal Events

The month of May began with me getting sick after our trip to “Flordida” for my darlin’ daughter’s college graduation! Don’t know how I got sick, but I finally felt ready to “rejoin the living” and get my life back on track — after TWO full weeks of being sick! Unfortunately, I also got sick again near the end of May, but I was able to “sleep off the sickies”, so I wasn’t sick for as long as I’d been at the beginning of the month. Being sick is definitely NO FUN!

Once I was finally feeling better, I got back to working on “Butterflies”, another “Trip around the World quilt that I started during my second “quilt-along” class at the LGCHC. I had stopped working on this quilt so I could get another quilt (“Purples” finished in time to give my daughter after she graduated. I finished the inner border on 20 May, and I expect to have it finished before the start of my third “quilt-along” class on 10 June 2025. By the way, I started taking these “quilt-along” classes in the fall of 2024 after finding out about them when I started working on repairing my daughter’s (well-worn) “trailer quilt” that a dear family friend had given her decades before! I think I’m definitely hooked on quilting! In fact, I suspect that I’ll be writing a few books that will feature quilts and the Amish women who make them.

Anyway… Here are a few more things that fall into the “Personal Events” category:

  • spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I need to do to get my life back on track — after the focus of the first four months of 2025 being on getting ready for the ROAD TRIP down to “Flordida” to attend my daughter’s college graduation. After that event became history, I was at a loss as to what I want to focus on now.
  • the “checking on you” phone calls from my darlin’ daughter continued throughout the month, including one during which she managed to get her brother on the phone — a rare, but greatly appreciated, treat. (Found out that he’s still alive (sometimes I wonder…) and working at a Winco — at least I think that’s the name of the grocery store where he works!) In addition, I also had an enjoyable chat with one of our family’s neighbors when I was growing up! It had been quite a while since I last spoke with her, so it was great to catch up on what’s been happening with her ever-growing family!
  • I read a couple of books by Danielle Steele: “The Butler” and “Five Days in Paris”. I’ve never really been a fan of Danielle Steele, but I read those two books to give her another chance — to see whether my “literary tastes” had changed. I like the concept of “The Butler”, but as a romance (which is what I was expecting), it didn’t cut it for me. I much preferred “Five Days in Paris”. Anyway…
  • I FINALLY got DJ back from the repair shop — after over TWO months (much of which was waiting for parts). Thankfully, the repair bill was A LOT less than expected! A VERY pleasant surprise.
  • I created a “Summer Bucket List” — of things that I want to accomplish this summer! It includes many of the things I keep saying I want to do each summer but never do. Hopefully, this is the summer that things like (1) going to see movies at a drive-in theatre and (2) make at lease one batch of homemade ice cream! Once again, I’ll have to type it up, print it out, and post it somewhere prominent, so I’ll be able to check to see how close I am to accomplishing everything on this list.
  • I ended this “month” ( on 5 June 2025) with something I know is my “civic duty” but is also something I dread: JURY DUTY! Unlike jury duty in the state where I used to live, jury duty here is an all-year responsibility — mostly due to the lower population. Thankfully, the local judge understands that jury duty isn’t always a favorite activity for the folks around here, so she does her best to make it so that the “petit court jurors” don’t have to come in until they’re really needed. Well… It turned out that these jurors, including me, were actually needed for a jury trial that day (and into the next), so I spent that morning listening to every that was going on in the courtroom — AND taking notes, so I could possibly include a scene in which one of my main characters has been summoned for jury duty. The taking of notes actually helped keep me calm during that whole “ordeal”, BUT I am VERY grateful that my name was NEVER called for me to become a juror for that trial. I was able to walk away from the courthouse breathing BIG sighs of relief. In addition to NOT being called, there was another bit of good news: the judge’s calendar was filling up fast for jury trials in the other jurisdictions in which she serves, so I won’t have to worry about jury duty again until OCTOBER! Only time will tell whether I’ll be summoned for jury duty in October…

And on that note, I’ll move on to the third, and final, category in June’s “7th of the month” journal post: my writing!

Writing

As far as my writing is concerned, I FINALLY got back to my writing on the 8th of May (after being sick for a FULL TWO WEEKS!), and one of the first things I did was to get all of my postcards mailed for April 2025’s postcard swap! With virtually all of my attention in April focused on our ROAD TRIP (for my darlin’ daughter’s college graduation), working on my postcards got pushed to the back burner. Consequently, I made working on those a priority once I (finally) regained my health! “Better late than never!”

In addition, I continued researching Amish life by perusing Web sites such as “Amish America: Exploring Amish Culture & Communities”, which is a treasure trove of information about the Amish in this country AND by ordering a book called “Pocket Guide to the Amish”, by Mindy Starns Clark, and author of Amish romance novels. (I also checked out her author Web site, too — to get more ideas about what kinds of things I might want to add to my own Web site!) Although this book is small in size, it is packed with LOTS of information that will probably be incorporated into some of my own Amish romance novels in the future!

Speaking of my own Amish novels, I decided to use my jury duty experience as research for a scene to include in my current work-in-progress or, possibly, into a “short” story. I figured that doing this would help keep my mind occupied and off the possibility that my name might be drawn as a potential juror! So… I started taking notes about jury duty as soon as I got into our “little white roadster” (thanks to Sweet Thing agreeing to drop me off and pick me up since there’s a distinct lack of parking at the local courthouse) and continued to do so throughout the whole nerve-wracking experience. Thankfully, I made it out of the courtroom WITHOUT my name being called! (THANK YOU!) Once outside, I called Sweet Thing to let him know he could come pick me up, and then I proceeded to walk to our agreed-upon pickup location: a place that might be a good place for me to park should he not be able to drop me off in the future. Anyway… Now that I’ve got pages and pages of notes from my three-hour jury duty service, I need to start thinking about how to incorporate such a scene into one of my own Amish romance novels (or a short story)! Coming soon to a book near you: JURY DUTY!

The last thing worthy of noting in this “7th of the month” post is that Sweet Thing introduced me to ways AI can help authors, including (1) creating characters, and (2) coming up with plot points for a story based on a given genre and a one-sentence description. For a long time, I’ve been hearing about AI, but I’m rather old-fashioned and just didn’t want to have anything to do with AI. However, that all changed when he started giving me examples of what AI could do the help me as an author. Now, I see the potential that AI has, so I’ll probably be “playing with” it — though NOT as much as Sweet Thing has been doing lately. At this point, “the jury is still out” about how much I’ll allow AI into my writing life, but I would love to hear about your experiences with AI. So… Please leave a comment below.

On that note, I’m going to close June’s “7th of the month” post. Stay tuned for another glimpse into my personal (AND professional) life. As always, I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.

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Third “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to my third “7th of the month” journal post. I will be following the same pattern that I started in January’s “7th of the month” post by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler,
  • Personal, and, of course,
  • Writing.

Holler

Another major purchase I made this year (2023) was that of a Food Saver vacuum sealer. I’m hoping that the new vacuum sealer will prevent food waste by keeping the food I purchase lasting longer — both in the refrigerator AND in the freezer. No more freezer burn for me! Only time will tell… Now, I’ve got to figure out where to store it as well as how to use it. I’m thinking about either on one of the two baker’s racks that I have in the kitchen OR on a shelf in the kitchen island. In any case, I’ll have to clear out both potential locations since A LOT of clutter has accumulated in these two spaces! (It never ceases to amaze me just how fast clutter accumulates, especially on horizontal surfaces.

As far as learning how to use my new Food Saver vacuum sealer is concerned, I’ve noticed something that I hadn’t expected: I am afraid to start learning how to use it! After thinking back on this fear for a few minutes, I realized that it is nothing new. I think I’ve had it for a very long time. No, I haven’t been afraid of vacuum sealers! What I do seem to be afraid of is trying new things! I think I’ve always been afraid of trying new things… mostly because I have trouble getting started on whatever new thing I’m trying to do/learn. I tend to procrastinate and come up with excuses for not getting started, but once I finally do, I often end up kicking myself for not getting started earlier. This Food Saver purchase is no different! I’ve had “clear off the baker’s racks” and “learn how to use my new vacuum sealer” on my list of things to do for an ENTIRE week, but I STILL haven’t gotten started on either of these tasks! I’ve waited so long that some of the first things I wanted to vacuum seal are now only fit for the compost bin. šŸ™ So, yeah… I’ve got to just open the box and start playing around with it, so I won’t feel as intimidated by the darned thing (which, I suspect, is also part of the fear factor. I’ve got a ten-pound box of bacon that I need to process for freezing (before it all goes bad, too), so that’s going to be the first use of my new Food Saver vacuum sealer, something I’ve been wanting for quite some time — ever since I discovered that the features of such appliances have changed over the years, resolving one of the problems I had with a similar purchase years ago. Anyway… I’ll give you an update about the curve involved in learning how to use my new Food Saver vacuum sealer in next month’s “7th of the month” post!

Making plans for my 2023 garden continued this month. So far, I have made a list of the materials needed to build more SFG frames, AND I’ve been batting around ideas for covering all of them. At this point, I think I’m just going to go with a “hoop house” design that’s just bent PVC pipe covered with plastic. Of course, finding plastic could be a problem. We’ll see… In addition, I’ve created a planting schedule — something that tells me:

  • when I need to start seeds indoors;
  • when I’ll need to transplant them out into those new SFG frames that I’ll be making; and
  • when I’ll be able to direct sow seeds out in the garden.

As far as my new “grow tent” is concerned, I’m going to have to find better places to put my current “seed babies”, which have really taken off since they’ve been in their “new digs”. I’m looking forward to getting the next batch of “seed babies” started in the new “grow tent”. Just have to figure out something to prevent ’em from getting “leggy” like my first batch of “seed babies” are, especially “Dilly”, my dill plant. I recently discovered an article about creating a DIY seed-starting system, so I’m going to add the things needed to make it to my ever-growing list of things to get from my local building supply store.

Personal

  • spent LOTS of time cuddling with “my boys” — my two “originals” (the first two kittens adopted from one of the many “side porch litters” that enjoyed the shelter of the side porch and my “hospitality” (read: food and water) while they were being weaned from their mother’s milk) AND a VERY persistent kitten from the following year’s “side porch litter”, who returned to the porch after a couple weeks of “freedom” and then made it VERY clear that he wanted inside. After not having any cats for years after “my girls” (Tigger and Gar-Baby) passed away, I was ready for more “fur babies” — hence the initial adoption of Apache and Shawnee, my “wild Indians” (the “originals”) and later, Kasha-san, the persistent one.
  • the “checking on you” phone calls from my darlin’ daughter continued — still when I’ve just sat down to eat. I think this is quickly becoming the family joke since she usually just laughs when I mention her timing. Oh, well… At least she keeps in touch with me, and that’s a good thing.
  • created a list of menus for the month (well… from 2/7 to 3/6, anyway) as well as a list of “Daily Themes for Meals”, which, I’m hoping will help make meal planning easier.
  • listened to the remaining UK games of their 2022/2023 season AND geared up for the first real SEC (Southeastern Conference) Tournament at Bridgestone Arena (in Nashville, TN) since 2019! Go, CATS!!
  • started getting more physical — by exercising on my treadmill and going for “8 1/2 to 10-stone” walks outside (which are basically the same length as a typical treadmill session). Once the weather starts warming up, I’ll be getting outside more, but when it starts getting TOO HOT outside, you can bet I’ll be back on the treadmill since I don’t handle the heat, and especially, the HUMIDITY, very well!
  • continued watching NCIS (and other shows) on Netflix AND started watching movies courtesy of Amazon Prime.
  • had an appointment midway through the month with somebody from a local tax preparation office since the person who had been preparing my income tax return for years recently passed away. Although I was a bit nervous about having someone new prepare my 2022 income tax returns, I’m happy to report that the appointment went very well.

Writing

As far as my writing is concerned, I continued researching CuraƧao in preparation for writing a trilogy of historical romance stories set on the island as well as at least one short story set there! (Still trying to write a SHORT story that doesn’t morph into a novel… or trilogy!)

In addition, I transcribed my hand-written planning/plotting notes for “CuraƧao Eyes”, so I can use them to come up with a “List of Remaining Scenes Left to Write” (a tactic/strategy that helped me finish my very first completed manuscript!

I also continued working on my author Web site (this one) — to get it up-to-date. In addition to my “7th of the month” posts and my “Tasty Tuesdays” posts, I’m contemplating the addition of a couple more series of posts, which are as follows:

  • “Manuscript Mondays” — in which I’ll share parts of my current “works-in-progress” with y’all;
  • “Tips on Thursdays” — in which I’ll share a variety of tips that are related to the holler (i.e. homesteading), personal (possibly organizing), and, of course, writing;
  • “Saturday Sayings” — in which I’ll share some of my favorite quotes (from a variety of people about a variety of topics, including writing!)

Since none of these series of posts is set in stone yet, I’d love to hear what you think of these ideas. If you have an idea for something else you’d like to see on this Web site, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment to let me know. I’m more than happy to consider (and possibly incorporate) your suggestions!

Lastly, I received a surprise Valentine’s Day card (and “catch up” letter) from one of my NaNoWriMo penpals, AND I started gearing up for April’s CampNaNoWriMo postcard swap by thinking about which photos I want to use for these postcards as well as giving some thought to what I want to say on them. As always, I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with my NaNoWriMo penpals (as well as friends and family, of course) the “old-fashioned way” AND adding more postcards to my ever-growing collection, which I really need to start organizing better. If you’ve got any ideas for organizing my postcard collection, I’d love to hear from you!

Well… I think this sums up the month quite well. I’d love to hear what y’all did during the month, so please leave a comment! Looking forward hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.