Journals and wh

 

Journals and why I write

May 20, 2026

I’ve always been a writer.   I’ve always been a reader.   I’ve always been a good speller.   Hmmm….the three must be related!   I noticed that, as a teacher, my best writing students were those who read more.  They were exposed to more words.   They were exposed to more ideas and experiences and new worlds. Seems logical, right?

Anyway, I retired from 30 years of teaching in 2016 when our second grandson was born.  He’s one of the two grandchildren we have near us.   The other 5 now live across the country.  I was working when his older sister was born and I was bound and determined to be at home while he was growing up, so I retired at age 64.  I’m glad I did it.

However, I was so emotionally and physically DRAINED after 30 years of teaching that I did NOTHING for an entire year after that.   NOTHING.  I slept A LOT.  I didn’t read, I didn’t garden, I didn’t do much of anything.   I just destressed.

The next year boredom set in and I was restless.   As a former pianist, I realized that my hands weren’t keeping busy.  I found journal makers on YouTube and soon I was buying many different kinds of journals to see how they were made and I finally realized that I should be making my own, so I started making journals.   I had gobs of paper left over from my teaching years so I made them with those papers.   I added fabric to the edges.   I added lace.   I sold quite a few of them and started numbering them.  I think I got to about 197 or 297 (I’ll have to check) before I finally, just last year, quit making journals and focused on my sewing skills.  I bought myself a new Brother sewing machine in 2018 and I’ve been sewing up a storm ever since, mostly making aprons, tote bags, book bags, and other smaller items.

I started keeping journals in 2017.  I went through three of them fairly quickly.   They were large sized and I would take one of them out back, sit on a chair under our Chinaberry tree, and write while listening to the birds in the morning.   I even took one with us on our vacation to Arizona. 

I have three of my own handmade journals left and I’m already using one of them.  I don’t do art journals because, well, I’m NOT an artist.  I AM a writer.   I think.  I observe.  I listen.  I collect.   I write.

I write about the grandkids, my pets, my horses, my garden, the weather, what I’m reading (I have a separate reading journal), what TV shows I’m watching, and whatever else piques my interest. I don’t write about politics because there is already enough said about that subject.

If you want to see videos of my journals, you can look here on my journals playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/user/deserthorses5https://www.youtube.com/user/deserthorses5

More on this subject at a later time.

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My current journal

Going outside in a desert environment 051926

 

Going outside in the desert environment

May 19, 2026

Both hubby and I were sick the entire weekend last week, but I’ve bounced back today, fortunately.   Hubby is recovering a little slower.   He’s also older than I am and he doesn’t get outside much.

Speaking of going outside, I awake every morning about 4:30/5:00.  I’ve always been an early riser.   I believe this is due to my maternal grandparents.   My grandfather was an old Midwest farmer, from Missouri/Kansas and my grandmother was from the same area.   Both were early risers and I spent many nights with them and learned many habits from them.   I’ve NEVER been a night owl, like my husband.

Therefore, I am “rearing to go” by 6 a.m. and now with it getting lighter earlier, I’m out puttering around in the front and back yards way before 9 a.m.  

And, there is MUCH TO DO.   I feed the birds, put out food for the visiting ducks, fill up the bird bath, water my plants, then I go out back and do the same thing (no ducks out back).   I did see 3 of them flying around in circles overhead the other morning and land in the yard of the people behind us who have unfortunately neglected their swimming pool and it is now a landing place for ducks.  From fall to just a few days ago I could hear the geese that winter down by the civic center park and its large ponds and who eat the grass at the local golfing center.  I haven’t heard them for about a week, so I guess they have moved on.

The desert environment is so different from most of the country, especially those areas with cold and snow.  Here we “hibernate” in summer.  I’m actually surprised that it is this cool here now (low 90’s and mid 90’s) because some years we would already be in triple digit temperatures by now.   This year has been unreliable weather-wise!

We survive summers here by going out EARLY in the mornings and then again in the evenings and staying inside during the daytime.   Really, who wants to go out to the mailbox when it is 110 degrees OR HIGHER?

I’m surprised the ducks are still here, but they DO get a morning and afternoon buffet and they do have 2 bowls of water, which they enjoy. I’ve also spotted a colorful Oriole who comes to visit the hummingbird feeders and the orange slices I put out for the finches and sparrows.

Soon, as the daytime temperatures hit triple digits, which won’t be for at least another week, I will only be going out in the early mornings and early evenings.  I’m enjoying our relatively “cool” Spring!

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No post today~under the weather

 No post today...sorry.   Hubby and I have had a stomach virus all weekend and I have zero energy.   I slept almost all day yesterday and I didn't even get up and moving until 10 a.m. today.

See you tomorrow.

/cd

Sunday photos 051726

 

Kitten who sleeps most of the day.

She got tired watching the birds out front.

This beautiful moth was out on our side porch sliding door one morning.

Cosmos

Dark colored cosmos

Things we don't buy anymore 051626

 

Things we don’t buy anymore

May 16, 2026

 

We have drastically cut back on the items we purchase since our retirements. 

First, we no longer buy bottled water.   Our 22 year old Frigidaire refrigerator finally gave out nearly two years ago and hubby spent about a week researching which one to buy to replace it.  So, we now have one with a water spout and ice maker.  Thus, we have no need to buy bottled water.   I DO buy a few bottles every now and then for the grandson (I spoil him!).   We make our own coffee at home every morning (or, rather, I DO!) and I buy a 3 pound bag of coffee beans at COSTCO and I grind them here at home as needed.   We use a stainless steel 12 cup percolator that I put on the stove every morning.

Second, I don’t buy pre-cut vegetables and I rarely buy pre-mixed salads.   I prefer to make my own.   Have you ever looked at pre-mixed salads?  Half of the time the lettuce is brown.   Ugh!  NO THANK YOU. Waste of money!

 

Third, I no longer buy smoothies.  My doctor told me it’s better to eat real fruit, so I do buy strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.   If I have the two grandkids together on an early-release Wednesday, I take them to Whole Foods and they make up their own berry cup to eat as a snack at our house, but that’s a big splurge!

Fourth, I no longer buy any kind of flavored coffee creamer.   I’ve always had a fondness for the vanilla ones, but now I just buy half & half from Trader Joe’s.   Hubby likes the flavor and consistency of it and we have a Trader Joe’s about a block and a half away from our house.   Whole Foods is about 2 blocks away.

We only eat beef now MAYBE once a week.   We eat a lot of chicken and ground turkey.  We make turkey patties, “hippie” salad with turkey (turkey, kidney beans, green onions, and maybe radishes, along with Fritos chips.   I take out the Fritos from mine as I have to watch my carbs.) We eat a LOT of salads with chicken mixed in as protein.   NOT BEEF.

Fifth, desserts.  NOPE.  I have to count my carbs these days, so desserts are OUT and who can afford them anyway?   On rare occasions, I make an Amish zucchini chocolate loaf or a pumpkin loaf in the fall, but that’s about it.  The daughter makes a mean banana loaf.   I want to try more baking at home, but I DO have to watch my carbs! ☹

Sixth…WINE… Hubby was in the wine business for about 20 years and was a wine broker, but these days we buy a tiny box of 4 single servings of wine and it lasts us WEEKS.   We used to buy wine weekly.   Nope.   Can’t afford it.

Seventh, canned drinks like Arizona ice tea or fizzy flavored waters.  Nope.  Plain water or hubby now buys bottles of the seltzer water from WalMart for 79 cents each and we mix it with lemon juice or lime juice. NOT buying flavored canned drinks anymore!

What else?   I rarely buy paper towels as we have tons of microfiber cloths and I cut up old dish towels and reuse those.

Cleaning supplies?   Vinegar and Dawn dish soap, maybe some orange essential oil mixed into the mixture.   I’ve NEVER invested or like commercial cleaners.   HATE those stupid Febreze things and the sprays.   I’ve always used essential oils and I need to start using up the stash that I have!   Vinegar, Dawn, and an essential oil clean MOST THINGS.

Towels?   I recently did purchase two new bath towels from COSTCO because ours were so old that they hardly have any lint on them anymore! But, it was about 10 years since I bought any, so I figured it was time for a couple new ones.

I even wash our single car.   I HATE paying $10.00 and over for a drive through car wash!   I have a bottle of car wash soap that I use.  I do a better job than most car washes anyway, but there is one down by the daughter’s house that does a decent job for $12.00.

VEGETABLES:   Last year I grew a TON of vegetables.   I grew early tomatoes, green onions, radishes, turnips, cabbage (not this year), Swiss chard (yummy!), and green beans.   My peas did NOT grow.   I don’t seem to have luck with peas, but I bought a $2.00 bag of mixed soup beans at WalMart, separated the seeds by variety, and planted them and they did BEAUTIFULLY!   Easy peasy!  Unfortunately I am NOT planting squash this summer or pumpkins.  It just isn’t worth the extra water.

Any ideas/suggestions/ thoughts that you might have?   What are you doing to save money?

Oh, and hubby, back in 2018, purchased a Nissan Rogue HYBRID.   We love her!   I usually only fill her up once a month, and even though it is recommended to use the super unleaded gasoline in her (which I buy at Sam’s Club), I love how efficient she is!   I forget to check the gas gauge, but I did put in $30 worth of gasoline this past week, and that ONLY filled her up ¼ way…sigh…And that was at $6.49 a gallon here in California.

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May 16, 2026

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Project Hail Mary and some random thoughts 051526

 

Project Hail Mail novel started and some random thoughts

May 15, 2026

Yesterday I blogged about a 5 star book that I read, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and I also started to read “Project Hail Mary”.   All 476 pages of it.

I’m not sure that I have the reading stamina for this book, but I’m going to try.   It is highly recommended and rated. It has a 4.51 rating on Goodreads and 4.7 stars on Amazon.   Both are extremely high ratings, so I might be missing something if I don’t read it, right?

It’s written in…shudder…FIRST PERSON!   I usually don’t read books in first person, but I picked it up yesterday and read 12 pages straight without it bothering me, so I’m okay with that.  However, the length…OY! But, hey, I have nothing but time these days.   I’m ONLY picking up the grandson 3 times a week probably for another week while his father is on jury duty (he would be picking him up the other two days).  

So, here goes.

I seem to be wasting a lot of time these days on Instagram listening to child prodigies either sing or play the violin or piano.   I can spend hours just listening to them.   For me, coming from a musical family, it’s fascinating!

My garden is sadly neglected and I’m letting it go for the summer.   Last year I had to run out and hand pollinate my squash and I just don’t have the energy to do that this year and I mean, how many yellow squash can one family eat?   I did enjoy the 3 beautiful, round pumpkins which matured in mid-October.   I planted them May 5^th and the squash shaded them and they survived a medium-hot summer here.   This summer we are being warned about a very strong El Nino coming, which means more rain, humidity, and tropical storms.  So, I’m not planting a summer crop AT ALL.

There’s a word in Spanish:   la ganas…it means “the desire”.   A deep desire.  I just don’t have it this year AT ALL.  I’ve done something to my left wrist or it could be more arthritis, but I’m having trouble grasping items with it and it hurts ALL THE TIME.   If I move it a certain way, it’s a 10/10 on the pain scale.  I iced it this morning and that really helped, so I’ll be doing that again as needed.

I honestly need rest.   I get up in the morning, early, feed the birds out front, put food out for the visiting duck pair, check the hummingbird feeders, all 7 of them, come inside, feed the dog, feed our nearly one year old kitten, fix the coffee, then head out back to feed the birds and cats out there.  I always check on my wild sunflowers and the hollyhocks that are growing there and water them as necessary.   And, I check the hummingbird feeders out back, too.   We seem to have about 4-5 hummers who stay with us all year and the yard is divided into front and back territories for them. While the coffee is percolating (we use a stove top stainless steel 12 cup percolator), I usually come in and waste time on my laptop.

When I finish “Project Hail Mary”, I’ll post my thoughts on it.   In the meantime, I’ll be running errands and doing chores and picking up the grandson. By the way, I put in $30 worth of gas in my car yesterday and only got ¼ tank of gas. I think it was 4.65 gallons, so it would cost me over $100 to fill it up completely. AND, it only takes premium unleaded, so no cheap gasoline! It IS a hybrid and it gets about 30 mpg in the city, so that is a benefit, BUT STILL!

Any thoughts or comments?   What are you reading?   What’s a book you really enjoyed?

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May 15, 2026

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5 star book reads

 

5 Stars Reads

May 14, 2026

I’ve always been an avid reader.  After I retired, I had all this time on my hands, so I read quite a few books.   I think I read over 20 one year.   I opened a Goodreads account and I bought books on Amazon and Thrift books.   Of course, I didn’t give them away, I kept them.

So, then I purchased a 2 shelf wooden little free library in which to stash most of the books I’d read plus others.  Twice now I’ve cleaned out over 90 books from the house (hubby gets tired of tripping over my stacks) and I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve purchased at library books sales, thrift stores, or online for the library.

Anyway, I’m now in a reading slump. I’ve been in this slump for over a year now.  I don’t know what is causing it.   I have the TIME to read.   I just don’t have the desire.   I think part of it is my eyesight.   It’s getting harder and harder to read a physical book, and I have a Kindle, but I also don’t read books there either.

That is, until I read “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and “Where the Crawdads Sing”.   Both books were 5 stars for me, especially the Afghanistan one.  Honestly, it took me a good YEAR to recover from reading that book and I had to read a couple of fluff Dean Koontz books to cleanse my reading palate.

I keep a reading journal now and I wrote that “A Thousand Splendid Suns” was the best book I read in 2024, which was the year I also read “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “The Women”. Yes, I’m down to reading about 4 books a year now! Between my sewing, picking up the grandkids three days a week, doing ALL the chores around here, and wasting time on my laptop, I just don’t have time anymore to read!

I picked up “Hail Mary” this morning and found that even though it is written in first person, which I usually abhor, I really was enjoying it, so I think that will be my next read.

I’ve been looking at snail mail clubs and trying to decide if I want to start my own club, which would be book oriented. I subscribed to four of them on Etsy, but I haven’t received my monthly letter and goodies yet.  I’ll let you know what I think of them after I get all four letters.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that these days I don’t have TIME TO WASTE on poorly written books or mass produced ones by authors.   Don’t EVER think I’ll read James Patterson!   I did fall for one book co-authored by him and Michael Crichton (apparently Crichton wrote the outline) and it was… GOD AWFUL!  “Eruption” or something like that.   I didn’t even finish it. And, I’m NOT wasting my time on romance or stupid romance/fantasy or fantasy. And, as stated above, I have trouble reading first person unless the book is well written.

Honestly, unless the book IS well written, I’m not wasting my time or eyesight on it.  I don’t care WHO the author is.

Who is YOUR favorite author and why?

 

561 words

May 14, 2026

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