Joplin Journal Volume 12-1, Issue 1

From the Editor's Desk:

Happy middle of January! Oh, the busy life we lead. Saturdays are basketball days and last Saturday I went to the games. Today I'm at home. I might make a to-do list and see how much I can get done. But then that would require me stopping and thinking about what I should get done instead of just getting things done. I'm not sure I have time for that.

Weather Report:

Yeah, we've gotten winter. Not much snow, but we've had days when the high was single digit or teens. And the windchill was negative something. Cold. Wednesday it actually got into the low 40s and the snow that we got on Sunday started to melt. It melted more on Thursday, but not all of it. And then yesterday came and never got above 22º. This morning it is only 9º and I think it might be supposed to reach 20º. But next week looks like we'll get rain and 40s.

"Genius Burns":

January has been pretty good as far as writing goes. Last week I joined a "writing week" and was able to get 8k words in! That was fun as I had not written that much in a week since . . . November. I was doing good at the beginning of this week, and then Thursday I spent almost all day searching for the right images to use for the cover of "Secret Project". I finally found them! And had to format the book, and design the cover, and then format and finish the cover for "Heroes without Capes." Yesterday I ordered my proof copies and they are supposed to arrive on Monday! I can't wait! Now maybe I can get back to writing.

Project Prognosis:

How am I doing?

• Work on Blog Posts for 2024 – January's posts are done and I have one for Feb. done. I need to get back into blog posts now.
• Update Website – I'll have to do that very soon with my new books coming out.
• Tidy – This seems to be a constant battle.
• Clean Out My Kindle – I discovered that I hadn't cleaned out the Doc files on my kindle. *sigh* I really should do that.

Hoops:

And the boys are back on the court! Like I mentioned, I went to all the games last Saturday. Drew's and Lucas's teams played each other, so it wasn't a surprise that Drew's team won. Joel's team has really improved since the first game I saw. And after a fight, James's team was able to win. They ended up having to play 4 on 4 because one of the players on the other team hurt his ankle. Often I'll have some younger ones over during games but last week and today it's been too cold to want to take the younger ones out, so they've stayed home.

Babysitting:

Joel, Lucas, Grant, and Kins were over on the 6th after Joel and Lucas played. Guess what we did? Lego. :) Well, Kins read stories with Papa for a little while and then played with lego people. She even makes music to go with whatever little story her people are doing. It's pretty cute.

The Music Stand:

We were supposed to have orchestra practice last Sunday, but it was too cold to take our instruments out. Tomorrow the Ladies Ensemble is supposed to practice.

Christmas with J & Co.:

Have I really not written one of these since before the new year? We had Christmas with J & Co. on New Year's Day. We didn't do breakfast together, but that was okay. And some of them were still trying to get their strength back, but it was fun. I pulled out some lego sets I had been saving and Krista, Joel, and Lucas started building them. Grant, James, and Drew worked on the sets we'd gotten them for Christmas. And Kailyn tried out her new beads. (She's loving making bracelets and things right now.) Kins read books and played with lego people. We ate lunch together, and hung out until they had to leave for basketball practice.

KDWC:

Over until March

Sewing Room:

Sarah is back to sewing. She's working on skirts right now.

Read Another Page:

I'll share the cover for one of my upcoming releases.

Book Nook:

I read quite a few short stories at the end of last year. I'm back into mostly novels right now. If you like stats, and think it would be fun to look at the covers of all the books I read in 2023, see which book was the longest, which the shortest, which one was read the most and which the least, and that sort of thing, you can read all that HERE.

But here's my list from this year. Hard Winter at Broken Arrow Crossing (the second book in the series is waiting for me at the library), Duskin (a Grace Livingston Hill story that I enjoyed), The Sound of Diamonds (book 2 is sitting on my desk waiting for me to read it), Hazelby Priors (got to read the ARC for this one. Love the cover!), A Very Bookish Romance (having gotten it reviewed but enjoyed all the stories). And now I'm in the middle of another book.

Farewell:

I hope I've remembered to tell you . . . Wait! I forgot to mention that my aunt moved and some of her furniture came down here (dining room table and chairs, and hutch). Jimmy, James, and Joel went up to KC yesterday to load things and move the last things. This morning Jimmy, James, and Lucas came to bring things and take out the big white cabinet before the games started. So our kitchen is rather a mess.

But I have laundry to take care of. And I should practice the violin, wrap Kailyn's presents since her birthday is tomorrow, tidy, review the stories in A Very Bookish Romance, and maybe I'll even clean out some things on my kindle. Dad's at the storage building, or somewhere else. Mom and Sarah are at the games.

Have a great weekend. Stay warm!