Joplin Journal Volume 9-1, Issue 1

From the Editor's Desk:

Happy New Year! I'm sitting here at my desk this morning thinking of all the organizational projects I want to work on, all the books I want to read, all the blog posts I want to do, all the stories I want to write, all the . . . It must be the new year. Do you ever feel that way when a new year comes around? You hang up new calendars, get new planners, make goals, and are eager to get started. Will my enthusiasm last beyond the first book I read, or the first story I write, or the first thing I get organized? I sure hope so!

Weather Report:

When I look out my window, I see tree branches covered with ice and snow against a cloudy sky. Yes, we had ice and snow for New Year's Day. It rained Thursday night and froze. We had quite a few dead branches fall during the night. Then in the morning the freezing rain changed to snow. It was so pretty! But lest you worry about roads, let me assure you that while it did snow almost all morning, it was also above freezing so the snow was melting faster than it was sticking. My BF and I went out and enjoyed picking up sticks in the snow and adding them to the fire Dad had gotten started. I think there's a chance of more snow today, but I don't know.

"Genius Burns":

Yes! I have been writing! And it's been so much fun! I even wrote on Christmas Day! This story will hopefully end up being the new Christmas Collection story. It's titled Christmas Gifts. After last December's *insert sarcastic voice* "wonderful" word count of 333 words, I was prepared to not write anything this time. However, not only did I write, but I wrote more in December than I did in September, October, and November combined! It was a total of 8,893 words. I worked on two other stories, but only some on them. I have so many stories I want to work on!

Project Prognosis:

It's a new year. A time for new plans. I don't know when I'll get some of these plans done, others will be things to do now.

• Pack away Christmas decorations
• Finish writing Lawrence & Lenexa
• Read 1 non-fiction book a month
• Blog once a week on my Read Another Page blog and every Friday on my Rebekah's Reading Room blog
• Organize and tidy and clean out drawers, shelves, boxes, and more
• Read books for my Reading Challenge
• Write another Woodbreak book
• Teach Writing
• Help with more Writing Camps on KDWC

Christmas with Jimmy & Co:

We had a fun Christmas time with Jimmy, Megan, and the kids. They came over Christmas Eve morning and we ate breakfast together before we opened presents. Once the presents were all opened, we spent some time just playing, and reading stories, and such until lunch was ready. We had soup for lunch which was good since it was really cold outside. Then we played games, read more books, and enjoyed time together.

Every year we get a picture of the kids on the Christmas rug my Nana made. They're kind of running out of room on it though.

Back Row: Krista 14, Lucas 7 (almost 8), Joel 11, Drew 9 1/2, James 12 (almost 13)

Front Row: Grant 2 1/2, Kinsley 9 months, Kailyn 5 (almost 6)

Isn't she a cutie? Kinsley crawls all over, loves to walk if someone holds her hands, and has the cutest expression when she tips her head back, wrinkles her nose, and grins.

The kids got me a really soft blanket for Christmas and Kailyn & Grant wanted to cuddle up under it.

Jimmy & Co. gave us "Ticket to Ride" for Christmas so they taught us how to play it and we played a game after lunch. (Lucas played too.) Joel and Drew played Lego on the other side of the table.

Christmas Day:

It was a quiet Christmas Day here. With just us four, no one got up early. We did our normal morning things and I even read two short Christmas stories before we opened presents. That didn't take long. :) The rest of the day was quiet and relaxed. We played our new game over lunch time. Naps, reading, writing, Sarah sewed some. Then in the evening we watched It's a Wonderful Life and ate our special snack food dinner.

KDWC:

We have the dates for our first ever mini camp. It will only be a week long, but we're going to see if we can focus on getting a lot written during that week. The gates will open on January 18th, Camp will start on the 20th. Camp will end on the 27th, and the gates of camp will close on the 30th. We'll see how it goes. If you want to find out more about the King's Daughters' Writing Camp, check out our website.

Babysitting:

We need to have the kids over again.

Read Another Page Publishing:

Nothing new to report here.

Book Nook:

Well, my reading goal for last year was 150 books. (That was after I had raised it twice.) But I ended up reading 175 books. If you want, you can see my year in books HERE. This year my goal is to read 100 books. I'm guessing I will probably go over that goal, but by how much, I don't know. I've started my first book of the year, but haven't finished it, so no review.

Farewell:

Well, that's life in Joplin right now. Mom and I are planning on getting all the Christmas stuff packed up and put away today. I already got the Village houses in the closet, but the rest of the stuff is a mess! Dad is making his ham & beans for supper, and Sarah's going to make cornbread. Not sure what else will happen today. I need to do some different things, maybe I'll even write a bit. I hope you have a lovely weekend! If you have snow, enjoy it. If it's just cold there, stay warm, and if you have ice hanging from branches and on wires, you might want to consider wearing a hard hat. :)