Joplin Journal Volume 12-4, Issue 1

From the Editor's Desk:

Spring! The sun is shining and all is quiet this morning. We don't have the windows open yet as I think it might still be in the 50s. I am starting this before breakfast as I have plans for today. When your best friend who lives in Canada comes down and will only be here a few days you plan to spend time with her and her family. I'm going along to George Washington Carver today.

Weather Report:

It is most certainly spring. Pollen is beginning to dust things green. Flowers are blooming everywhere, yards need mowed. Some for the second or third time. The birds have nests and sing and sing and sing. We have still had a few frosts, but nothing heavy. Next week it is supposed to be in the 80s. It has been very windy this week. Very strong gusts.

"Genius Burns":

Well, I managed to write 60k words in March. that's as much as a Triple Creek Ranch book. But since then . . . I haven't even written one thousand words. For one thing, I was finishing up some parts of stories so my editor could have them. Now I'm trying to work through some things on some stories or figure out what comes next. That's a slower process that doesn't bring in many words since I'm doing a lot of rereading. But it is necessary for getting some of these stories finished, and since I think my readers would like that, I thought I should do it.

Project Prognosis:

How am I doing?

• Work on Blog Posts for 2024 – Finished April's posts. Now to work on May's.
• Update Website – Updated for now!
• Tidy – My room is looking better. I still have some things to put away, but it's not much

From the Polls:

Dad, Jimmy, and I all worked as election judges last week for the election. It was a slow day. My polling place had 92 voters all day. Then on Wednesday I got a call from the County Clerk's office asking if I would be part of a bipartisan team hand counting some ballots on Friday. (It's required to hand count a certain percentage of the precincts to make sure things are matching.) I said sure. So on Friday I went to Carthage and my partner and I hand counted 4 different precincts. Our numbers all added up with what the count said. We also got to do a check of the machine by feeding one precinct through and double checking the count. It was a fun experience to see another part of the election. Since it was a small election it only took two hours. I have a feeling I'll be called in again to do this after the next election. Who knows, maybe it will become something I do after each election. That would be rather fun.

Babysitting:

No one has been over.

Spring 100:

Sarah is unofficially walking the Spring 100 with me. She didn't want to sign up, but thought it would be fun to see if she could do it. So far she's at 25.5 miles. I'm at 35.87 miles since I just got back from George Washington Carver. So far the days haven't been too warm. Some times we've walked in the morning. Other times we've walked in the afternoon, and a few times we've actually walked in the evening. We walked this morning and it wasn't really windy. Glad we went then because now it's windy!

The Music Stand:

Orchestra is over. For now. We played on Easter Sunday, and the ladies ensemble also sang. Sorry. Not including the link this time as I don't want to go find it. The ensemble has two more time to sing before we take a break.

Visitors:

My BFF who lives in Canada came down with her family to watch the eclipse down in TX with some of her sisters. The last few days they've been here in Joplin and I've gotten to walk with them one evening, go to a park with them yesterday and then get ice cream. And today we got to explore George Washington Carver National Monument. Amber, Angela and I have been there many times since we went when we were kids, but for most of the kids it was their first time.

KDWC:

Camp is over. We wrote over two million words collectively! That's a crazy number of words!

Sewing Room:

Orders have been coming in and some rush orders as well. Sarah is very busy trying to get the orders done and out in the mail on time.

Read Another Page:

Nothing to report here.

Book Nook:

Once again writing has taken a side seat to things like writing and spending time with my friends from Canada, but I have read 6 books. I'm also reading another, and I decided not to finish a few others. (Yes, I'm letting myself NOT finish a book if I'm bored, don't like it, find I don't care about the characters or what happens to them, or things like that. There are too many good books to spend time reading ones I am not even interested in.) But here's what I have read. Four Mothers at Chautuaqua (enjoyed this reread), There All Along (cute romance), The Spy of Escondida (found it boring but short), Gone-Away Lake (fun reread), Return to Gone-Away (another reread), The Beginning (kind of fun). And that's it.

Farewell:

Now it's afternoon. Just after 5 o'clock. I'm tired and should probably get a few things done before supper. It's been a delightful day and it was nice to spend time with friends. I'm teaching Children's Church tomorrow so I need to make sure the lesson is ready. I hope you all have a good day tomorrow. Next Saturday I might not write as we have a wedding to go to and I don't know if anything else is going on or not.