UPDATE: The winner is…Theresa Privette!
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Today’s going to be packed! This morning, in just a few minutes, actually, I’ll head to my semi-annual checkup with my cardiologist. I don’t expect anything alarming to happen there, just a check to make sure my meds are still doing their job. This afternoon, the high school and middle grade girls will be attending Open House to get their schedules, meet their teachers, and get any last-minute supply lists. My dd should have that covered. She keeps a large plastic bin of pens, pencils, glue, notebooks, etc., just as a matter of habit because they always need replenishing. The 11-year-old may be meeting with the band teacher. We have to make arrangements to obtain a clarinet for her. Yes, she’ll be a band nerd, and she’s looking forward to it. (I played clarinet, too!)

Anyway, I have to grab my purse and get out the door!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, let me know if you have school supplies to purchase, and if the list of things I have in the puzzle sound about right. If you have suggestions for more items we should get, let me know!

UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
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I have a huge To Do List today. I have work to finish for another author, a myriad of chores to complete, and I need to pack for my trip. Since packing is on my mind, and I couldn’t think of anything else to load my puzzle with, that’s today’s theme! Yay for you, right?

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, what would you add to your packing list? I can already think of one I left off—my laptop!

UPDATE: The winner is…Karynne!
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We’re not big sweet-eaters in this house. In fact, when my kids were small, there was a rule that kids didn’t get candy or cake until after they reached three (other than maybe on a birthday). This was done because of the rate of diabetes in my family, and we didn’t want to encourage the kids to develop a “sweet tooth.” Instead of candy and cake, we encouraged the kids to eat fruit or to taste the sweetness in healthier choices (savory and sweet entrees—sweet and sour pork, sweet potatoes, salads with a sweet-savory dressing). As a result of our “programming” my kids grew up favoring vegetables.

When they grew older and were in school, we couldn’t keep them away from sweets, but we still didn’t keep candy or cakes in the cupboard for snacking. A candy bar was a once in a while treat. And guess what? These days, my dd still eats a portion of a standard candy bar and puts the rest in the fridge for another day because it’s too much.

The other night, the adults had a sugar urge and went to Baskin Robbins to buy those pints of ice cream. We all had a bowl, and the rest went in the freezer—and most of what was left over is still there. Doesn’t mean we don’t love ice cream—oh no. We love ice cream, but my daughter can take a couple of bites, and she’s done. A bowl looks enticing, but she can’t handle eating more than those couple of bites. (I like a bit more!)

What are our choices for that once in a Blue Moon splurge? The SIL loves vanilla. My dd loves peanut butter/chocolate. I love Rocky Road. The 11-year-old’s fave is always orange sherbet. The other two girls take spoons of all the flavors.

Anyway, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your favorite ice cream flavors are! Enjoy the puzzle! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Cindy!
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It’s nearly the end of June, and I’m mourning that—as are the kids who aren’t ready to even think about returning to school at the end of summer. So, maybe my celebration of the month is a little late, but I do love June, so here’s a word search filled with things that popped into my head when I thought about June, like the Roman goddess Juno, for whom the month was named!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what pops into your head when you think about June!

UPDATE: The winner is…Martha Lanham!
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Yesterday, the 11-year-old was notified that she’d been accepted into band at the middle school to play clarinet starting this fall. Recently, she went through an afternoon of trying out different instruments at her school to see what instruments might best suit her and had narrowed her choices down to clarinet, saxophone, and I forget what else. The school made the final choice for her, based on their needs, but she’s happy. The clarinet was first on her list. I played clarinet in middle and high school band. How I wish I still had that instrument. We’ve looked into buying and renting, and man, they’ve gotten expensive.

It’s kind of auspicious that today is “Buy a Musical Instrument Day.” It got me thinking about the instruments we already own in this house: an old organ, an electronic piano, multiple guitars and ukuleles, and a harmonica. For me, the piano was my first love. I started lessons when I was seven, I think, with a woman who had polio that affected her left hand. She played beautifully with her right, and she was a great teacher. My father brought me a Yamaha guitar home that he’d bought when he was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. I got it for my ninth or tenth birthday, I think, and played it all the way through college. Carrying around a guitar everywhere you went was a thing in the late 70s, as was singing folk music and songs from Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. Yes, I was that cliche.

Anyway, I’d love to hear about any of your musical experiences. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then let me know whether you played (or play) a musical instrument (kazoos count! LOL).

UPDATE: The winner is…Annette!
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I know some of you don’t watch TV. You prefer reading to television. And binge-watching series is a relatively new thing. When I was younger, I had to keep track of what day a TV show aired and keep my calendar free for that date and time to watch it. Shows like the OG Star Trek, Lost in Space, Dark Shadows, were hard-wired in my calendar, but I still missed episodes! I had to watch Buffy during its first run from the time Spike entered because I missed the previous episodes, but once it went into syndication, I had to pay attention again to when the reruns ran to watch the entire series. It was a PITA, but soooo worth it. However, I’m still a Spike girl.

These days, it’s so convenient to watch an entire series, without missing an episode, and without the week-long gap or seasonal months-long gap to keep the storyline fresh as I watch. I love it. And I have a list of shows I want to watch this summer, beginning to end, as well as seasons of shows (Dark Winds, The Bondsman—Kevin Bacon, ya’ll!). It’s a goal list. And I’m sure not many people keep such a list, but I do. I have another list of movies I can’t wait to watch once they go into streaming, but that’s a topic for another day.

The last couple of years, I watched every single Star Trek series, other than Discovery. I’m in the final season and can’t say why I haven’t buzzed through it. Maybe it’s because I stopped watching Discovery to watch Strange New Worlds. The latter is so much fun, it was impossible not to make the jump. I’ll be rewatching it this summer because sometime soon, maybe in the fall, the next season will drop, and I want to be ready.

I have a summer watch list that’s a mixture of new shows and shows that I feel some nostalgia about, like The Time Tunnel. I keep a list because my attention span is so bad, and frankly, I love lists.

My list is featured below in the word search. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me whether you have a list or single show you intend to binge-watch this summer! Have fun!

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra!
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So, yesterday, I met with my oncologist. My daughter came with me because I’m still muzzy-headed and forget things. I’ve been extremely fatigued since my surgery, and I nap a lot. I was worried about the surgeon’s recommendation that I do another three rounds of chemo and how that would affect my summer and recovery. I’ll admit to being a little depressed at the idea.

My oncologist made a face when I mentioned what the other doctor said and shook his head. He said, you did amazingly well with the chemo, and the surgeon got all the diseased organs he could find. Yes, there was still microscopic evidence of disease in the parts he removed, but immunotherapy should help keep anything lingering in my body in check. He wants instead to give my body a chance to fully recover from the chemo and surgery. He’ll order scans in a month or two to make sure the cancer doesn’t come back, but we can do immunotherapy for a while, continue to scan, and if necessary, at a later date, reconsider more chemo. In the meantime, my job is to get healthy and feel well. I was enormously relieved. I will do whatever he tells me I should because we’ve already accomplished so much. I trust him.

At the end of our appointment, he asked, “Do you want to do an immunotherapy session today and get that knocked out? I won’t have to see you again for another month.” So, I sat in the chair for an hour with an IV running and did that. Usually, immunotherapy doesn’t affect how I feel all that much, but today, I feel nauseous and tired. I’m run down. I’ll pay attention to how I feel, rest when I need to, make myself putter to get myself moving, but yay—I won’t be losing my hair again. Right now, it’s super short and mostly silver. I look like Judy Dench. My dd has been working on getting the pool ready for me. If she gets it pretty and blue, I should be swimming by mid-May. That will be a huge boost to my happiness.

Anyway, that’s the report. At some point, I might talk about things that were helpful to me during this journey that might be helpful to others. But right now, I have work to do and naps to take. I’m just so happy and relieved that I have more time with my family and time to be me. In May, I hope to return to my art guild meetings. We’re having a decoupage mini-workshop in May, and I want to be well enough to attend and participate. In the meantime, I’ll edit and paint and poke my head in the door here to say hello.

Word Search

Summer is my favorite time of year, and yes, it all revolves around the pool. It gets hot as hell in Arkansas, but we enjoy our summers. We hit the pool, we barbecue, use the smoker and the blackstone beside the pool to cook wonderful meals. We have movie nights, including a few that we watch with an outdoor projector when the mosquitoes aren’t quite so bad. I love being outside to watch the chickens who escape their pen and peck around the yard. The goats and geese are fun to watch as well. We fill bird feeders and watch the variety that come to our property, along with the deer and foxes who come to our pond. Of course, there are trips to the flea markets. I can’t wait to have the kids home. Their noise—the music and laughter—really picks me up.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what you look forward to this summer (or winter, if you’re down under!).