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Floundering vs Foundering


Since this guy showed up in my purview, I keep hearing about it or seeing new ways to use it. But when I looked up this comparison, this is what I found on Google:

Flounder and founder are happy little nouns that don’t get mixed up. But it all falls apart when they’re verbs — if you’re floundering, you’re struggling. If you’re foundering, you’re failing completely. I don’t feel I am foundering in any way. Just finding ways to see successes.

So, I am sticking with the fish. And that is better than a horse who founders.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com

Her hooves hurt, and she can’t go on. Actually, I don’t know that about the above horse. I just was looking for a picture of a horse on the ground. And she is so pretty!

The groundhog is a floundering hog. Or is it that Winter is floundering? Because we are supposed to be getting an early Spring. But we got this:

Yeah, the bag of trash got deserted on the front porch. And we only got inches. Our friends got feet!

Meanwhile, I finished the little boy’s slippers:

It’s fun to make smaller socks because they get finished quicker. But now I’m on the mother and the older daughter, and possibly Auntie and Grandma. All around sizes 7 and 8. Yes, the yarn is already on the needles.

My biggest floundering seems to be on the ukulele. My fingers just don’t want to be in those chord situations. But I keep trying. I did figure out I could plunk out Mary Had a Little Lamb on the strings as I figured out where each note was. But moving from F to C and back within a singing timing was crazy. The F chord is the hardest. Well, until I met G. Getting pretty sounds is crippling!

I’m not floundering so much on the recorders. Except I probably should play them before deadening the fingertips on the Uke. I am trying to remember where the F, F#, and B flat are. Other than that I’m getting better, slowly.

And so, I’m off to try again tonight. Wish me luck!


Per Linda: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “watch.” Use it as a noun or a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Watch this; I will meander all over the place during this session and find myself right here. Meanwhile, I spent a lot of time on Duolingo. Sometimes I just can’t stop. Sometimes I just can’t. Ya know? Word order is the hardest part of all the languages.

While doing things that take a brain, I usually put on something I nearly have memorized just to have a place to look farther away than arm’s length. I can’t do music as I get too involved in the music and get nothing done. So this time is another run at the Walking Dead. I am always surprised at the wisdom of the writer of how humans respond to scary things. The show has never been about the monsters. It is about how people react to each other and find their own tribe. Or think they have until it is proven that that tribe doesn’t exist.

A while ago, while my husband was in here with me we were watching The Chosen. I am very surprised at how much I like it. It is not for everyone. But then I loved Jesus Christ Superstar, and my mother found it offensive. I think it is like the people in The Walking Dead. Our tribes show up, and even within our tribes, things show that, in the end, our views are our own. We can only agree where we can and find others that fit with other parts of ourselves.

If we feel the need to nap, and since I love to read after midnight, I often need a nap, I put on some animal show. Dogs 101 found my restful place, and I woke wishing for my new canine friend.

So many uses for one word. My husband has a watch that tells him his blood sugar, blood pressure, etc. I had one, but the sensor burned my skin. But I am smiling now as I think of Dick Tracy.

No flying cars yet, but Rosy, the Roomba robot, vacuums our house, and we have these watches that are telephones!

And now I am tired of Floundering.

Back to knitting.


These cute little no-show socks are for a little Love. I started out with toe-up, two at a time, on Chiaogoo red lace 40″ size 1.5 needles. As I got to the heel part, I realized I needed to separate due to the way you have to decrease in odd places, and it made it hard to maintain two socks on one set of needles. The pattern and tutorial is by 10rowsaday

The floundering part of this sock is it is for a size 1 child shoe size. I didn’t have the child nearby to try it out as I went. So I hope they will fit her. The other flounder is that I didn’t have two of the same size cables so the second sock is on a size 2, I think. And I started the sock with a Turkish cast-on far bigger than I should have. I hope they are comfortable and fit.

For her brother, I am making a pair of slippers. I’m following the Toe-up Socks with Fleegle Heel in Any Weight and Size, which I don’t need to watch the YouTube so closely. I have a lot of this yarn, so you may have seen it before. But seriously, this is a new pair of socks. For a size 4 child. I hope spring doesn’t come before he gets the chance to wear them. I’ve posted this YouTube before, but I love it so much that I think it is the easiest sock to knit, no matter what size or yarn.

Many are wondering about my Flounder February idea. It is simple. For most of my life, I have fought myself and my upbringing to be perfect. Now, I am giving my flaws a chance to enjoy life without criticism. I plan to show the challenges that come up. Share the indecisions that carry me. In the meanwhile, I plan to enjoy the progress.

I just heard a statement today that I wish would have been said often in my life. Instead of Practice makes Perfect. Practice makes progress. Maybe it does lead to Carnegie Hall, eventually, but many of us just want to enjoy what we’ve been given and grow.

Bottom-line is I’m writing. Did I ever tell you about all the diaries I had as a kid? You know, the ones with the little locks. Oh, not to mention all of fancy journals I have now. I can’t seem to ever get far in any of them. As a kid, I gave up when the daily jot was , “I breathed in and out.” When I could think of nothing else to share in the secure place, I quit. Here, I seem to have written every day for quite a while. Some of it was not much more that breathing in and out. But other times I found my passions and past times growing. And that seems to work.

Who’s Floundering? What works and what doesn’t?

Floundering February


After National Novel Writing Month in November, then the birthdays, Christmas and cold, and the occasional editing and keeping up the journal, somehow, January needed help. Linda G. Hill gives us Just Jot It January. The prompts help make sure we write something every day. I have done those for a couple of years now. I am grateful for the push to Just Jot.

Thank you, Linda, for the fun of JusJoJan.

But always, in the past, I found myself floundering in February. Hence, the fish:

He is a quick sketch, and the eraser was smudgy. He’s a little cross-eyed. That’s how I feel in this short month that lasts a couple years. Let’s think about this guy. He is the bottom feeder. He lays on or under the sand, both eyes looking up to catch whatever morsel floats down to him. I’m sure he is grateful for the tension that occurs above. That is how I feel about the tidbits of passion the muses drop to me.

It’s too cold for walks. But I am being steady on the stationary bike. Knitting is to keep the hands busy during TV or chats. When I am nearing the end of the day, Duo calls me, and then I do my blog. Whatever comes to mind. I’m trying to go earlier on these, so there is enough time and energy to build callouses on the uke and stretch the fingers for the soprano and alto recorders. Learning how the music theory I learned and applied to the piano and voice can apply to these other ventures.

To help me get back into playing scales, which will help with getting back into piano playing, I picked up one of these roll-up pianos to play with in my bedroom. It has an earphone plug-in, so no one has to put up with the noise but me. So these are my musical flounderings. Right now, it is just mechanical. But I am hoping that my tidbits of time and energy will spark a real musical enjoyment.

My diamond painting area is now open as the dragon is being shipped to his friend. I don’t know which one will be next. But I intend to flounder and fuss about in there and seek the enjoyment.

So that is what my Flounder Feb is all about. Finding enjoyment, if not passions, and hoping that all the flotsam and jetsam of tidbits build a healthier me. We’re not looking for perfection. That’s what happens up topside.

What is your Flounder doing this February? If you choose to play, use my pic and link back here.

Just Jot It January/One-Liner Wednesday


Last day of JuJoJan on 1LineWed, but Flaundering February starts tomorrow. Watch this space.

He looks worried. But then, he’s flaundering, right?

Just Jot It January, Calendar


Per Linda:

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 30th, 2024 is “calendar.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

I love calendars. I love the pictures so I often keep them. Like this one:

By the front door.
In the hallway
One for my purse (with the clip holds vax and other info) the other for next to my chair. I’m not fond of the web ones.

I have calendars all over the house. But can you believe it? I thought it was Wednesday most of the day. Remember What Day Is It Anyway? Yeah. I went back in time.


Per Linda:

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt comes to us courtesy of my friend, Kim. Check out her blog here!

Family is the most important thing to me. If I had my choice I would live with everyone in a cave, my adult offspring most important, my husband is too. But masses of cousins all over the place and I miss all of them! We all used to live in one area. My grandparents were two doors from each other so we got to see all the relatives on Sundays.

What I only recently figured out was my cousins’ other grandparents were not where mine were.

I thought everyone had it like me. And most of my relatives went to the same church. My dad’s dad helped built the church. His wife and he were known in the church as Mom and Pop. So I was related to everyone. All the kids had my grandma as their primary teacher. We all learned to read The 23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer from her.

My grandparents and parents are no longer with us, but we cousins are still here.

My biggest problem is a phone phobia that keeps me from calling. I know I’ll answer in a minute if they call me but deciding I’m calling now seems impossible.

So among other things I’m working on family is my primary goal.

I love my family, even the non-blood related ones, chosen extended family.


Per Linda:

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 28th, 2024 is “congregate.” This prompt is brought to us by  Fandango’s blog Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Making It SoMaking It So by Patrick Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was lucky to read this on Libby Audio. I must admit that hearing Sir Patrick’s voice made it so–much better than (see what I did there?)

This book takes you on Sir Stewart’s life journey from the beginning through even the pandemic, bringing the reader (listener) as close to the present as possible.

For me, there were a lot of surprises. But I am not much of a follower of movie stars. I have always enjoyed Star Trek and enjoyed our knight’s appearances in a few cartoons. The sad part of my life is that I never got to take classes or learn about Shakespeare; so much of his work is lost on me. Still, I guess the best part of a book is that it piques one’s curiosity. I need to check out the Bard and learn more than a little bit that I have been introduced to. I can sing the songs of Oliver. Does that count?

Anyway, gathering a congregation of Trekkies to learn what Sir Patrick can teach us of William, not Shatner. That’s what this book inspires. I plan to become more aware.

View all my reviews


I’m going to make the call. Somehow I got food poisoning. The middle of the night was not pretty. Today I’m exhausted and on a brat diet. Ugh! Yay for Pepto. I’m going to go back to bed.


We started out with pretty snow, but now it is all atrocious mud and rain. Yuck!

Your prompt for JusJoJan, January 26th, 2024, is “atrocious.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Jemima of Jemima’s blog provided us with the prompt of the day. Thank you, Linda and Jemima!

My achievements for this Friday are meager, but I feel good about them. My greatest accomplishment is over a year in getting it done. Now, I need to find a way to send it to its new home.

Sealed and an acrylic paint border. I had tried different types of tape including a pretty duct tape. But none stuck very well. But I think the black looks better anyway. I’m just so sloppy with paints I got it on everything. It cleaned up okay. But I’m ready to do some new diamond paintings.

The socks I was knitting ended up being tinked back to the arch area. I had them all the way to being close to done, but I held them in my hand and wondered about the size. They are supposed to fit a size 1 child, but when I looked that up, that would have been at least 7 inches long. These were only 5. So most of the week I have been undoing the work. The good part is I am getting better acquainted with the shadow wrapping needed for the heel and above. So when I finally get there again I’ll know what I’m doing. By the way, in the picture, you will see that each sock has its own needles. When I reach the heel of these no-show socks I find I do better with them separated.

The sock on the right is the one I’m working on until I reach the heel. The ball is all that I had to tink off the sock. For the sock on the left, I just wound the yarn around the sock so I wouldn’t get them mixed up.

When I want to just relax I am working on this pair of slipper socks.

I’m going to have to decide who gets these soon so I know how large to make them. I already have a pair I made for me but I love them enough to want another pair. They are comfortable.
Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com

I’m still only on day 8 of the lessons as I haven’t mastered the few chords taught so far. My fingers are getting tougher, but they still aren’t coordinated enough to not mute other strings. But, hey, I can now get through Row, Row, Row, and Mary Had A Little Lamb. Yay! I’m thinking I need to make a strap for my uke to carry it around and take the pressure off my hands. There are several patterns on YouTube.

Photo by Vika Glitter on Pexels.com

I wish I had learned recorder as a kid like these guys. But I’m glad I do understand music so that I can read and play the notes I know how to play. I finally got out my alto and found I remembered how to play it. My lapse of learning happened when I realized I had been using the wrong fingering for the type of recorder I had. Baroque versus German. All of my recorders and I inherited a lot of them from the school I worked in, plus my alto and my tenor that I bought are the Baroque.

Now that I know that I have retaught my fingers the F. I stopped playing before because it sounded wrong, and I couldn’t figure out why. Now I know, and I have to re-train my brain for it.

Speaking of the musical instruments, this is the time I usually play around with them. So, have a great Friday night and week-end!

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