Tag Archive: #JusJoJan


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.


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


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!


It’s not like this, but I would love it! Sadly, it has not been on my diet for a couple of years now!

Per Linda:

Your prompt for JusJoJan, January 25th, 2024, is “cheesy.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Cheesy is from Yvensong. Check out my friend Yvensong’s blog. It’s not too cheesy!

She would definitely say I’m cheesy.

I’d say all my friends have to be a little cheesy. We are like fine cheese. The outside may not look like much, but we are aged to perfection.

Photo by Mark Stebnicki on Pexels.com

It’s kind of sad how the world forces us to look at one another. We tend to see the package first. Well, I can tell you my friends had great packages way back when; I did, too. Sure, there were the imperfections we saw in ourselves, but looking back, we were something. Now, we have gone through a lot of life working on our issues and trying to become better people. I think we succeeded. And we are following our passions, the things that draw us to learn more and extend ourselves.

But when we get together, it is hard to say goodbye. We enjoy our time together even though we can only see each other through the internet. We are grateful we can see each other. Physically, it is getting harder and harder with lack of funds and aging joints, so a few hours being cheesy, or communicating our lives to each other, is so worth the wi-fi interruptions and family intrusions.

Each friend:


Thanks for the prompts, Linda!

Raindrops beget humidity, beget sweat, and back to rain again. Thankful for the antiperspirant!

Photo by Lum3n on Pexels.com

Just Jot It January, So Stoked


Per Linda:

This post is part of Just Jot It January, and today’s prompt is courtesy of Nicole. Check out her blog here!

I’m so stoked to finally develop calluses on my fingers. I am beginning to learn a few chords on my ukulele. My first couple of songs use the F and the C7 (Mary Had a Little Lamb), and the C gives us Row, Row Row! And though the fretting fingers still hurt a little, I am hearing purer chords.

This little uke was $10 at a BiMart in La Pine. It seems to hold its tune nicely for something so inexpensive. If I can get to changing chords quickly, I may invest in a more expensive ukulele. It is fun to learn new things. And hopefully, it will help my brain to stay healthy.

And I’m stoked that I finally know an F from an F# on this recorder. I am such a newbie on both of these instruments I feel I might never play nicely, but I am making myself happy with each little improvement.


Per Linda:


Your prompt for JusJoJan, January 22nd, 2024, is “mood.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

This was my prompt. Yay! I wanted a good word that offered lots of ways to go. But nothing came to mind. So I went to a word generator. I dismissed at least a dozen words because I wasn’t in the mood. Then suddenly, MOOD came up. What are the chances?

I’ve wanted to get over here and write this jot all day, but I was in the middle of tinking a sock project and then restarting, messing up then re-tinking the project again. As much as my mood was grumpily redoing the same thing over and over, I found my need to make it look good overcame the grump.

When we were talking about despair the other day, I talked about a game that proved a lazy streak in that the grump shows up when I have to click out of the scene and many scenes back. I decided to play the game and see if I could overcome that tendency. I made myself click in and out of scenes just out of curiosity. It worked. By the time I got to the big clicky one, I was ready to do it without even the slightest feeling of grump. So mind over mood this time.

I know that happens with my knitting. I can remember long ago nearly feeling the need for suicide if I had to tear out my work. Maybe it is because I am retired, and I have all the time in the world to get it right, but I don’t go dark. In fact, I kind of love that flutter sound of frogging, tearing the whole project up, and starting over. I tell myself now I start new, and I have all this yarn to play with that was in the project before. Tinking (knitting backward) isn’t quite as much fun, especially the finer sock yarns on the thin needles, my eyes get crossed and feel like they might stay that way. But when I overcome the grump, I am always happy I spent the day figuring out the problem.

This may not seem such a revelation to some. But for me, it has been a lifelong issue. How do I motivate myself on the bigger projects? I am still looking at a box of stuff to go through. I know that I will be happier when that ‘real estate’ of the house is open for something other than the box of stuff. But I need a better psychological mood fix to get the job done. My inner child is causing so much grump. How do I find the right mood?

~~~

Thank you all for your many ways of using this word. There were several that were really fun. Did you see Ghostmmnc‘s take with the mood ring and the mood ears? I started my day reading that and laughing at the ears.

My friend, Yvensong, gave an idea of where the mood magic goes.

I would put more of them here but the clock tells me I need to post NOW!


Per Linda:
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 20th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday
is: “in a nutshell.” Use it as an idiom, or use it literally. Enjoy!

In a nutshell is the best way to eat nuts, not salted, not cooked. And hard to eat a lot at a time, which can be my way if I don’t have to work at it! Maybe that is something to look at in life. I could go out and buy a lot of socks. But my body won’t be as happy as the ones I make myself. I thought it was just me, but my son and brother both told me they love the way the sock feels like it’s hugging their foot, like a little massage. I feel that way, too.

I do seem to be a paradox, though, as I look at this line of thinking. Though I love the process of learning music as opposed to buying and listening to it, and I love diamond painting instead of looking at magazine pictures, why do I find such laziness within? Shouldn’t I be happy with a process no matter what?

A friend and I were talking about how some things seem too much work. The first and silliest example is when I am playing a game, and I have to leave the scene and click five times to find myself in a totally different scene. I sigh like it is a lot of work. I find myself complaining: why do I have to go all the way out there? In this case, the game is Mystery Case Files®: Return to Ravenhearst™ Collector’s Edition. If you play it, you know there is a place where you need to leave the children’s town to go back to the well to get the knife. FIVE clicks. Yet it seems like so much work! It definitely says more about me than it does the game. I love the game, though I have played it so often. It is mostly boring and just something to do when I need to waste time. If you’re curious, here is what it looks like:

But I lost my stream. It is that often I feel something is too much work. Even though when I do the work of most tasks I am satisfied that I did it. I rarely am unhappy when I put in the time and effort.

Some things feel unproductive. Knitting, there’s an item when done. Riding the stationary bike? I go nowhere. But I have seen proof it is working just in my energy levels, and my abilities to do certain things have improved. But that box of things I need to go through… Seems like five clicks too many! I need to work on my brain! That’s it! In a nutshell!


This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt, tenaciousness, is courtesy of Cheryl. Check out her blog here!

Oxford Dictionary says of ‘Tenacious’:

“ending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely.

“tenacious grip”

or

not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined.

“you’re tenacious and you get at the truth”

or

persisting in existence; not easily dispelled.

“a tenacious local legend”

When I am working on something I can seem stubborn. But I would rather think of it as tenacious. Sticking to it until I become better, sticking to it until I have a product to wear, or give to someone else to enjoy. The following are my newest slippers and socks.

These are a pair of this-and-that slippers using up leftover yarn. If they don’t turn out well, I will keep them and love them myself!
These will be the smallest no-show socks for a sweet little girl who is a size 1 child. I hope they turn out to be her size. I have to admit my own size is easiest to do as I have my own feet available to check as I go.
I tenaciously cling to the idea of learning to play new instruments while maintaining the ones I know. My recorder is always near me. I’ve finally gotten the idea of how the Baroque fingering for F and F sharp is different than the fingering I learned at first. I like that it sounds right now.
The last time I tried a stringed instrument was a guitar I had as a young teen. I named it Herman. I gave up because it hurt my fingers. So, I thought a ukulele would be easier. Definitely easy to tote around. Nope. I’m only on one-finger chords, and it already hurts. But now I have a group on Facebook helping me learn to keep practice times down to 10 minutes until my fingers develop callouses. I plan to stick it out. And still get back to my piano. No sense in letting that go when it has been with me since I was 5. 69 years of piano? I ought to be at the concert level! No. I just want to enjoy it and learn more.
Remember this guy? I was working on him a year ago. I gave up because I didn’t like to do the last steps. But I finally finished sealing the painting. Tomorrow, I will frame the work with the tape in the upper left corner. Then he and the leg-warmers will go to their new owner.
Through the limbs of the mesquite, you can see the tenacious snow that won’t leave the driveway despite the rain we have had for a couple days. More rain is expected. Somehow, I don’t think I will see snow tomorrow.
My brother has a new but beautiful enemy. We have about 6 of these guys hanging around our yard and our neighbors’ yards. Though I would appreciate them dealing with all the mice around here, they seem to be going after the chickens and small stray cats and rabbits that hang out in our area. My brother got beak to beak with one as he tried to save one of his chickens, but the owl had already won. So he strengthened the coop so that owls couldn’t get in. Sadly, our chickens are free-range during the day, and that makes it dangerous for them. When not being pests, these large birds are gorgeous. And probably more tenacious than any other predator around here.

But I can’t leave this prompt without this tribute:

Just Jot It January, Despair


 Carol Anne’s blog brings us today’s prompt, “despair.”

JusJoJan is Linda’s fun place to start.

The despair I had when Kali and, within a short while, Teddy crossed the Rainbow Bridge is still hanging on. I don’t know if you ever get over losing someone, even or especially our beloved pets. Even though it was last Spring, these last two losses are still heavy in my heart.

My hair was long when I first met her. Little did I know then that she would be my best buddy for sleeping and walking and chatting.
Teddy jumped into a friend’s car at 3 AM when she was coming to visit us. Just a kitten. Our friend called her mother during the day to look for a possible owner in Garden Grove. Teddy loved the long drive. They didn’t find anyone, so he became ours. He loved getting out on a leash. He could fly between beds even into his last couple of weeks alive. He divorced me when Kali came but toward the end of both of their lives he started sleeping with Kali and I.

We just watched Dogs.

We watch a lot of vet and zoo shows. I can’t help but think there is a dog that needs me as much as I need her/him.

What hit me was the kind priest who loved dogs near the end of the second season of Dogs and the despair those poor dogs felt living on the street with no one to love them. I believe there is a sweetie or two out there for me. That is the hope that heals my sadness.

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