Sentence a Day 01.2023

Welcome dear ones to Sentence a Day 01.2023 – my monthly review of life in one run-on sentence a day. Today I am bringing you my sentences from January, as long-winded as always.  Each month I tell myself to try to do just a couple of words for each day.  But I wind up writing more instead.  Please accept my apologies.

Sentence a Day- OGT 2023

 

As always, want to give a big thanks to Rebecca Jo at Knit by God’s Hand for creating this series.  This year, Rebecca is starting something that goes with SaD,  she says it combines both.  A thankful month idea – where every day, she will post a blessing, a gratitude for that day.  And those posts will go live on the first Thursday of each month.  Which is…ta-da…today!!

For each of my daily entries, you will see OGT after the date for that (looooooong) sentence.  OGT = one good thing.  And I am following Rebecca’s good lead by including one good thing I am grateful for each day.  For years – since my friend Carrie sent me the first one – I have kept a gratitude journal.  Last night I completed the last post in my current journal.  Now, do I buy a new one or just add my gratefuls here?  Looking at this one on Amazon.  Going to put it in my cart.

Just a reminder:  Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After occasionally uses affiliate links which are usually italicized.  If you click or make a purchase from an italicized link provided I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.

Sentence a Day 01.2023

 

So, here we go…my summary – yeah, right!! – of the first month of the new year.

Welcome, 2023

• Happy New Year!!  So hopeful for 2023, how ’bout you?  First full day in Santa Fe had us up early, breakfast, then put on layers and layers of clothes and headed for ‘snow mountain’ and a day of snow tubing; picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips and apple slices; more snow play and made 2 snowmen friends; home for delicious bulgogi meatballs and rice; held Cami for a nap while Lauren cooked and PC and Francisco built a pretty fire in the fireplace; played with the girls after dinner; roasted marshmallows for s’mores; it’s raining with the promise of fresh snow in the morning.  01.01.2023  OGT: making snowmen with the girls

I Love *S*N*O*W*

• Awoke to the hush of falling snow; continued off and on throughout the day, at times with fat, fluffy flakes and other times with a combination of sleet and hail; after breakfast, we packed out picnic lunch then headed to snow mountain to play; the slopes were covered with powder so not as icy as yesterday; we continued work on our snowmen then tubed down the intermediate and steepest slopes where I banged my tailbone good; picnic outside in the snowfall; walked down a beautiful trail alongside a creek; home to shower before heading for dinner at Ten Thousand Waves Japanese restaurant – very pretty but skimpy portions; played Pictionary until news of a horrible player injury in the Bengals-Bills game knocked the steam out of us; early to bed with Tylenol and ibuprofen on board.  01.02.2023  OGT:  falling snow

Santa Fe Date Day

• Tossed and turned some with my tail bone; precious Cami came to get me about 6 am to go potty then we snuggled in bed for about an hour until Sissy (Lucia) woke up and we snuggled with her; the kids went ice skating, to lunch and Meow Wolf, which I would like to see someday but we had massages scheduled (thanks to Francisco); we walked around Old Town or the plaza, visited Loretto Chapel and the miraculous staircase, and enjoyed a quick lunch at Santa Fe Mac-n-Cheese, a wonderful massage at Loretto Spa; back to the house to pick up the girls for dinner at Cowgirl, which started out fun but Cami was exhausted and sick with congestion and coughing so much that she gagged – we ate in a hurry then home for baths and Pictionary with the girls before Lauren and Francisco got back from their dinner date; snowing again.  01.03.2023  P.S. somehow in the shuffle of leaving the restaurant, we dropped Cami’s stuffed bunny.  Didn’t realize until she was going to sleep and we couldn’t find it.  Called the restaurant but they didn’t find it.  OGT: massage and mac-n-cheese

Love to be Loved

• My sweet Cia came to get me in the night for a glass of water; I love to be needed; coughing worse than ever again, helped get things together around the house and ready for our trip home; the kids went back to snow mountain, we went back over to Cowgirl to look for Cami’s bunny…there it was in the parking lot, covered with snow – hurray!!; on our way out of Santa Fe we were pulled over in a construction zone for speeding but only got a warning – hurray!!; home by 4;30, got the car unpacked, the kitties’ dinner fixed and ate our leftover mac-n-cheese; ready for bed and it is just 6:30 pm.  01.04.2023  OGT:  found bunny
• Slept so deeply, neither of us was ready to get up when Alexa went off; spent most of the day on the phone chasing down the Social Security check that was sent to the wrong address (SS typo); finding out about how to pay our property taxes ($7000+) and insurance now that we’ve paid off the house; paying bills and buying a few last minute things for Cami’s birthday; made an appointment at MedPost for my cough and tailbone; chili for supper with cornbread.  01.05.2023  OGT:  ability to pay our taxes

Whew

• Slept so well and so late that I didn’t have time to make PC’s breakfast or lunch before he needed to leave; enjoyed my devotional and quiet time, really want to get up early and start doing that and some exercise first thing each day; even did some journal writing and started reading Faith Still Moves Mountains, made a to-do list for the first time in weeks; put up laundry, vacuumed and mopped, then scrapbooked with my sister on Facetime; picked up books at the library; Lucia and Cami came about 5 pm, fed them supper then we took them to the movies to see “Puss in Boots;” across the mountain to give them baths and tuck them in bed before Lauren and Francisco got home from date night.  01.06.2023  OGT:  quiet time

• Goodness, we slept til almost 9 am; cereal for breakfast then a quick run to Walmart and Lowe’s; leftover chili for lunch; got all the Christmas put away and a big basket of decorations for Goodwill; manicotti and salad for dinner followed by a soak in the hot tub and a chapter of So Long, Chester Wheeler – a compelling Audible book; football on TV before bed.  01.07.2023  OGT:  purging things

Happy Birthday, Clammies

• Happy birthday, Camila Jean!!  Three years old and the spiciest of the grandbabies.  May all your dreams come true.  Slept like a baby again…loving this; got dressed up for church in my (p)leather mini skirt and argyle tights; good message – I need to be more faithful to my quiet time this year; dropped off a lot of purged Christmas decor at Goodwill, picked up Cami’s pointe shoes my friend Patricia designed for her; pizza and birthday cake then opened presents – I think the tutu and ballet shoes were a hit; home to watch football, eat leftover manicotti, and start thinking about the week ahead.  01.08.2022  OGT:  Cami’s birthday and delight with her ballet things

Best Laid Plans

• Up early to do my quiet time with so much energy and enthusiasm; journaled, made a to-do list and got after it but didn’t get everything done as PC needed me to rescue him when he left his ID at work and couldn’t get back on Ft. Bliss (and his office) without it; purged my makeup and medications in our bathroom; clean sheets on the bed; fixed this cheeseburger soup for supper; Facetimed with my sissy and Bren – their pool is finished!!; wrote a blog post reintroducing myself to YOU; began moving things out of my loft in preparation for the flooring folks on Thursday.  01.09.2023  OGT:  Facetiming fam

• Wanted to get up early again today for quiet time but didn’t sleep well last night; got PC’s breakfast, lunch packed and out the door; cleaned the kitchen, unloaded dishwasher; did some blog reading; then scrambled to get out the door for my day of appointments – haircut, doctor’s appointment for my coughing/tailbone (allegies/bruised tailbone), dentist; Taco Bell for dinner; finished moving everything out of my loft, finished reading So Long, Chester Wheeler – fabulous book!! 01.10.2023  OGT:  finishing a fabulous book

Back to School

• First sub job of the new year…KA at Lundy; stopped to pick up Lucia and get snuggles from her, Cam, and Lauren; the kinders seemed happy to see me and received a warm welcome from office staff; 2 very troubled children in that class but the room is lovely, the teacher is brand new but very organized and we had a good day; leftover soup for supper; PC had to check lights again on Ft. Bliss after dark and I moved the last things out of my loft; finished listening to Finding Faith on Chirp; lost all of the bookmarked blogs I follow on Feedly…yikes!!  01.11.2023  OGT:  I love yous from the kinders

Be Mine

• Not sleeping well…how do I go from being practically comatose at night to being fitful??; Got PC off then sorted, folded and put away laundry; the flooring guys arrived so I tried to stay out of their way as much as possible; worked on my Where Bloggers Live post; tried to think of all the blogs I follow I add them back to my Feedly feed; received the sweetest box of Valentine’s goodies from my BFF Sharon; cleaned patio furniture, moved old solar lights from the back yard to the front yard; caught up with my sister, brother and Bren on the phone; Supernatural workout and tennis practice; dinner and blog reading after.  01.12.2023  OGT: Sharon’s sweet goodie box

• Great night’s sleep, hallelujah; grabbed breakfast quick before the flooring guys returned; PC cleaned the pool filters while I trimmed bushes, raked leaves and pulled weeds – it was nice being outside in the sunshine and cool; took a walk; lunch; did a lot of blog reading – enjoyed catching up with old friends and making a few new ones; grilled a steak, made baked beans and a baked potato for dinner; did a quick drop in visit with Pepper, one of my kitty charges.  01.13.2023  OGT:  warm weather and time outside in January

Good Movies for a Change

• Up early for breakfast with my teacher friend Benita at iHop – good food and conversation; home pretty quick to watch for the flooring guys so PC could go to the first baseball practice of the season (a little early, don’t you think??); we went to see “A Man Called Otto” with Tom Hanks which we enjoyed as much as the book its based on – big crowd in the theater, too; did my drop-in visit with Pepper; blizzards at DQ; played Paul at First Person Tennis on our Oculus – fun; leftovers for dinner; football and blog reading before bed; floor looks great – now to put the upstairs back together again.  01.14.2023 OGT:  catching up with Benita; our beautiful new floor

• Super windy all day; wanted to dress up for church but decided to wear pants because of the wind; good church message about becoming more involved at Abundant; breakfast at iHop; walked around the outlet but didn’t spend a penny!!; football all afternoon; walked on my treadmill; drop-in visit with Pepper; charcuterie board for dinner.  01.15.2023 OGT:  adorable videos of and Facetime chat with Declan

Rainy Days

• Awoke to rain; fixed sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast; put on my outfit for this month’s Ageless Style post and PC took some pics; we moved the furniture back into my loft and all of my books then I started putting things up; visited with my sister on Facetime; did my last Pepper drop-in – she was so snuggly; did my Supernatural workout; leftovers for supper; football before bed.  01.16.2023  OGT:  unspoken prayer answered

• Another drizzly day;  Paul had to have some cosmetic work done on his car so I accompanied him to the repair place in my car and took him on to work; visited with both daughters on the phone; got laundry underway; worked with the ADT tech support guy to figure out what is wrong with our alarm; made a WW-friendly dinner and green beans that I cooked all afternoon the way my mama always did; cleaned off the front porch, put winter decor away; PC got home – a friend took him to pick up his car and we ate very early; Supernatural workout; ready for bed at 8:30 pm.  01.17.2023  OGT: safe travels from Japan for my brother who came down with Covid while there for a meeting

Fun

• Didn’t sleep well – up at 2:30 am and didn’t fall back to sleep until 5:30, back up at 6:30; I am tired tonight; sorted laundry and put it away; finished my Ageless Style post; moved more of my mementos into the loft; met Lorena at her school, visited the beautiful campus library then we caught up again over lunch at The Healthy Bite – we have been pals for over 17 years now; picked up grocery order at Walmart, put it all up before PC came home with deli sandwiches; early to bed. 01.18.2023 OGT:  lunch with Lorena
• Up early for quiet time and to make my to-do list; then over the mountain to pick up Lucia for school; Cami was very bubbly and talkative making me laugh – she showed me some of her favorite birthday presents, a baby ‘oda (Yoda) and a light that shines stars and the Northern Lights onto her ceiling; Cia and I played our favorite pretend game, “Babies” on the way to school; I subbed for a difficult second grade class but they were pretty good; got my steps in and boy, do my feet hurt; made sheet pan ground chuck ‘steaks’ for supper; lots of blog reading tonight.  01.19.2023  OGT:  my sweet granddaughters – all 3; hugs from the children at school

My Muse

• Up early again, QT, to-do list, dressed in a copy-cat version of Kellyann’s great denim-on-denim outfit; the first graders were a tough crowd this week with several of the kids refusing to do much of anything, apparently the latest thing is for the girls to scratch each other – happened yesterday with 2 girls, and today with several more; the math worksheets were almost more than I could do; lost my district badge at the end of the day and took that as a sign that maybe my subbing days are over; home feeling defeated, picked up PC and we went for ‘comfort food’ = enchiladas, watched “1923” before bed.  01.20.2023  OGT:  mole enchiladas (enmoladas) and sopapillas

Movies and Messages

• New Melatonin really gave us a good night’s sleep; slow to get started on our day, snuggled and had family time with the kitties; cereal for breakfast then we began cleaning the garage, really just putting together things we needed to take to the citizen collection site; dropped that stuff off and returned unused baseboards from flooring project (received $321 back); PC had baseball practice, I started organizing scrapbook paper; went to see “The Whale” with Branden Fraser, kind of depressing; had an apple cider beer at Tin Man on the way home; a little TV before bed.  01.21.2023  OGT:  sleeping good again
• Over the mountain for church in my new Banana Republic cowl neck dress and coat I bought 2 years ago and have never had an opportunity to wear; my dress shed all over it, have never seen anything like it – my whole coat was covered in gray fuzz; good church message about how God is on our side; breakfast at iHop; walked around the outlet mall; dropped my toe shoes off at JoVi’s to be decorated; football all afternoon while I organized my scrapbook paper; glad for the Bengals’ win, sad for the Cowboys’ loss.  01.22.2023  OGT:  uplifting message at church

Dinner is Served

• Woke up in the middle of the night after multiple trips to the bathroom; decided to write this blog post airing my generation frustration at things while acknowledging I have so much for which to be thankful; worked most of the morning sorting through my scrapbooking embellishments and putting the finishing touches on my loft; cleaned the upstairs, changed sheets, washed about 5 loads of laundry, folded and put away; made a delicious (just ask me) pot pie using a seasoning pack my BFF gave me from Crockstar Dinner Club; put together the book club’s consideration list of voting on February’s read; watched the weather hoping for *s*n*o*w*.  01.23.2023  OGT:  my loft is clean
• PC, Ft. Bliss and the school districts were all on 2-hour delayed start so we slept like babies until after 8:00 am; and then awoke to find no snow; I cleaned the downstairs; made 2 loaves of banana bread that didn’t rise well; put together taco soup in the crockpot; ran on the treadmill (!!); over the mountain to pick up the girls from school and to take Lauren banana bread and some pot pie; played Barbies with the girls; home to eat soup with PC and to blog read til bedtime; finished Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come.  01.24.2023  OGT:  seeing my baby and her babies

Home Sweet Home

• Nicest, stay-at-home day; quiet time early in the morning; got PC out the door; worked through the second and third lessons in the CreativeLive “Writing Your Story” workshop – fun, thoughtful writing advice and exercises; scrapbooked with my sister; ironed about 20 pieces of clothing; Supernatural workout and walk in the sunshine; this beef tips recipe over noodles for dinner.  01.25.2023  OGT: being home and participating in activities I like doing

• Quiet time before going across the mountain to sub for my favorite kinder class; the kids always tell me that they love me, learned the sight word ‘love’ today and used it to write me notes and messages on their work; had a fire drill the last few minutes of the school day which was unexpected and had all of the kinder kids in other classes (who also had subs) crying and screaming but my class was well behaved!!; dropped off books at the library and donations at our Little Free Library; leftovers for dinner; attended online Kiwi Lane new release presentation.  01.26.2023  OGT:  seeing Cia at school, ‘I love yous’ from the kinder babies

Lunch Date

• PC didn’t sleep well so we were up early but had family time with the kitties while reading in bed; walked around downtown El Paso a bit then enjoyed lunch at The Healthy Bite – turkey avocado panini for me and gyro for PC; went to the commissary together for the first time in months – takes so long to work our way through the store; put groceries away; talked to Bren and Lauren, Declan, Lucia and Cami; fixed sandwiches for dinner; played a couple of games of virtual reality tennis; blog reading and TV before bed.  01.27.2023  OGT: walking downtown and enjoying lunch together

Gabba and Campa

• Tired Gabba tonight; we were on our way across the mountain to get the girls before 10 am in order to give Francisco and Lauren some down time; Lucia and Cami had drawn pictures for us and bounded out the door when we arrived; had breakfast at McD’s, then jumped at the Ft. Bliss jump park; home for some scooter riding and a picnic at our neighborhood park; the girls finished their visit by playing with our old Fisher-Price doll house; I met Francisco on the top of the mountain to drop off the babies; home to mix up homemade bread yeast and scrapbook with my sister while PC went to baseball practice; so tired tonight.  01.28.2023  OGT:  the girls’ excitement at being with us today

Looking Forward

• PC wasn’t feeling well so we had a skip from church; I fixed breakfast then we worked on some projects around the house before the football games began; worked on my winter goals, bucket list and WOTY post with 1 eye on the TV; my tummy was upset most of the day and I even threw up once; this is becoming a monthly thing since November; enjoyed Bible journaling; Bengals lost a very close game so we went to bed disappointed; unseasonably warm.  01.29.2023  OGT:  spring-like weather

Mondays Rock

• Kind of mixed up for a Monday; started my housework before my devotional time; got back on track mid-morning; ran 1.3 miles on the treadmill, played tennis and did a Supernatural workout, even did a little weightlifting; walked around the park in the sun; listened to The Power Of Writing It Down; ironed, fixed WW taco salad for dinner; blog reading tonight.  OGT:  feels great to be working out again
• Mixed up morning again; got PC off to work then made the fatal mistake of getting on my laptop; talked to Bren and Val on Facetime then got back on track with quiet time, journal writing, listening to The Power of Writing; ran to Dollar Tree to get writing notebooks; finished laundry; found myself cleaning the frig, and both freezers and the pantry; scrapped with my sister for an hour; off to Jason’s Deli then our first meeting of the church-sponsored writing group which we both enjoyed.  01.31.2023  OGT: writing

And that is my month in something larger than a nutshell but not quite as big a bread box.  Here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version in video from 1 Sec Each Day.

Your Turn

 

How do you feel about 2023 so far?  Are you optimistic about this new year?  I still am…32 days in.  Hope I can look back on 2023 as one of my best years ever.  And wishing the same for you.

If you have a Sentence a Day-month-in-review or Thankful Thursday post, won’t it link it up with us below?  Always happy to catch up with my blogging buddies through these updates.

Off to iron.  It is so chilly in this house that ironing will feel good!!  Muchas gracias for coming by to visit.

Hugs and kisses,