"JANUARY, The first month of the year, A perfect time to start all over again, Changing energies and deserting old moods, New beginnings, new attitudes." ―Charmaine J. Forde

January 1

Walking toward the blue sky

on New Year’s Day

Ella cooking some hot dogs in her kitchen

Knox playing Fortnite with a friend

January 3

A yummy cup of boiled custard

Even better with a dollop of Cool Whip

My mother’s mother made the best

boiled custard ever for the holidays way back when

January 9

Ready for anything

Her mom shared these pics with me

The bathroom makeover has begun

The last time it had a makeover

was 1993 when I was still immersed

in “country style”

I got over that about two decades ago

We’ve been putting it off because it’s

you know….hard work

January 10

We haven’t been to Poet’s coffeehouse on the square

since I can’t remember when, usually because

it’s packed with college students and there’s 

nowhere to sit. We popped in after lunch 

on the Sunday before the college crowd poured 

back into town after winter break.

Empty and quiet

They sell a lot of cool stuff like mugs and t-shirts

Ella and Knox found these tubes filled with

puzzle pieces that fit together into

whatever you wanted to create

Picture by Kelly

Using the included instructions

Knox built the Lunar Module

’The Eagle has landed’

Picture by Kelly

January 11

Snow Day!

We’ve had several snows, starting end of 

last November. We even enjoyed a white Christmas.

Our snows lately don’t stick around very long though.

The last big snow (ten inches) we had was five years ago

January 12

Hooked on Wendy’s chicken nuggets

with sweet and sour sauce

Wendy’s is one of the few fast food restaurants

open here where you can eat inside the dining room.

January 15

Shelby and Ella 

making art on the magnetic erase board

Elijah discovered the joy of playing old school

Ms Pac-Man on a smaller version of the

arcade game that Kelly and Kerry bought

for Christmas

I think he prefers his digital video games

Ella rarely lets anyone touch her hair

No combing, brushing, smoothing it down

But she allowed her Aunt Holly to make

her very first pony tail

She looked so cute!

<That cheek, though …>

January 16

Milkshake run to Chick fil A

Yum!

January 19

Beautiful winter sky

January 21

Ella after school

She always wants to color when she’s here

January 22

January 23

Looking out my front door

"The color of the sun is white. 

The sun emits all colors of the rainbow more or less evenly 

and in physics, we call this combination "white”. 

That is why we can see so many different colors 

in the natural world under the illumination of sunlight.”

Y’all probably already knew this, but if you didn’t then

don’t say I never taught ya nothin'

January 26

Ella after school

If she’s not coloring 

then she’s placing alphabet/number magnets 

on the fridge

She asks me what this is

I say it’s an M

She says No it’s not. It’s a W.

What do I know?

January 27

We enjoyed having supper with Shelby at BBQ’s

And then we hit Ralph’s for a dozen

Well, a dozen for her to share with her family. Maybe

January 28

After school game of Yahtzee

Knox won both games

January 30

Neil stripped all the wallpaper 

off earlier this month and cleaned the walls

He had to spend a lot of time 

underneath the house

 to level and shore up the bathroom and kitchen floors

Then he hit the bathroom walls again, 

wet sanding all that adhesive left behind from the wallpaper. 

Stubborn stuff.

No more wallpaper for us

January 31

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:24

“Ten Things To Do In January:

(or any month …)

• Read a good book
• Get a Library Card
• Walk 30 minutes a day
• Send a Birthday card to a friend
• Invest in a Fitness Tracker
• Buy a Coin jar and save those quarters and nickels
• Donate to a Charity
• Volunteer 45 minutes of your time to an Organization
• Take a Yoga Class
• Volunteer at Bingo night at a Nursing Home” 

― Charmaine J. Forde