1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:
Tonight I made turkey meatballs to go with the homemade tomato sauce I made last night. I also made brownies on Monday.

2. WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:
I was in Walmart looking for one of the strings of bells to hang on our back door (because the dog insists on jumping on the door even as it is being opened) and I saw a Santa suit. It made me remember how my son used to dress up as Santa every year to go to school right before Christmas vacation. I’m not sure I even have a picture of him in his Santa suit.

3: WHAT I’M LOVING:
I’m loving the progress that I am making on my house…When I’m done fixing it up I won’t want to leave it!

4: WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO:
Leaf blowing and leaf vacuuming! Living amongst the trees, we have a lot of leaves to get off the grass!

6: WHAT I’M WORKING ON:
Just started a brand new miniature. It should be super cute! A two story loft apartment. Today I got the floor pieces cut out and glued.

7: WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT:
Turkey on Thanksgiving. I was never a big turkey fan until I tried it with gravy…Now, fagetaboutit!

8: WHAT I’M WATCHING/READING:
I just started reading Failsafe Query by Michael Jenkins. All I’ve been watching is election stuff…I hope this week goes by fast.

9: WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:
Lately it’s been a weird mix of music, but today in the car it was 70’s Rock.

10: WHAT I’M WEARING:
My fuzzy sweaters! It is finally cold enough outside that I don’t look like a freak wearing them!

11: WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND:
Having my good friend over for Margaritas!

12: WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays….Tom’s on the 1st, mine on the 2nd, my mom’s was the 5th, my son’s was the 10th, Mary’s on the 11th, and David’s on the 14th. There is also Christa’s on the 1st, Aimee’s on the 22nd, Christine’s on the 2nd with me, and my stepmom, Laurette’s on the 30th.

13: WHAT ELSE IS NEW:
James is coming next week to start the work on the gutters and facia boards. After that he is fixing the two windows that won’t stay up and building the new closet to move the washer and dryer. While he is doing that David and I will be taking down the cabinets in the kitchen. After the washer and dryer are moved James will be working on putting in the new cabinets. While he is doing that I will be tiling the wall for the new shower in the bathroom. I really hope I get my home equity line of credit! The interest will be a lot less than credit cards!

Thanks for staying and sharing my month with me! It is fun to think of all the things that actually get done in a month!

100 Word Wednesday Fiction Flashfiction Photo Challenge Random Writings Weekly Writing Prompt

100 Word Wednesday

for: https://bikurgurl.com/2020/10/28/100-word-wednesday-172/

Image of picnic tables on a mulch bed at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington just before Halloween 2020 - with two pumpkins soocially distanced, image by Bikurgurl, October 2020

Michael’s Pumpkin

Okay guys hurry up! Time to go!

Mom…

Not now Michael, we have to go. It is almost four o’clock and I have to make dinner.

But mom…

Michael, please. Just get in the car. Your sister is already strapped in, I am just waiting for you.

Mom!

Michael, I am not arguing with you right now. Just get in the car! Why does there always have to be an argument when we leave the park. You know, next time I will just bring your sister and get Aunt Martha to come stay with you.

But mom!

What?

My pumpkin….

Christine Bialczak poetry Daily Writing Prompt Poetry to enjoy Random Writings Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #402

For: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/three-things-challenge-402/

HALF
SMALL
SHRINK

Little Mikey Mullen

Was shy beyond his words

His little tiny willy

Was half that of a bird’s

It was so small to start with

So, shrinking it was nuts

And Little Mikey Mullen

Had similar little guts.

#stinewriting Daily Writing Prompt Fandango's One Word Challenge (FOWC) One Word Challenge Random Writings

Disseminate: FOWC with Fandango

For: FOWC https://fivedotoh.com/2020/10/28/fowc-with-fandango-disseminate/

spread (something, especially information) widely.

It was typical for Bruce to disseminate the entire podcast word for word. He always seemed to have the type of memory where he could practically resight things like that. I guess it could be a good asset to have except the reason Bruce was there listening to the podcast by himself was because nobody cared about the topic!

#stinewriting Flashfiction Photo Challenge Random Writings stinewriting Weekly Writing Prompt

FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER: 2020: WEEK #46

For Roger Shipp: https://flashfictionforthepracticalpractitioner.wordpress.com/2020/10/27/flash-fiction-for-the-purposeful-practitioner-2020-week-46/

Present for Grandma

Mommy, I made Grandma a necklace.

You did! Wow, she is going to love it I’m sure. We can put it in an envelope and mail it to her.

But I want to go give it to her!

Well, right now because of the virus no one can visit the people who live at Grandma’s living center.

But it won’t be the same if she just opens an envelope and gets this! It deserves a box at least!

One-Liner Wednesday Random Writings Weekly Writing Prompt

One-Liner Wednesday

What day is it, anyway?

When I wake up and David is not home, I know he is at work and it is a weekday.

#stinewriting Christine Bialczak poetry Photo Challenge Poetry to enjoy stinewriting Weekly Writing Prompt

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #103

For Crispina Kemp’s weekly challenge: https://crispinakemp.com/2020/10/28/crimsons-creative-challenge-103/

Hope for our world

Nobody knows what the countries go through
that have evil leaders who do what they do

But in the civilized world we have evil too
Dehumanizing people, clouding our view

We have to think of how humans must feel
when all they can think is “negativity’s real”

And where are the people who built to conceal
the anger and hatred, I mean what is their deal?

If kindness could run from person to person
wouldn’t our world be a little more fun?

If peace and prosperity rolled into one
Then maybe the evil can be slowly undone.

#stinewriting Blog Book Review Book Reviews Fiction New Books!

Book Review – Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Written by Sherrill Joseph: http://sherrilljoseph.com/

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse by Sherrill Joseph is the second book in her Nutmeg Street Detective series, and it has only gotten better! Join these young detectives as they use logic and other clues to solve a mystery that hits very close to home.

Lanny, Lexi, Moki, and Rani are becoming well known in their neighborhood for solving mysteries. The four juveniles are smart, talented, and pride themselves on their impeccable manners and mature conversation. In this second book, Isabela de Cordoba is a young woman who has just turned 21 years old and with this birthday milestone she gets a letter from a relative long gone, her great, great grandfather. The letter alerts Isabela that there is a valuable green emerald hidden on her property, a gem worth millions of dollars. Isabela needs help finding it and when she starts hearing noises in the house, while she is home alone, she invites the Nutmeg Street Detectives to come and stay to help her solve the mysteries of her ancestors and find out if her home is haunted.

There are many new characters introduced in this story and for the most part it can be understood without having read the first book, but it helps to know who these kids are and where they come from, all information that helps the reader understand the characters better. Based on wealth and a lot of good luck, some young readers may not relate to the characters as well, as they present themselves as four very privileged individuals.

I give this story five out of five stars for its believable characters and fast-moving plot. In this second book of the set, Joseph has portrayed a young person today, including their use of cell phones for flashlights and pictures! This book will keep you wondering and turning pages right up to the end.

#stinewriting Book Blitz! Fiction New Books! stinewriting

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse Book Blitz!

To celebrate the release of the next exciting book in the Botanic Hill Detectives mystery series, Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse is going on tour!

We have an excerpt for you to read and a chance to win a signed, personalized paperback copy of the book, and some matching book swag!

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Publication Date: October 20^th

Genre: MG Mystery/ Middle Grade – 9 to 12 years old (For fans of Nancy Drew type mysteries)

In 1945, Isabela de Cordoba’s great-grandfather, the famous silent movie actor Lorenzo de Cordoba, mysteriously hid a legendary, multimillion-dollar emerald somewhere on the family’s sprawling Eucalyptus Street estate. Seventy years later, the gem remains concealed. Nicknamed the “Green Curse,” the emerald is blamed for the Southern California familia’s numerous, untimely deaths.

On her twenty-first birthday, Isabela receives a secret letter with a cryptic poem. These documents from the long-deceased Lorenzo invite her to hunt for the gemstone. But first, she must decipher the poem’s eight stanzas for clues.

To assist, Isabela hires her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the four Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, and their best friends, Moki Kalani and Rani Kumar. Eerie footsteps inside the mansion, unexplained occurrences in the adjacent cemetery, and the mysterious tenant in the backyard casita challenge them. But they ingeniously make progress on the poem’s meaning with startling discoveries. Sliding wall panels, a secret room, and hidden passages reveal much. The detectives aren’t the only ones looking for the emerald. The perilous race for the de Cordoba treasure is on!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53981734-eucalyptus-street?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=IGJ784Nx8x&rank=3

Purchase Links

Paperback = https://amzn.to/3d0iyLv

eBook = https://amzn.to/30AXuGq

About the Author

Sherrill Joseph will be forever inspired by her beautiful students in the San Diego public schools where she taught for thirty-five years before retiring and becoming a published author.

She has peopled and themed the Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries with children and adult characters of various abilities, races, cultures, and interests. Sherrill strongly believes that children need to find not only themselves in books but others from different races and social situations if all are to become tolerant, anti-racist world citizens. She also feels that kids are amazing human beings who don’t tend to get enough credit from some adults for their blossoming insights and intelligence.

The author created her detectives—patterned after her own fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins—to be mature, smart, polite role models that will appeal to parents, teachers, but especially to kids who seek the courage and self-respect needed to realize their greatest potential.

Sherrill is the recent recipient of the Gold Award from Mom’s Choice Awards, and the Gold Award for Children’s Fiction in Mystery from Moonbeams Children’s Book Awards, both for Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets, Book 1 in her Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series. She is a member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come.

Author Links

Sherrill Joseph http://sherrilljoseph.com/

Newsletter https://mailchi.mp/d194b6687f2b/sherrilljoseph

Twitter https://twitter.com/MysteryAuthor7

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BHDMysteriesAuthor/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sherrilljosephauthor/

Twitter Tags

@MysteryAuthor7 @RRBookTours1 #EucalptusStreet #RRBookTours #MG #Mystery #MGReads

Instagram Tags

@sherrilljosephauthor @shannon_rrbooktours #EucalptusStreet #RRBookTours#MG #Mystery #MGReads

Giveaway: US ONLY

Signed, personalized paperback copy of the book, and some matching book swag (x2)