It seems I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen. I had picked some of my chard and kale from the front yard, and I needed to use them. The kale had sprung up by itself next to the garage. Here’s what I did with a previous batch of home-grown kale.
I tried a new recipe this time, one with chicken, kale, and onions. We both loved it. I will be posting it soon on Niume, another site where I often make short posts on my daily adventures. I also made a batch of black bean soup so now there is something hot to eat at night. It’s been so long since I cooked anything from scratch I’d almost forgotten how.
Writing Kept Me Very Busy
It seems I spent a lot of the weekend listing and updating deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I deleted the post today since the sales are over. I don’t think I will handle those deals the same way next year. Here are some of the posts I wrote over the weekend that are still up.
I was also editing the deals that were coming and going on a couple of older posts on another blog. Now you know why I didn’t post here over the weekend.
Shopping the Cyber Weekend Deals
After listing all those good deals, I decided I might as well take advantage of them to get some things we needed while the prices were low. We’ve already gotten some of our orders, and I expect more tomorrow. I also have some things to return to Land’s End that didn’t fit. They were too BIG. Kosta loved his new wool sweater from them, though. Shopping is a lot of work, even when you do it online. Still beats fighting the crowds in the stores.
Exercising and Reading – Finally
I love reading, but I haven’t had much time for it this weekend. After our trip to Madera before Thanksgiving, I had a lot of work to catch up on. That also kept me from exercising. I finally got back to the gym on Monday night and spent an hour on the stationary bike, reading.
Exercise is good for me, but I always get interested in the book I started reading on the bike and don’t want to stop reading it when I get home. And the book I read? Lake House Secret, by Debra Burroughs, a mystery / romance novel. I may review it one of these days. I enjoyed it.
I think it’s bedtime now. I will leave you with a photo of my chard, most of which is still growing in my front flowerbed.
I’ve changed my focus on Of Cabbages and Kings. Here’s what’s new.
Welcome to My New Subscribers, and Welcome Back to Those Who’ve Been With Me a Long Time
I have to admit I’m surprised to see so many new subscribers since I haven’t posted in about two years. When I started this blog, my life was much different. I was an active bookseller with inventory selling from my own website. Heath issues forced me to close that kind of business and become a blogger and affiliate marketer. Thus I had no real reason to keep this blog active. When I saw so many subscribing, I decided I should resurrect it again.
The previous focus of this blog was education and books for children. I have moved that focus to a new blog: Books to Remember. If you are a teacher or homeschooling parent, you may want to follow that blog instead. It is hosted on my revamped book site, by the same name. You can access the content pages from the blog.
I have expanded my reviews to include educational items I wanted to carry before could not cost ship at reasonable rates. The merchants I affiliate with do a higher volume and can ship for less. So I will be reviewing more educational toys, games, and puzzles as time goes on, in addition to the books.
The New Focus of This Blog
My Writing Life
I have decided to continue this blog as what a blog used to be — a web blog of what’s happening in my life. That does include my work as a blogger, but not the issues I discuss on Barb’s Writing Life, a blog where I review various content writing sites and the issues many content writers and bloggers face. It’s also a site where I put writing that originally appeared on Squidoo but was not appropriate for HubPages, which acquired Squidoo and transformed Squidoo lenses to HubPages. I’m gradually moving that work to pages of Barb’s Writing Life.
From this day forward, I will be sharing my thoughts here that I don’t share on the other blogs. I will be keeping track of my personal life for myself and anyone who wants to listen in. I will also keep readers up-to-date on new work that I publish elsewhere in case they are interested. Not all my thoughts fit into the subjects of my other blogs. This is where I hope I can carry on a conversation with both real-world and internet friends. So feel free to comment.
I will post these blogs as I have something I want to remember. Some posts may be quite short and filter through the day, a bit like Facebook. Or a few days may go by with no new post.
My Activities and my Blogs on What I’m Up to in California
Two other blogs discuss a lot of what’s happening in my daily life and in my area of California in San Luis Obispo County. They are heavy on photos and personal experience and would probably be general enough for my friends who want to keep up with my life to read. I cover wine country, local art, and other things I find interesting, at Paso Robles in Photos. It started out as a daily photo blog. It’s part of an international blogging network, City Daily Photos, but I don’t get around to posting every day anymore. I do try to participate in the monthly theme day since all the networked bloggers from around the world post pictures on the same theme on the first day of each month. One of my most popular theme day blogs was on the Library Theme: A Brief Tour of the Paso Robles Library. I post what I do and observe in my garden at Barb’s Garden Observations. I post sporadically there since I’m more active in the garden during some seasons than others.
Moonstone Beach is one of the places in my world I love.
A blog I plan to put a lot of effort into is A California Life. I was born and have lived my entire life in California and I love my state. In A California Life I plan to share some of the places and activities I love here. The two most popular posts on the blog this month so far have been The Natural Beauty of San Miguel and Art after Dark In Paso Robles.
I have decided to share most of what I read and a brief opinion here on this blog . This helps me keep track for my own use of what I read since I often read up to five books a week. When I finally have time to review a book I really enjoyed, I often have to reread it because I’ve forgotten so much of it.
Come Walk with Me
Check in now and then to see what I’m up to and what I’m thinking. Then I hope you’ll chime in, too. Please use the comments to respond. Feel free to ask me questions reading my posts raise and I’ll try to answer them. It helps to know what others want to know more about.
Of Cabbages and Kings 