Warm wishes and hopefully helpful tips: Nonya’s Nonsense #14

Hello beautiful souls!!!

Before we get into today’s topic about the holidays, I want to let you know a little about what’s going on with me so you know what to expect regarding upcoming posts from both Half-Cracked Guru and Medium.

Of course, the holidays are bound to make me a little extra busy but I’ve also got a few doctor appointments next that are no big deal but will likely need a bit of recovery. I do try to get things done ahead of time but somehow I added way too much to my plate over the last few months and am still trying to fix it 😂😂😂

Please bear with me if you see a lot less from me this month and most likely plenty of inconsistency!

Table of Contents

• Today’s topic – Holidays Can Be Hard 💙
• My recent attempt at cooking – at least I didn’t start a fire 😂😂😂
• My current crochet project – The Lotus Blanket
• What I’ve written this past week
• What I’m watching
• What I’m reading
• Free stuff
• Thank you!

Now, for today’s topic!

It’s that time of year again! No matter what you celebrate or even if you don’t celebrate anything at all, the holidays can bring up a mixed bag of emotions and an increase in stress levels.

While we are being bombarded with songs of joy and visions of sugarplums, we are also dealing with things like increased traffic and crappy behavior from people who are not so nice under pressure. Be kind and pull in patience and peace whenever you can.

The holidays can be overwhelming for those who are struggling financially.

I remember, many years ago when my oldest was little, I could just barely keep a roof over our heads and had no idea how I was going to do Christmas presents for him.

A local charity helped me a little but it was my mother who really made that Christmas for me. I cried when she walked through my door with a huge bag of presents. Her response was to tell me that she needed help when we were young too. Of course, I knew we were relatively poor growing up but for some reason, this had not occurred to me.

There was also a time when my oldest and I spent Christmas in a motel. I cut wrapping paper in the shape of a tree, taped it to the wall, and decorated it with ornaments cut from that same wrapping paper. It never feels like you’re doing enough but even slim times can make for happy memories!

I still struggle financially but I don’t worry about it or try to compare it to some experience that was likely not as awesome as it is in my memory. I do what I can and keep my focus on what really matters.

We are more likely to lose loved ones at this time and the pain of our earlier losses becomes so much sharper.

I lost my father when I was sixteen and nothing was the same after that. Holidays only served to show me what I no longer had. If, by some chance, there was a way that I might enjoy anything, it came with a ridiculous load of guilt. I didn’t realize that I could be both happy and sad at the same time, or that he would prefer me to be happy.

Obviously there was plenty of time when grief was all I was capable of and that was ok too.

I spent so much of my early adult life missing the big family holidays we used to have and trying my hardest to recreate them in some way, even more so after I removed my mother from my life. It took me a long time to realize that there is no way to recreate my childhood experience for my kids.

I created new traditions that were even better and we spent holidays with friends who became our family.

Overall, it seems that mindset is one of the biggest factors in how we experience the holidays.

Nothing is ever perfect and neither are we! Make peace and joy your main goals and create a new tradition even if it’s in addition to traditions you still observe. Find some nice ways to honor your lost loved ones and show a little extra love, not just to your family and friends, but to the strangers you encounter every day, bad attitude or not. Your smile, patience, and good juju just might be the thing that changes their day and maybe even their life.

I wish you a season full of peace and laughter 🥰🥰🥰

What I’m Up To

• My recent attempt at cooking – at least I didn’t start a fire 😂😂😂
• My current crochet project – The Lotus Blanket by Hooked by Robin
• What I’ve written this past week
• What I’m watching
• What I’m reading
• Free stuff
• Thank you!

My recent attempt at cooking

At least I didn’t start a fire 😂😂😂

Want a good laugh? I was diagnosed with Celiac disease a few years ago, basically, that means my body attacks itself if I eat gluten. Gluten is most commonly known to be in things like bread but that shit is everything!

So this year I tried to make gluten-free stuffing. I made it from a box the first time, adding my own fresh veggies, and it was just awful! The seasoning they used was terrible!

So when I visited my daughter last week, I tried again; this time from scratch. I got the recipe from Google’s AI and didn’t really measure my ingredients. It was basically soup and it spent hours in the oven without evaporating so I left it in there for a few more hours lol! This is what it looked like when I finally decided to be done with it:

The best part? It was still soupy underneath that crust 😂😂😂

I will be trying again soon, third time’s the charm, right?

My current crochet project – The Lotus Blanket by Hooked by Robin

I’ve been wanting to try this one out for some time now but I was too lazy lol! I’m so happy I finally started, it’s so pretty and not as complicated as I thought! I used a Lion Brand Mandala cake, the color is Diagon Alley. This is the link to her free pattern, she also offers an ad-free PDF.

What I’ve Written this Past Week

All the links are free, of course 🙂

• Last Week’s Newsletter – Witchy Tips to Manifest Love
• Friday’s Message From the Universe – A Pleasant Surprise
• Sunday’s Message From the Universe – Live and Speak Your Truth
• November Roundup: Habits, Stats, Earnings, & Thoughts
• New Year, New Me? (A bit of rambling prose)

What I’m Reading

I flew right past the 6th book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series, Song of Susannah, and am currently listening to book 7, The Dark Tower. This is the final book in the series so I’m a little emotional 😂😂😂

“Set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace, The Dark Tower series features one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations—The Gunslinger—a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to frontier Western legend. As Roland crosses a desert of damnation in a treacherous world that is a twisted image of our own, he moves ever closer to the Dark Tower of his dreams—and nightmares.”

I’m also listening to Fairy Tale by Stephen King for the 2nd time 🙂

“Master storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this #1 New York Times bestselling and spellbinding novel about a young man who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.”

Click here for book details, links, and other book recommendations.

What I’m Watching

I’ve added IMDB links so you can check them out 🙂

“Spirited” on Apple TV

Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrel in a Christmas musical, I love this so much! It’s based on Dicken’s classic, “The Chrismas Carol” and is actually as wholesome as it is funny! I’m not a fan of Apple TV and I’m having a hard time finding a DVD because it’s an Apple original so holler if you see it somewhere!

“From” on MGM+

This is about a town that doesn’t let people leave. It’s got a “Walking Dead” feel to it but even better, I have no idea how they come up with such crazy twists and turns in every episode!

Free Stuff

Amazon free trials:

• 30 Free days of Amazon Prime for anybody who hasn’t had one in a while.
• If you’re on US government assistance programs like SNAP you can get Amazon Prime for half the price, at $6.99 per month, plus you can still get the 30-day free trial!

Free tarot readings from Llewellen.com

Get a random Message from the Universe from HalfCrackedGuru.com

Thank You!!

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