Universe Messages

Happy Friday friends,

I've had time in my life where messages are sent pretty clear my way, be it God the universe, whatever you believe. There's just moments where it's clear the universe is sending you a message, generally something you need. 

 

One time I was sitting on my porch I guess I was feeling a little down about everything and a song I hadn't listened to, nor thought about in years, popped into my head. It was S Club 7's "Bring It All Back". I was singing it to myself and it filled me with hope. 

 

Another time I had Jordin Spark's "One Step At a Time" stuck in my head while I was out running errands with my Grandmother and to get it out of my head I actually started singing "Bring It All Back", well got it out of my head and we went to Food Lion and at some point out their speakers came
"One Step At a Time"when it hit me what I was listening to I'm like okay apparently the universe wants me really listen to this. It's a powerful message. If you have a Spotify account click on the link on the right that says Thrifty Geek's Jams Spotify Playlist and you'll find them on it if you want to.

Sometimes messages come in objects. I was standing near the stove and guess I got lost in thought, don't know if it was my usual mind wonderings or lost in sad thoughts, but I came back to reality and I noticed I'd been staring at this blue ceramic bird my Mom has up on the shelf above the stove that has the word "live" in black on the side. I just felt this feeling come over me saying hey important message here. Which I take to say really live your life.

Well here in the last few hours the universe decided it needed to throw me another message or two.

 I'm going to be frank been feeling pretty low my friends. Life has kicked me around one too many times. Everything is bad, and I'd pretty much determined I'm not meant to be happy in my life. I was just destined to be nothing since so many of my attempts at achieving my dreams or taking steps to making a better life failed. Well I was fiddling with my tablet and saw the Janet Chui Self-Love Oracle Cards App I have on there and decided let's just draw a card. The 3. You are worthy was what I got. Basically the gist of the card explanation is open myself up, feel my worth, and see all that I have in my life (Chui). I'm like crap the universe is calling me out! Then I was shuffling through my craft drawer and found a bad of clear glass pebbles and I found some I'd added two types of clear nail polish with metallic rainbow flecks on the back. Simply Nailogical would say "HOLO!" at this moment. Well it makes the whole pebble look like it has rainbow fleck in it. Even in my darkness I felt maybe a little my own sparkle come back. It just felt like the universe was once again was saying something.

So yeah lots of messages being dropped at me. What sort of messages have you been dropped in your life? Let me know in the comments. I hope you have a good weekend, smile, and God bless you!

*Thrifty Geek*

Waters of Anxiety

Hello friends,

Sorry for my absence again the mental health hydra has been raging and I've basically been lost in the fight against it. I hope to get back to posting, I have some book writ up to do for books I read last year, and just other post ideas I've had kicking around for months. 

Speaking of months it is poetry month and I decided since I'm already on the subject of my mental health I'd share a poem I recently wrote one morning when I was dying for sleep cause the lack of sleep I'd got the day before coupled with this nights lack of sleep was wrecking my anxiety, and family member who's a grumpy bear when they wake up kind snipped at me , so this lead to me breaking down in tears cause I was suffering, I felt like I was getting on my loved ones nerves, and just felt really lonely in that moment of pain. Now before you say it I know I'm not the only one who has this. I'm the fourth generation in my family one side to have problems as well as my sister, I have friends who have it, but you still can feel lonely especially when the usual supports kinda are getting strained under the struggle of wanting to help you and not knowing how and when you try to lean on them and they just make you feel this is truly a lonely battle.

Waters of Anxiety
Thoughts crushing thoughts
Drowning in the mind stream
Choking on the thought leaves
Fears racing
Panic rising
Clutching painfully on your heart
All your life lines seem spent
Nothing to grasp
Even the bad paths are closed to you
As you wail against the waves
Salty waters made deeper by salty tears
You know your not the only one over board
But they can't touch your plight
So you go on wailing and drowning

Well good to post anew. If any of you struggle I hope you know your know you're not alone, keep up the fight, and your fraking awesome. Have a good week, stay strong, and God bless you!

*Thrifty Geek*

Thrifty Geek's Library- Rogue Agent series

Hello book loving friends,
In today's Library post we'll be covering the first three books in K.E. Mills' the Rogue Agent series.
This series is set in a world that screams steampunked 1920's I guess. There's talks of Women's Suffrage, cars sharing the road with carriages, and a language that screams the time period. I think it's a unique fantasy world.

The Accidental Sorcerer
 

Third Class Wizard Gerald Dunwoody, has always wanted to advance in his career, but his limited power has made it impossible. Well a magical accident while on the job may change that.
I ended up reading book two, before book one, so these characters were already familiar to me, but it was nice to see their origins and stuff that was talked about in the past.  It is a great line up of characters. Reg, the bird who is more than she seems, Monk a bit of a magical mad scientist, Melissande, a princess who doesn't like to play by society's rules. They all have to band together to deal with a power hungry king, who is a great villain, and dark deep down to the roots. We see people who have to draw lines when it comes to how much love they can offer to family, and characters who have to ultimately decide what type of person they want to be.
This is a great start of a series that I will definitely continue.

Witches Incorporated
 

We are brought back to Ottosland where Melissande has moved to and along with Reg and Monk's sister have opened Witches Incorporated, who help people with their magical problems. Gerald is also back now with a new position that places him in great danger.
I love seeing female characters rallying against social norms. I just hate that in this book's society there are still men who believe women can't own property nor can they do what men do. What am I saying there's men like that in our society today.
This is another good read in the series, if you love strong women I definitely think you should check this out.

Wizard Squared
 

Our gang is faced with a crazy new adventure when people from parallel universe start meddling with theirs. We see what would have happened if Gerald had made a different decision when facing King Lionel, and it ain't pretty. We see an evil version of Gerald, who puts Lionel to shame. When I finished reading this I read this article, and some of Trump's actions reminded me of the way evil Gerald acted and the article gave me chills. 

The first part of the book was a bit tedious cause I was just fresh off of reading book one, and the first of this book mirrors latter end of the first book except we see this world's Monk's side of things and where this world's Gerald makes a decision that warps him.
I also feel that despite being 580 pages it was too fast pace. I felt it was over before we got good in the story. I felt the action was just getting started then bam over. Granted I'm also a speed reader so it could be cause I breeze through books.
Despite the sadness I felt with this book I still want to continue with this series. I've seen there's another book in this world out, so hopefully me library will get it.

Well guys I hope you have a good week, read lots, and God bless.

Links, Links, Links

 Hello Link Clickers,
I know I said I was going to do another Thrify Geek's Library, but I got some time sensitive links here. So I switched them. I'll do my final Library post of the year on New Year's Eve. In today's post I'm going to be sharing my favorite links of things I've come across.

For Your New Year's Eve Celebrations:
These links are ideas you can do to send off 2020 and welcome 2021 in style.

The Captain shared this link by Amy Ever After on how to make a "Gingerbread Dumpster Fire".  I know Christmas is over, but I figured you could still make this then at midnight on New Year's Eve you do like Bobby did LaurenZside's 2020 Gingerbread house. I kinda feel bad for Lauren, I'd so Jethro Gibbsed my Hubby.

My mom makes a lemon pie for Christmas. I'm thinking I'd maker it for New Years or Summer, but anyway I saw the lemons laying out and it reminded me of this Atlas Obscura post about Lucky Lemon Pig for New Years. I love this! On mine I'd put wings on it to make it a flying pig, cause flying pigs are more awesome. I'd probably make these year round.

Nerdy Nummies' Rosanna Pansino chick just shared a video of her making Star Beignets for New Years. If I make beignets anytime of the year I'm making them this way. I love stars!

Geeky Things:
These are links geared toward the geeky side of life.

When I was a kid and received the American Girl catalogue, I'd pour over that catalogue. I think the doll I really wanted back then was Molly McIntire. My grandparents bought me her Christmas story for Christmas one year. I used it as my oratorical contest piece. But sadly she's no longer available to purchase, unless you slum through what will be over inflated used offerings. But they do offer a new doll I would not mind having in my toy collection, Courtney Moore. As a child of the late 80's/early 90's I think she's totally awesome. She even has a working PAC-Man™ machine that you can get.

This Wonder Woman trainers look so cool. If they had them in my size I wouldn't mind them. Another super powered link that has been of use is Entertainment Weekly's article about CW's upcoming line up. I was able to make my viewing schedule, something I usually do in the Fall. Most of the weekly shows I watch are from CW. I have a few on other channels I watch stuff from, which I've looked up to see when their going to start if they haven't already.
 

I was perusing the Virtual Ninja Turtle Museum. I love seeing the old toys and ones in my collection, it helps to see what went with what and what I need to buy that my sister took with her. It's here I discovered some of my turtle stuff was second hand cause we only got a piece of one of the role play sets as kids, which bites cause I didn't get my katana. ><

Ok I first heard about KFC's console on Geekologie but I felt they weren't sure if it was a gag or not, but according to Geek Native it's an actual think that's pretty powerful, and apparently heat your chicken. I guess it'd be a great way to reheat chicken strips I bring home.
 

I love reading Epbot, you never know what geeky thing she's gonna have. Well her husband and her do themed Christmas decor each year. Well one three foot tree was Alice in Wonderland themed. I think the card flowers are so cute. I wanna make some!

Personal Links:

Every so often I like do a rundown of the other places you can find me, which are usually on the right of the page.

Twitter- Sometimes I only need a few words to get my thoughts out, so I send it out in a tweet, you can keep up when I post new blog posts here.

Tumblr- Yes I still have a Tumblr called my Brain Dump. This is where I make post for thoughts I wanna get out of my head, but isn't long enough for a blog post, plus my Tumblr shares. I also post links to new blog posts here.

Instagram- This is where I post photos of my life. 

Facebook- This is mostly another place to share post updates, but I do share my favorite Facebook posts here too.

Deviant Art- I'm a creative person. I take artsy photos, drawings, poetry, a bunch of stuff, so I display it here.

Pinterest- I love this site. I pin crafting ideas, geek stuff, stuff I can use in books, it's great, and yes I post links to the blog here.

Six Word Memoirs- Can you tell your life in six words? I do.

Amazon Idea Lists- Yes I still shop here, mostly gift items I can't find elsewhere, but I'm not happy with it's creator, and mostly I shop the third party stores instead of Amazon itself. But these are some of my lists if your looking for gift ideas.

Youtube- I mostly watch videos, but I have posted two videos of me doing readings of my poetry.

Well that is all for my links post. I hope you all have a good week, stay safe, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

Jesus' Birthday Gift 2020

 Happy Holidays my Friends,
I'm coming to you a few days earlier, because my usual post day is Friday, most the time, and this Friday is Christmas, so I don't wanna be thinking of blogging. Well we're in the home stretch of Christmas and I'm barely holding on to my sanity. As all families we have traditions in our house that we try to do every year. Putting up the tree close Thanksgiving, my parents start playing just a Statler Brothers Christmas album in October, I prefer to start listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving and decorating the tree. My parents get into the spirit early. Late in December traditions include my Momma's Christmas goodies, I just ate the left over dipping chocolate she used to make "suckers". We also go Christmas light looking, which we did last night. I also have personal holiday traditions that I do. Every year I use my creative powers and make a gift for Jesus, that way He has a gift just for him, since to me this was the day chosen to celebrate his birth. I also do a tradition I learned to do from Reba's Happy Birthday, Jesus on her Merry Christmas to You album, before you open a gift you wish Jesus a Happy Birthday and that your opening this one for Him. Well this year I decided to write another poem one that involves the various trials we have faced this year. No point sugar coating it this year was a dumpster fire, and even though we were battered and bruised, and in my case low on faith, we came through. I actually contemplated not doing it this year, cause I was, and still am that low, but the morning of the 21st inspiration struck.  So here is my poetic birthday gift this year:

Jesus' Birthday Poem 2020
This has been a dumpster fire year
But you've still been here
Through the chaos of a pandemic
You've remained stoic
As we treaded a crazy election
You've kept us in your recollection
When the mental health ills grew bolder
I'm sure you were at my shoulder
In the bleakness of our push and shove
You continue to show your never-ending love
So, I take a moment to remember all you do
On the day we choose to say "Happy Birthday to You"

I actually decided to make a small video of me doing a reading, that I also made the same day, I took pictures of frost on the truck for visuals. In the audio, you can hear my Mom doing Christmas cooking. I was going to rerecord it, but I'm like this is what my Christmas sounds like, so what the hey. So please give it a watch and a like.

Hope you all have a good Christmas, enjoy your eve, and God bless!
*Thrifty Geek*

Thrifty Geek's Library: The Unusual Suspects

Hey Book Friends,
Well, since I was crappy at blogging this year, I have a couple library posts I need to do before the year ends. So here's the first. This post is going to be unusual books or books with
unusual things in it that I read this year.

The Lightning-Struck Heart by T.J. Klune
 

This is the first book in the Tales from Verania series. It follows a wizard in training, Sam, who has to help his knight crush, Ryan, save the kingdom's Prince, who Ryan is dating.This was the weirdest and funniest book I read this year. I was literally laughing out loud. If this book could bleed it'd bleed sparkly rainbows. There are so may gay characters, which I'm happy to see even though I'm straight. My favorite character has to be Gary, the hornless unicorn. He has no filter when it comes to talking about sex, and also spews glitter when he's angry. That being said it does have sexual themes so avoid if you don't like.
I was telling Fangirl about this book, and she started reading it like when she'd be waiting for her food or in line at places and she couldn't read it in public, because she'd be laughing at it.
Overall this was an awesome book, I hope the library gets more of this series. It was a perfect read in this pandemic, it really takes your mind off the dumpster fire that was this year. I totally recommend you guys read this. I definitely want to add this to my books to add to my library permanently list. Which I really actually need to start making.

The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag
 

This is the tale of Alba who is dealing with problems in her life and finds herself on Hope Street at a beautiful house, where she is welcomed to live 99 days and in that time turn her life around. The house apparently has had many famous tenants and is very helpful in many ways. There are also the house's keeper, Peggy, and other tenants who are on their own journeys.
This was an interesting book. I love we had so many characters with their own stories playing out along with the main character. I was surprised at some of the reveals at the end. I love the house itself. It sounded so beautiful, and there's plenty of pictures of famous people around who've stayed there. If you are down in life, this house will totally kick your butt in gear to turn it around. I also have to say "dang" to the family drama, I thought my family had some drama going, I think Alba's family might surpass us, maybe.
If you love writing and books I think you might like this book. Books and writers do get mentioned if I'm not badly mistaken. Been a little bit since I read it. So check it out.
This was another pretty good read this year and I'm probably going to add this to my permanent book collection at some point.

Well that's all for this post of Thrifty Geek's Library. I know for sure there's going to be one more before the new year. I'll probably post that Monday. In the next post I'll be revealing my annual Christmas tradition that I do that involves me making a gift for Jesus.
Wishing Happy Yule a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate those holidays, and a belated Hanukkah! Have a good holiday whoever you are, hope it's good, and God bless you!
*Thrifty Geek*

2020 Tales: Ginseng,Snakes, and Gratitude

Happy Friday my friends,
Well we are creeping closer to Christmas. This year has been meh right now. My mental health loves to take a dive this time of year, this year has been bad. I'm just not really feeling it, I had a spark, but then more mental health problems came and spat on it.  But I'm dealing the best I can.  Well one thing people love to do this year is look back over the year. Although as many have said this year has been a dumpster fire. I was actually looking through this year's photos and was reminded of a time when my folks managed to pull a laugh out of me when we were still quarantined up. This was when you could only go out for the essentials. My folks were going for a supply run and asked if I wanted anything. I said my usual joke "a big cookie", well they comeback later with a dang big cookie cake. I also remember flymagedon. We had a surplus of flies in the house for some reason at one point this year, and I would have to go through the house with the fly swat getting flies. It's funny I can squash a flying mosquito with my bare hands like nothing, but getting flies with a fly swat, not my strongest skill.
 

 Ginseng Hunting

The most I did this year till things opened back up a bit was reading and Supernatural binging, but despite being holed up in this year we've still managed to go on adventures. My Dad and I went ginseng hunting for the first time in many years. We use to do it a lot when I was growing up to get a little extra money, well this year my Dad decided to do it so we'd have some extra Christmas money this year. I went with him in case there was problems. I found two on my own without any help for the first time ever*, one my Dad missed, in his defense it was in the middle of the dirt road, and he wasn't expecting one to be growing their, he was focusing on getting to the places in the woods where they do grow. Well we decided to go one Sunday. That was a mistake, because the mountain above our house was like I-40, very busy. Turns out we weren't the only ginseng hunters out, and the guy who does horseback rides, who I will not blast in this blog, had some riders, and there were two dogs with the riders. We were up in the woods with our dog. So my Dad decided to get further in the woods, so we ended up high on a steep bank. Now picture this from my point of view: I'm scared of heights and my ankles and feet hate banks, and we're high up on a steep bank, plus I'm trying to keep my balance and not fall while holding onto a beagle mix dog who's pulling at the leash, because he wants to say "Hi". I was not a happy human for a few minutes as we scaled that. But it was worth it in the end I found my second ginseng plant.

 Snake Problems

This year involved way too many close encounters with snakes. We had one snake climb up the outside of one of our living room window and I had one cross this trail I walk. Back in August maybe after our Church Decoration day, my Mom comes home with two trash bags of flowers. My Mom and some other ladies of the church like to reuse the flowers they toss out in the special bin they have up at the graveyard, plus we retrieved our flowers that we reuse every year, cause we too broke to buy all the flowers we need each year to decorate everybody we knows grave up there. Well anyway back to my story, my folks brought back some bags of these flowers and asked if I'd unload them. So I go to do that and I move a bag and there is a graveyard snake that must have hitched a ride. I couldn't help of think of that episode of Most Scariest Places On Earth where they talked about St. Louis Cemetery Number One. It's where Marie Laveau is buried and they say you sometimes see a snake there. I'm not a fan of snakes, I know not all of them are venomous, but I'm not an expert in which are or aren't, so I'm creeped out by them no matter what. Well I go to grab a hoe if anything to get it out of the back of the truck, I don't think I have the heart to even kill a snake. So I go to get it and I think I saw it go, or assumed it went, into the wood we still had in our truck from our last wood haul. It eventually must have found it's way out, because when we got the wood later it was nowhere to be found. And finally the most scary of my snake related stories. My Mom was chilling in her comfy chair in the living room when she felt something on her arm, she moved and sitting there on the chair arm running it's tongue up my Mom's arm was, you guessed it, a snake. Yeah, I think I somehow slept through that mess. Ok, done with the creepy crawly stories.

Gratitude

Finally I'm gonna take a gratitude moment. I've tried to keep gratitude sections in my journals, but they never really work for me. I either would just be grateful fro the same things or when I tried doing it Jewel's Method, I found it hard to pull different things to be grateful for each day, because I couldn't find things to be grateful for besides my usual daily things I'm always grateful for. Last night I started thinking of things I was grateful for during this dumpster fire of a year, also I was watching a bit of this video when I was writing this section and felt it was appropriate for here. Anyway here is my list:
 

1: During this pandemic there has only been three members of my family, that I know of, that has had Covid two have recovered one was just diagnosed and their still doing good.
 

2:That we didn't have certain people living with us anymore. It was rough enough living with certain people during normal election years when their candidate won, I'd hate to be living with them during this pandemic and their candidate lost.
 

3: Grapes, yes weird thing to be grateful for, but I am. See my parents have been buying fruit lately and I love green grapes. So they've been buying a not, which has been good for me, because I'm prone to stress eat when I have anxiety and this gives me a healthier option to munch on.
 

4: Candy Cane Peppermint ChapStick®, last Christmas in my stocking I received like five of this kind of chapstick®. Well my lips were getting really chapped and I couldn't find the lip balm I'd use on occasion, which I just found. But I'm keeping them next to my computer tower to reapply every so often cause I drink a lot of drinks. The burn of it feels good on my lips and it smells so good.
 

I hope you all reflect on the good things that happened to you this year. Tell me what your grateful for in the comments. I hope you have a good weekend, stay safe and God bless!
*Thrifty Geek*

*When we went ginseng hunting as a kid my sister and I would follow behind my Mom mostly. Well one time she pointed at an area and said there's a ginseng plant in here see which one of you can find it. I found it. It was my first find.