Journey With Me!

From 2023 (Game On…)

July 25, 2025 Wiwohka10 Comments

Daily writing prompt

What’s the story behind your nickname?

As we all know, I don’t do well with short answers… in honesty, they are no fun!

My memory pulls me back to my childhood, to a time when my Nana was alive. Nana was the only one to ever call me Antonia, most likely in protest over my parents laziness when I was born a girl. They expected a boy when they chose Toni Rae, but got me instead, and just stuck with the same name. But alas, this memory is too far back, nor was that name technically a nickname, so I will move ahead in time…

My children were sleeping, as well as my ex husband, so what does an overworked and underpaid mom do for fun, I took it upon myself to have a couple glasses of wine. The house was quiet, and I had the office to myself, so off I went to the World Wide Web. Alcohol does funny things to a person…

There I was, at two in the morning, heavily under the influence… don’t judge… Alcohol gives confidence and courage, but not always wise choices, so consider us all lucky that this is the only thing I got up to in the middle of the night!

So anyway, as I was perusing the internet, I came up with this hairbrained idea, to find a really cool game handle. I loved video games, especially the mmorpg ones, and everyone had awesome names for their in-game characters, or toons. I was in search of The One, if you will, game name wise…

Stumbling upon those name generating search engines, I began to look for a Native American word or name, that I could assign myself since nobody else ever wanted to do. Yes I think I am maybe Native American, and no, I did not make any valid name choice for this girl from the wilderness. Remember, wine was involved, so I make no valid claim to the name I settled on. I finally found a site that was pretty cool, in that it gave really decent explanations for the meaning and spelling/pronunciation. I came to this…

WIWOHKA – roaring, raging water…

In honesty, I cannot remember the rest of the definition, and highly doubt that it would do me any good now. For whatever the reason, the name stuck, and I have used it now for over 20 years…

Funny thing, my husband and I looked the name up once, and aside from the definition not being there anymore, we did discover a long lost Indian Tribe located somewhere near the great lakes, and they were called the Wiwohka Tribe… I can aspire!

Don’t pop my bubble by saying I am full of it… I know that I am, but where is the fun in having a really cool nickname, if there was not an amazing story behind it… I am proud of my name, even it only means that I talk a lot, and am such a cry baby that everybody gets wet when I am around! At least, maybe, you will remember me from either laughing or crying…

Here is your cookie…

P.S. Please share…

Thursday Thoughts…

July 24, 2025 Wiwohka5 Comments

Thought #1 – music has a way of soothing the soul

Thought #2 – being a grown-up sure is hard

Thought #3 – crying is a good way to release tensions

Thought #4 – Jesus cries too

Thought #5 – there’s still that beautiful little girl living inside every woman

Thought #6 – every little boy grows up wanting to be someone’s hero

Thought #7 – the eyes really can be the window to the soul, if one only takes the time to look

Thought #8 – love is a verb

Thought #9 – I want a puppy

Thought #10 – how hard will it be to make my first pastry dough, using coconut flour and plant based butter

Thought #11 – should I do another Note To Self series

Thought #12 – I really do want a puppy

Thought #13 – I need to stop procrastinating and print out my manuscript

Thought #14 – You could fill a book with all the names and characteristics of God… oh wait, that’s what the Bible does

Thought #15 – I sure do love you guys and gals… more than you’ll ever know!

DIY it!

July 24, 2025July 24, 2025 Wiwohka11 Comments

Daily writing prompt

What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?

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I’ve come to discover, in my older years, how the health and medical systems function… if you don’t have a hole in you somewhere that isn’t fixed with duct tape, don’t bother asking a doctor! All they seem to be capable of doing these days is either sewing things shut, or stuffing pills in your face!

I am exhausted with doctors telling me they see a problem… but it’s just not bad enough to fix… yet! They want me to just wait it out, I guess.

This last 8 weeks have been somewhat of a nightmare for me, if I’m to be fully honest everyone. Not only did my stomach decide to camp with the enemy, but I had to suffer the indignity of both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy and a CAT scan, along with existing off of oatmeal and rice the entire time. What did they discover, you might be asking? With very little concern from the doctor, he found lesions on my liver, a small hernia below my esophagus and a few other apparently insignificant findings.

Here I sit, a week out from the last two procedures, in the same place I’d been in when I sought help in the first place! Just a large amount of shoulder shrugs… thank you so much for all the probing, sticking, and false empathy… makes me want to throw up in my mouth just a bit!

So, with that, I’m back to my DIY, FIY, and LGALG routine… I dare you to try and figure out the last set of initials stand for!

Basically, I’ve had to become what I dub as a slutty vegan! I’ve had to come up with my own version of nutrition, as well as, manage my own pain, which kinda sucks if you can’t take any NSAIDs by mouth. Absolutely everything I need for my body has to come from foods, and the list of what I can even tolerate has come to be very limited. This is the slutty vegan part!

I can have herbal tea, I can drink oat milk in small quantities, and I can eat a decent number of raw or frozen vegetables and fruits, as long as I’m careful. Certain things with too much fiber, or sugars in them really causes difficulties.

No more coffee, caffeine of any kind, chocolate, gluten, lactose, and a sleugh of other items that I’m to tired to list!

Pretty much everything has to be plant based, yay me! I can tolerate a little bit of egg, and chicken doesn’t bother me so this is my slutty compromise to this ridiculous food circus merry-go-round!

You can’t blame me for the overshare bit! Blame WordPress for asking me such a question. They’re just lucky they didn’t lose a finger or something.

Everyone knows not to poke a hungry bear…

Well, you better start eating this stuff cause I can’t, and I’m getting hungry just looking at it!

Wednesday Words…

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 Wiwohka3 Comments

You know how I mentioned being all alone on the beach, while all the babes went with Brutus back to the barn? Well, I wasn’t actually, actually alone… my bad! Eustace has been going back and forth between myself and the boat dock, where Creed’s been working on ship repairs.

When Brutus offered to take all the babes with him for a couple of days, Eustace gave a hard pass! The poor camel threw up all over the ship for the entire first week out to sea… motion sickness is a real thing, you guys! Not only did he not fancy air travel, but the idea of being hauled across the land dangling between the legs of a dragon!

So, ya, I got me a sunbathing partner who stole my sunglasses, and my beach towel… cheeky bugger!

Have a fantastic Wednesday and remember, I sure do love you! Hugs

I’m on my way there now…

July 23, 2025 Wiwohka9 Comments

Daily writing prompt

What are your future travel plans?

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I’m makin cookies for my WordPress family, at this virtual moment, but as far as future, future plans… I’m heaven bound, my friends!

Cookies?

Tuesday Tinkering…

July 22, 2025 Wiwohka10 Comments

I did a thing… and I think I like it!

Death to all credit cards…

July 22, 2025 Wiwohka17 Comments

Daily writing prompt

What would you change about modern society?

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Thus far, the only thing that credit cards have ever done for modern society is rob us of the value of a dollar! It appears to me that much of today’s modern folk have no clue about how to properly manage their money.

We are shown from the time we’re young that to have things, one must have money. But we don’t reach for money anymore, do we? We just get a credit card and charge it! If you want good credit for buying houses or cars, you need to spend, but to spend you will need money. But, you’ve gone to the credit card because you don’t have money to spend. Are you following me? All we’ve managed to do is become bound to monetary obligations that we’ve no way to fully pay back. But we sure do tell ourselves that if we consolidate all these cards into one new one, with a lower interest rate, things will be fine, right?!

I’m not even going to speculate as to how many of us say that we will use the card during the month, but pay it off before the interest charges hit. Most never do! The card balance just begins to grow steadily, with each passing month.

Currently, our modern society is teeming with homes that are valued idiotically higher than they are actually worth… and you’ll need a bank loan… and good credit… and no outstanding credit card bills… what a farce! It’s a tangle of lies wound together into a nice neat little package, just for you and me, baby!

Gone are the days where a man was as good as his word, to be replaced with days of spend it if you got it… or even if you don’t… just charge it!

Cookie?

Monday Messages…

July 21, 2025August 4, 2025 Wiwohka9 Comments

It’s hard to have my ship up on blocks, leaving me to sit here on the beach… alone. Creed is busily working away on the ship, so I don’t wish to disturb him, and Brutus took all the babes and flew back to the barn. The big wide world is no place for them to simply wander about, what with man’s fear of anything they don’t recognize or understand.

Besides, I left some important maps back in my office desk that we’ll need, once the ship is seaworthy. Lilly knows where I keep them, so she’ll retrieve the maps along with several other things we’d left behind. Tilly wanted to visit young Henry and the rest of the babes simply wanted to go along for the dragon ride… always the adventurers, they are!

So, here I sit, all alone on the beach and wondering what to do with myself for the next several days. I don’t often spend time away from them for so long, but it’ll be good for me, right? Why do I find myself lonely? Will they miss me, at all? What if they need a break from me?

I’ve always felt like I was simply too much! Too much emotion, too loud, talks far too much, cries more than most, and lives a life that wears folks out! I crave affection far more than a person probably should, but I just miss human touch, that’s all! Watching someone’s eyes glaze over as I seek to fellowship with them is brutally painful! It happens with everyone I encounter, so it’s not new… but the pain of it is always real, fresh, and damaging.

I’ve sort of chosen to avoid engaging others now, not that there are that many to avoid. I’ve three daughters who are living their own lives, keeping me firmly placed on the outskirts of their hearts… my fault!

I’ve no church family that calls me their own… my fault!

I’ve a husband whom I love deeply, but has never even picked up a bible once, in all of our 19 years of marriage… my choice!

That was my list of obligated listeners. Not a very long list!

Fortunately, I have discovered that with God, I am never alone! He listens to my incessant chatter, my prayers, my raging, and my storytelling. He captures my tears, mends the hurt, and fills the empty! There is none that can compare, to the God who has walked with me all these years… through all the good, the bad, the hurt and the heartache. When I make mistakes, he forgives and helps me learn to grow from the lessons.

When absolutely everyone else simply shrugs their shoulders in frustration or irritation, at my cries for help or attempts at sharing my heart… He stays!

So, now you know what I’m planning to do with my time over the next few quiet days… spend it with the one who calls me His own.

Hugs