Kathiey's World

 Hi, and welcome to my entertainment wrap-up for April 2024.   Books 📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚 Starling House by Alix E. Harrow I listened to this book on Audible. The narrator did a nice job, but the book's content was a different story. I finished it and gave it a 3 out of 5 on my reading scale. Genre is Fantasy, Horror, Gothic, Fiction, Romance, Mystery. Overview from Goodreads A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all. Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpec...

Describe Your Greatest Phobia What is my greatest phobia, you ask? I looked up the definition of phobia to make sure I answered the question correctly.  A phobia is "an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something." With the definition of phobia firm in my mind, I would say that I have had two phobias in my lifetime. The two things that have scared me the most are bees (not honey bees, I am talking wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets) and public speaking.  I no longer have what I would have described as a phobia of bees. I wouldn't say I like stinging insects, but this phobia was a part of my life from my childhood into my twenties. I can tell you the source of this phobia. It was my older brother Jimmy. Jim was five years older than me, and he loved to scare me. One way he found satisfaction was in chasing me with half-dead wasps. Jimmy would somehow attach a bee to a stick and chase me as I went screaming through the fields and woods of our country childhood ho...

 Joy is relative. I may find joy in something that does not bring you joy, and you may find joy in something that does not bring me joy. That being said, we can find some type of joy in all phases of our lives.  During the most difficult and joyless time of my life, when my husband of 37 years walked out, I thought I would never find joy again. During this time, when I would have easily given up, I was determined, even in my weakened state, to strive to find some level of joy. It was hard work, but I fought to bring the joy I once had back into my life, and you can, too. So, what is joy? The Oxford Dictionary defines joy as... "a feeling of great pleasure and happiness" Happiness, according to Very Well Mind, is... "Happiness is a positive emotional state characterized by feelings  such as contentment, joy, and life satisfaction." Sometimes, our joy will be a great feeling of happiness or pleasure, as mentioned above. Other times, we may feel we have no joy, and dur...

I came across a photo of a strawberry spinach salad on Pinterest. After looking at the beautiful salad, I decided to make my own to enjoy. I wanted to modify the existing recipe, so I searched for a strawberry spinach chicken salad recipe on Google to see what I could find.  I decided to take a look at several recipes to see the salad ingredients to decide how I wanted to make my very good salad. I looked at the star rating of each salad, and if it ranked four or five out of five, I would read the recipe. First off, you will need baby spinach. I like to get fresh spinach that is bagged and usually pre-washed. Next, I decided to use a red onion. Several different kinds of cheese were mentioned in the recipe. Feta cheese, goat cheese, and blue cheese were mentioned as options. You have several chicken options. I am going to go with the feta cheese. You can use leftover chicken, bake chicken just for this recipe using chicken breasts or chicken tenderloins or, as in my case, use rotis...