Two games ~ chess and Bananagrams

I just read that playing board games could boost your brain by "enhancing cognitive functions, improving memory, and strengthening problem-solving skills."  Besides exercising your thinking, it is also good for social health.

I remember wanting to learn to play chess because I liked  a boy who was a chess player.  Even though he was a couple of grades ahead of me in school, I knew him because he was a cousin of our next-door neighbors.  I never played a game of chess with him, but I learned how to play and still have a set of wooden chess pieces somewhere.  I also got into Monopoly as a child and played all sorts of other board games with friends and siblings.

As I got older, I enjoyed playing Scrabble.  (I am a wordsmith, you know.)  From there, I moved on to Bananagrams.  It's also about making words and using us all the tiles.  One good thing about Bananagrams is that it can be played alone, as well as with a friend or friends.

This is a game of Bananagrams that my friend Donna played by herself in 2019.  Can you make out any of her words?  Now I want to play.  I just looked across the room and see my Bananagrams bag sitting on top of my Webster's All-In-One Dictionary & Thesaurus.  It is not a "board" game, but it is challenging.

Sharing a book for our Sunday Salon bloggers

Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World ~ by Gretchen Rubin, 2023, memoir and self-help, 272 pages

This is a New York Times bestseller.  This is a quote from them:  "The author

of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love:  by tuning in to the five senses."

For more than a decade, Gretchen Rubin had been studying happiness and human nature.  Then, one day, a visit to her eye doctor made her realize that she’d been overlooking a key element of happiness: her five senses.  She had spent so much time stuck in her head that she had allowed life's vital sensations to slip away, unnoticed.  This epiphany she had lifted her from a state of foggy preoccupation into a world invigorated by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.

In this journey of self-experimentation, Rubin explores the mysteries and joys of the five senses as a path to a happier, more mindful life.  Drawing on cutting-edge science, philosophy, literature, and her own efforts to practice what she learns, she investigates the profound power of tuning in to the physical world.

From the simple pleasures of appreciating the magic of ketchup and adding favorite songs to a playlist, to more adventurous efforts like creating a daily ritual of visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending a flavor university, Rubin shows us how to experience each day by really connecting.  She found that our five senses offer us immediate, sustainable ways to cheer up, calm down, and engage the world around us — as well as ways to glimpse the soul and touch the transcendent.

Life in Five Senses is filled with profound insights and practical suggestions about how to heighten our senses and use our powers of perception to live fuller, richer lives.  Reading this book can help us become more aware of our own sensory experiences as we explore our own five senses, which I definitely enjoyed.  So check it out and tune in to your senses.  Here's a quote that made me smile, where the author was thirsty and stepped into a store.  What she bought made me smile, since I have it in my fridge right now:

Alongside the usual assortment of sofa drinks and energy drinks, I spotted a Snapple Diet Peach Tea.  I hadn't seen that label in years.  I paid and, as soon as I was back on the sidewalk, gulped down a mouthful.

The sweet, smooth, fruity flavor instantly transported me back to law school. ... I drank gallons of Diet Peach Snapple there.  By the time I graduated, I was thoroughly tired of it. 

Week in Review

• On Monday, I talked about being "booked," HERE.
• The words for Wednesday were "kinship carers," HERE.
• My Thursday Thoughts were about Black History Month, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

February is Black History Month

We are more than halfway through the month, but it is not too late to say that February is Black History Month.  Click on the label below to see what I have posted previously, and tell us in the comments what you are doing to celebrate.

• YELLOW represents optimism, justice, and equality for all.
• RED is for the blood of innocent Black lives lost throughout history.
• GREEN symbolizes the rich natural resources of Africa.

Today's words = kinship carers

This is what prompted me to post about the words "kinship carers" today:

"In England and Wales, 141,000 children are being raised by kinship carers, who in the majority of cases are keeping children out of the care system and within their loving families, saving the state billions.  Yet unlike working parents, including adoptive parents, kinship carers have no right to paid employment leave when they take on the care of a child."

AI says, "Kinship carers are relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings) or close family friends ("fictive kin") who raise children when biological parents cannot.  As the preferred, stable alternative to foster care, this arrangement helps children maintain family connections, cultural traditions, and reduces trauma.

Wikipedia says, "Kinship care is a term used in the United States and Great Britain for the raising of children by grandparents, other extended family members, and unrelated adults with whom they have a close family-like relationship such as godparents and close family friends because biological parents are unable to do so for whatever reason."

HERE is the link to the article where I learned this term, if you want to know more:  "I'm Raising My Sister’s Children After She Died.  Where's The Support For People Like Me?" by Natasha Hinde (published on 11/02/2026 in the UK).

Book lovers at the grand opening of the renovated Crown Center library

Today I'm musing about the Grand Reopening of our

Crown Center library, after it was renovated.

I wore my sweatshirt that says "I can't.  I'm booked."

They gave out bookmarks which say:

Book  Lover,  n.

A    person   known    for

traveling     to      distant

worlds  without  leaving

their seat, forming deep

emotional   bonds   with

fictional characters, and

saying   "just   one   more

chapter"    until     3 a.m.

Often    spotted   with    a

book  in  hand,  a  cup  of

coffee   nearby,   and   an 

ever-growing  to-be-read

pile they swear they'll get

to  someday. For  a  book

lover,    bookmarks    are

essential,    spoilers    are

crimes,  and  the  phrase

"t o o    m a n y    b o o k s"

simply      doesn't     exist.

At the end of the celebration, we all had refreshments.

Some of us sat around and talked for another hour or so.

Let's all try to be kind

I have not been posting the Action for Happiness calendar every month, as I have done before, but this one for Thursday made me decide to share it on my blog because it's so very important.  As a matter of fact, I think I will post the whole month's calendar now, even though we are in the middle of the month.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about a Celtic unicorn, HERE.
• Wednesday was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, HERE.
• Thursday's subject was a novel of friendship, food, and books, HERE.
• Friday was Galentine's Day, HERE.
• On Caturday, I wished everyone a purr-fect Valentine's Day, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I hope you have a purr-fect Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day with a cat?

It seems appropriate for Caturday.