Gratitude,  Musings,  This Life...,  Writer's moments

Sunday Snippet: The Warehouse Club Edition, + Fun News!

February 16, 2025 /

Hiya, happy Sunday. It’s snowing here in the city (probably up at the lake cottage, too, from the look of the radar), and I am snug in our little brick house enjoying this view. I love snow. It makes me want hot chocolate and a fire in the fireplace, a soft snuggly sweater, and a good book.

And speaking of good books… See what I did there? It’s called a transition or a segue. It’s an author trick to lead readers to the next part of the story. That one wasn’t very subtle, but it’s fun to practice the art. Anyway, speaking of good books, I want to crow a bit about one of mine. The Australian Romance Readers Association awards chose Made for Mistletoe as one of the finalists in their Favourite Small-Town Romance category. I’m thrilled and so honored to be on a list with several other great authors.

And now on to other stuff…

This week, we made our bimonthly trip to Costco–the giant warehouse store where everything comes in bulk. You can buy a wrapped stack of ten tuna cans and a gallon of mayo to go along with them. Peanut butter comes in jar you can practically take a dive into, and you can buy 90 egg rolls in one box! And seriously,  who doesn’t need 500 paper plates or 30 rolls of toilet paper at one time?

I need to interject here that I’m not a shopper. As a matter of fact, I would almost rather have my gums scraped than go shopping and that includes any kind of shopping. I don’t like looking for clothes or shoes; I’d rather pass on the grocery store  altogether, except we have to eat and I don’t want anyone else picking out my bananas; and except when Liz and I are on a writing retreat, I avoid outlet malls and  little cutesy towns that sell country decor, yard ornaments, and all kinds of kitschy wooden stuff.  So you’d think that a warehouse store would be the last place I’d want to go into, wouldn’t you?

Well, you’d be wrong. I love Costco. For one thing, they have books–great books at fabulous prices. And wine–lots of different kinds of wine. I get my swimsuits at Costco. Speedos for twenty bucks apiece! They appear in the spring and I’m right there to snatch up a couple or three suits to last me through  summer swims at the clubhouse pool and at the lake and winter swims at the gym.

Where else can you buy a case of toilet paper, a TV, a hot tub, a personalized birthday cake that will serve 40,  a toilet, a giant box of Cheerios, a 4-carat diamond ring, and ten pounds of blueberries all in one trip and still only hit one store?

My sister, PJ, loves Costco too–more than I do, frankly. Hell, she goes every week. She’s there constantly. She gets her mail there. Her kids stay there during the holidays when they visit from out of state. (I’m kidding about the mail and the kids, but she goes a lot!) She used to shop Costco when she lived on the West coast, mainly because she had four growing sons and that was the only place she could buy enough food to keep those boys fed. When she first moved here, we had to remind her that she had an empty nest and no longer needed to buy 12 frozen pizzas,  4 dozen eggs, or 3 gallons of milk every week.

Some people think that warehouse stores contribute to our nation’s obesity problem–food in giant packages encourages people to eat too much. I’d agree with that except that shoving a 500-pound cart of groceries and paper goods around a store the size of a small Midwestern town feels like exercise to me. So it makes logical sense that we’d walk off the biweekly tub of peanut butter on the trip to buy it, and it’d all come out even. Right? So excuse me, I’m heading to the kitchen to make tuna salad…for 50!

Gratitude for This Week: I’m staying strong and fighting even though Washington is getting weirder and more scary every damn day. Snow! A good Valentine’s Day date with Husband–went to two of the art galleries–part of the Fishers Arts Councils gallery hop (DIL is the organizer and she’s brilliant!) and saw great art and a bonus–Son was playing guitar at one of them! Son and Grandboy came over to spend Saturday evening with us and Son fixed the email app on my phone so now I can check both emails from my phone again–yay! We had beef stew, hot crusty/tender Italian bread from Aldi (my very favorite!), and some lovely local wine that Son brought–it was yummy. 

Stay well, let your voice be heard, choose kindness always, and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful,

10 Comments

  • Carol Light

    February 17, 2025 at 8:58 pm

    Wow–congratulations on being a finalist! Made for Mistletoe is one of my favorites out of all of your wonderful books. Enjoyed shopping with you at Costco last summer. Can’t believe I found a pair of shorts there! Maybe next time I’ll have to buy the kayak (ha ha).

  • Patricia Barraclough

    February 17, 2025 at 1:49 am

    Congratulations on your nomination as a finalist. Good luck in the final voting.
    We do not have a COSTCO here, but we do have a Sam’s. We do go frequently, but do not buy all that much most of the time. It doesn’t matter much, only a few items still come up to $100 or so. The gas is usually the cheapest in town, so our shopping trips are usually planned around when we need to gas up.
    Our daughter’s steop-son’s birthday was on the 13th and her’s was the 15th. She was busy on their food truck Friday and Saturday serving at our town’s Chocolatefest. We had the whole family over for dinner today and had a nice visit. Her step-son has a three year old and they are expecting another little girl in the next couple of weeks. Their daughter, Scarlett is a delight and very active. It is really nice to have a little one around the house again.
    We have been tied up with doctors’ appointments and car shopping for the past 3 weeks. My husband had an accident and totaled our car 3 weeks ago this coming Tuesday. They still did his cataract surgery 2 days later so we had two types of recovery to deal with. He is bruised up and has a fractured vertebrae. We will see a neurosurgeon in a week or so. The back brace is a hassle but is helping. Getting a new car was not on our card any time soon. I loved my car and we had just had $2000 worth of service done on it 5 days before the accident. We now have another Subaru but cars have gotten so ridiculously expensive. We have doctors’ appointments seemingly every other day for weeks. I am just thankful he wasn’t hurt much more seriously.

  • Latesha B.

    February 16, 2025 at 11:38 pm

    Congratulations on your nomination, Nan! I love shopping at Costco. You can get plenty of exercise in there walking around and checking everything out. We used to love going for the free samples as well.

  • Margie Senechal

    February 16, 2025 at 10:35 am

    Costco’s tuna is the best. That’s one of the staples in my cupboard. I’m going to a Portland Costco tomorrow for gas. It’s worth the drive because of Washington’s gas tax. lol I haven’t decided if I’ll go shopping since I don’t really “need” anything.

    Congrats on the award nomination!! ❤️