Block is our Word of the Week

Really? Yup! Block or blocked is our word of the week.

If you have read our word of the week posts before, then you should know that we always try to ensure that our word of the week is positive. This week, it is positive too we think. But it really depends on how you see things. So after reading the post, we would like you to tell us if you have a positive or negative view of what you have read. So here goes.

Please do check out our latest giveaway worth £100 which went live this week too!

Blocking Weeds

So we have been thinking of having some raised beds in the garden and we want to make them ourselves. We have factored in the cost of the materials and they are quite expensive so we would like to use something else to block out the weeds from protruding through the bottom. Not wood, because since the pandemic, this has got so expensive. Someone has suggested that cardboard can be used as a barrier, however from personal experience, I know that slugs and snails love cardboard and I really don’t want to encourage them. So what would you suggest, that is not too expensive. By the way, we have spent so much time deliberating on this that we don’t think we will get it done now until next Spring or Summer.

What we have been doing this week is weeding up what we can and trying to deal with the slug and snail population. (I suppose we really needed those hedgehogs!)

Blocking People from our Phones

We are quite tolerable people. We practice humility in our everyday life. We are Christians and believe that is how Jesus would have us behave. However, we don’t want to be seen as stupid or accepting of everything stupid. Let me tell you where I am going with this.

Do you have people who forward to you, usually through WhatsApp everything that has been forwarded to them? We have. And we really detest this. It is so annoying, we find. There are some contacts on our phone who never say hi or hello, they never have anything personally pertinent to say to us but they send us every forwarded photo or video that they get. Well, we have decided, it’s our phone and so we are going to block them, and we have. Some are friends and we do want to hear from them so we still allow them to text or call us straight, just not through WhatsApp.

Some people too, without asking our permission, add us to some groups on WhatsApp. That is just plain rude! I don’t care what the group is about, if my permission has not been sought, I remove myself from the group and then promptly block the person. They will notice that I have removed myself from the group and they might ask why I have done that, and I will take time out of my busy schedule to talk to them about courtesy. Depending on their response, I might unblock them. I’m nice like that, lol.

So this week we were busy updating our phone contact lists and it included some blocking.

Blocking People from Live Chats

On our youtube channel, we have a live chat with our subscribers on most weekdays. We have got to know and trust that certain people will always be part of the live chat and it is really a welcoming and fun one hour each day. Well, recently we noticed that a young man (well we think he is young) keeps coming on every time and as soon as he comes on, he makes it quite obvious that he is a scout for another YouTuber.

His aim is to get our subscribers to leave our chat and to go over to his friend’s YouTube channel. We ourselves went to check out this channel and noticed that although this person had almost a thousand subscribers, he was only following one other channel! We tolerated him for about 4 consecutive days and then we figured out how to block him, and we have!

We think it’s only fair that if you want support, you should support other people too.

Nuisance Calls! Blocked!

It seemed like those people were having a festival this week as we had so many nuisance calls! In the past, we used to save those numbers with a name like NUISANCE1 or DO NOT ANSWER, etc. Well this week, we just blocked the numbers. Of course, they sometimes found ways to call back with a different number so we just had to keep up with our end. Exciting life eh?

Block out Negativity and Stress – our Suggestion to you

In 2017, just before we retired from teaching, we took the decision to eliminate stress and negativity from our lives as far as is possible. For the most part, we have stuck to that and so anything that seems to add stress or negativity to our lives we try to avoid.

This called for some introspection this week. We made an attempt to see if we had, without knowing, been causing stress to anyone else. We’ve tried our best to keep up with friends and family by even sending a cheery hello by text and also by making a few phone calls.

Have I ever been blocked?

Yes! I know of at least one time. Some years ago my nephew wanted to travel and wanted me to loan him some money for his airfare. I sent the money over to him by Western Union. After he picked up the money, he sent me a Whatsapp message saying thanks and that he would repay me. Right after that, he blocked me! Others can get to him on the same phone number, but I can’t. The cheek!

Anyway, it’s just cemented in my mind that I am not a bank, so I now don’t ever give loans. I’ve learned my lesson.

So we offer you the same suggestion.

So, back to our word: Block or Blocked, do you think it is positive or negative. Tell us.

Have a lovely weekend, may you have bountiful blessings this coming week and enjoyable life.

Love as always,

Jo and Leisa

Here’s our latest YouTube live where we discussed the matter with our subscribers.

Previous words of the week

Happy

success