Category: A to Z Blogging Challenge

2020 Possibilities

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge, Good Things, Here and Now, taking care of self2 Comments

This year I am going to work hard on reconciling my planning, list making, scheduling self with my living in the here and now self. I actually think this is quite doable, I just need to strengthen some mental muscles.

So, typical planning me starts jotting down what I would like to accomplish in 2020. Then I think I should come up with twelve items and schedule one for each month. But here and now me said, whoa. What if I don’t want to work on something a whole month or I need more time or I want to start and stop and resume a project later?

New combined me stepped in with the compromise. I narrowed my list down to six items I really want to do. No assigned schedule, a few of my projects will be worked on all year. One of my items has a deadline so I’ll adhere to that. But I will let here and now me decide when to do the rest.

Here are my six goals for 2020:

  • Catch up on organizing my photos. I started 2019 already so I really don’t have that much to do.
  • I am going to make a scrapbook for my son this year. One page for each month and use the extra pages for birthday and vacations.
  • Put together my own book of meditations/words of wisdom. I recently got a copy of Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” and was surprised to learn it was something he wrote simply for himself. I am always collecting quotes or thinking odd little things I want to remember and have them scattered in different places. I’ll put them in one book and practice my hand lettering at the same time!
  • I am going to do the A to Z blogging challenge in April. I have my topic/theme and I am already drafting blog posts.
  • Take Carla Sondheim’s collage class. It is supposed to take a full year but I probably won’t start until maybe the beginning of summer. We’ll just see how it goes.
  • I love the idea of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November each year but November doesn’t work for me. I just have too much going on then. So I am going to make my own short term novel writing time frame. Probably a bit more than a month but my goal will be to have a first draft of the novel that I have been trying to write for the last few years done. No matter how badly it turns out!

For daily items I will continue with my yoga, meditating twice a day and keeping writing my joy/gratitude lists.

Gotta run, this day is full of possibilities to embrace. 🙂

Last Word in the Dictionary Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge7 Comments

I have been looking forward to this post since the beginning of the challenge. Not because I am happy the challenge is over (more like relieved) but because I am really curious as to what the last words in my dictionaries are!

The three dictionaries in my home. (I have one more in our trailer.)

Paperback Merriam Webster (2004):

zygote – a cell formed by the union of two sexual cells

That is the last word in the regular section. But then there are three specialty sections (Foreign words and phrases, Biographical names and Geographical names). So the last word in the book as a whole is Zurich. A city in Switzerland.

The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (Second Edition 1990):

zyzzyva – a tropical weevil

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1981):

zyzzogeton – genus of leafhoppers

 

I love how all three dictionaries had different last words.  Two of the three words were new to me.

Does anyone have a different last word in their dictionary?

Like Yourself Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge, home, taking care of selfTagged 6 Comments

Today you just need to be yourself and be happy about it. (No more being Tigger if that’s not you!) Celebrate being exactly who you are.

Well, that was easy. Guess I’ll put some photos in all this blank space. Because that is who I am, a woman who enjoys taking photos even though I haven’t yet mastered details like f-stop and shutter speed. Taking photos makes me happy and I like that about myself.

Saguaro cactus buds.

 

The flowers open one to three at a time and only last a day or two.

 

Our mandarine orange tree is heavy with fruit.

 

First swim of the season.  This is me being “artistic”. 

 

My birthday heirloom flower seeds mix are growing like weeds (I crack myself up!) but where are the flowers?

Play a Xylophone Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge7 Comments

Well yes, I did use xylophone last year in the A to Z challenge but now I actually own a xylophone. Um, no I can’t play it, yet. Turns out not being able to read music is a real detriment to learning to play an instrument. But I will prevail! For now I just plink around and I rather enjoy it. Very soothing sound from a xylophone.

My blue xylophone!

Of course being the flexible holiday maker upper that I am feel free to play any musical instrument today. You don’t have to actually play a song or anything.  Just plink around.  Maybe you tap something out on the kitchen counter with a wooden spoon while making dinner. That works too. But everyone (yes, even you) needs to make a joyful noise of some sort today.

Please share your experience!

Wear Your Oldest T-shirt Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging ChallengeTagged 7 Comments

You know the shirt I mean. From college or a rock concert. The one you never wear but can’t bear to part with because of all the memories. I’ll make it easy for you, you don’t even have to wear it out in public, just wear it to sleep in or around the house this evening.

I have a lot of t-shirts from a lot of traveling. At first I thought my oldest t-shirt was from France but then I found this shirt:

From the Corporate Cup Run in Omaha, Ne circa 1994.

It has the year on it so there can be no doubt. Wait, how old is this t-shirt? Twenty-three years old?  Really?  Because I remember when I got this t-shirt and it doesn’t seem that long ago! To the best of my knowledge this is my oldest t-shirt.

I was a bit bummed that a free t-shirt from a run is the one that I have kept the longest, but I have been doing a lot of purging lately.

This is the back. Actually it is a pretty cool shirt from a run. Even though I never worked at First National Bank.  I ran with a friend and registered through their work.  Still a good workout shirt.

Fess up, how old is your oldest t-shirt?

Celebrate a Small Victory

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge, southwest desert, taking care of selfTagged , , 5 Comments

Today you keep a promise to yourself. Today take that first step towards something, anything. Do a few pushups, write one page of a novel, set up an art studio in a corner of your home. Eat a salad for lunch, whatever. Take one small step towards a goal TODAY. And when you go to bed tonight reflect on it, feel happy about it, maybe even make a plan for tomorrow. All goals are met one small step at a time. Today celebrate taking that first step. Hopefully the first step of many.

Cantaloupe plants!

My son always wants to try and grow vegetables or fruits. I explain how hard it is here in the desert weather, in our small yard,  blah blah blah.  This year I let him pick out some seeds and we put them in a pot.  Will they survive the heat to actually produce fruit? Maybe, maybe not. But we took the first step and my son is happy.  And I am happy too. Who knows, maybe we will be eating cantaloupe in a few months!

Use Something You have Been Saving for a Rainy Day – Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge, taking care of selfTagged 12 Comments

Or maybe something you have been saving for a special occasion. Today is it, it is raining and special! Use that bubble bath, drink that bottle of wine, wear that white skirt.

Not to be a downer but you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Live for today! In the movie “Housewife, 49” set during WWII the couple are in their Morrison shelter in their home as bombs fall nearby.  The wife says “I never opened those tin pears.”  Today: eat the pears!

Do something for your self that will make you really happy. Take that rainy day fund and book that longed for trip to Paris. Treat yourself to a nice meal at a restaurant you have been longing to try. Take a nap.  Stop and smell the roses. (I mean this literally!)

Do it. No really, DO IT. No regrets. I promise.

It doesn’t have to be something big. Sometimes the smallest treats are the best. Today I am giving myself a break. I am ignoring the housework and endless to-do list. I will sit in my office and enjoy my flowers, a hoarded piece of Easter candy and begin coloring a new picture.

Saved treats for me.

 

I have been saving this picture because I really like it and am afraid of messing up. But not today. Today I am going for it.

How are you going to treat yourself today?

Be Like Tigger Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging ChallengeTagged , , 9 Comments

I love all the characters in the Hundred Acre Woods but Tigger is a special favorite. “The wonderful thing about Tiggers are Tiggers are wonderful things!”  I dare you to watch this video and not smile!

There is only one of you and make the most out of being you. But maybe you could be a little bit like Tigger, just for today?  Smile, a lot. Be carefree and spontaneous and joyful. Wear stripes! Bounce around!  And don’t give a shit about whatever anyone else thinks.

Scurvy Prevention Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging Challenge, taking care of selfTagged , 10 Comments

This is the holiday that started the whole A to Z made up holidays theme. I don’t think scurvy is around much anymore though I did see a case of it on “Doc Martin“.

Scurvy from Wikipedia:

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C.[1] Early symptoms include weakness, feeling tired, curly hair, and sore arms and legs.[1][2] Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, and bleeding from the skin may occur.[1] As scurvy worsens there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection or bleeding.[2]

Scurvy is caused by not enough vitamin C in the diet.[1] It typically takes at least a month of little to no vitamin C before symptoms occur.[1][2] In modern times, it occurs most commonly in people with mental disorders, unusual eating habits, alcoholism, and old people who live alone.

 

Curly hair??? Really?  That has got to be the strangest symptom of a disease I have ever seen. It is probably best to get a perm if you really want curly hair.

So today make sure you get your vitamin C. Shouldn’t be too hard, it is in a lot of foods.  Besides your citrus family strawberries, peppers, kale and broccoli are high in vitamin C.

Let us know what you ate to prevent scurvy today. I think I will go for some strawberries!  Tis the season.

Hello!

Research Day

Posted in A to Z Blogging ChallengeTagged , , 2 Comments

Today you get to make yourself smarter about anything you want. Take a question that has been bugging you for a while now and find the answer. With the internet the skies the limit but you are not limited to the computer. Here are some ideas:

Wonder if you like kale? Today is the day to try some!  Want to know the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?  Ask the produce guy. Wander around a garden center and ask questions about flowers. Try a new restaurant.  Drive down a new to you street and see what you find.  Use your imagination!

Me, I am going to the library and explore all those sections I typically ignore. I will browse biographies and westerns and look in a few corners where I don’t even know what is there! I have to confess I am kinda excited about this.  I could discover anything!

Random favorite photo: Elephants at the Reid Park zoo with a C-130 in the background.