Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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One-Liner Wednesday – Nothing lasts forever

Nothing quite like a snowman’s eyeballs laying on the driveway to remind us everything is ephemeral.

Photos: Before–a cute snowman with one red eye and one green eye. After–a much smaller pile of snow with one red bottle cap and one green bottle cap laying beside it on the pavement.

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

 


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#SoCS – What day is it anyway?

A year later, and I’m still asking myself that question almost every morning when I wake up. The only reason I bother wondering? I need to know whether Alex is expected at virtual school. For me, every day is the same. Work. I do it seven days a week, most days from the time I finish breakfast ’til the time I go to bed. Minus time off for walks, interruptions from the kids, and to eat. Oh, and housework. I do that occasionally, too.

Day in, day out.

My consolation? My bright spot in the world. Writing books people enjoy, doing a good job when I edit and making my clients happy, and sending out prompts. Because aside from looking after my kids and making sure they’re as content as they can be, from this tiny room at this small computer it seems I can still make a difference in the world, and that is a truly great thing.

It constantly amazes me the reach we have. And if we choose to use it wisely, we can make a positive change in the world. Even when we’re stuck inside.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the people who have read my blog and participated in my prompts over the past year. I feel like I don’t express my appreciation enough, but I really do appreciate it. Because without you all, I’d be prompting the void. And the void doesn’t answer back. I might even go as far as to say it a-voids it. (Haha! Yes, I’m tired. But I still got it.)

What was I saying?

Oh yes.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. ❤

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This grateful post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/03/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-13-2021/


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One-Liner Wednesday – Thief

Photo: A quote on a starry background. “Procrastination is the sneakiest of thieves. It steals from us time, our most precious resource, yet we allow it to live under our rooves.” ~ Linda G. Hill, from an untitled WIP

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

 


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#SoCS – I Can’t Believe it’s not Margarine

I grew up on butter, never margarine. My family hated the taste of it. And back when I was a child, it had a terrible flavor, kinda like butter that had gone slightly off. I don’t know how my mother always kept the butter so fresh. She must have used a lot of it, because it was never kept in the fridge. There was nothing quite as frustrating as trying to spread cold butter on fresh bread.

When I was an adult, I gave up on butter, but by then, margarine had improved. When I moved to Quebec (the province), I regularly bought what started out as margarine but they changed the name of it. To “Non-Hydrogenated Soy Spread.” No mention of margarine anywhere on the container. But it tasted like margarine, which, by that time, mostly tasted like butter.

I’m back to “Margarine” now–at least that’s what it says on the container. I miss butter. But we still call the stuff we put on our toast “Non-Hydrogenated Soy Spread” because why not?

It’s funnier. And it’s a mouthful. And who doesn’t want a mouthful when it comes to non-hydrogenated soy spread?

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This very late, definitely non-hydrogenated post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/03/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-6-2021/


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One-Liner Wednesday – Nope

Half blind, head screaming, sorry, this is the best one-liner I can manage. Link away.

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

 


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#SoCS – Misty

As I come to the end of a full year of being sequestered in my home with my three kids, I’m looking back and thinking never has there been a year so slow and yet so very focused. So focused, in fact that there aren’t many moments I think I’m forgetting. It’s the least misty year in my existence.

Because I haven’t done anything. I can remember details like beginning the year going to the grocery store on Fridays, and gradually working all the way back to Thursdays, Wednesdays, Tuesdays, Mondays and now Sundays. I haven’t been inside a store on a Saturday all year.

Imagine remembering that kind of thing in a normal year?

I’ve written stories–books, even. I’ve published two books and one short story. I’ve moved from sitting on the couch to a desk in the spare bedroom. I’ve been to two–count ’em–TWO live concerts in Japan without leaving my house. And I’ve learned that “zoom” isn’t just what cars do as they go by. I’ve walked more than a million steps without leaving my neighbourhood.

And I’ve had the honour of spending more time with my kids than I knew I could without going insane.

How has your year been?

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This very late, decidedly unmisty post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/02/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-27-2021/


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#SoCS – The Nerve!

What nerve I’ve got, almost two days late responding to my own prompt!

But you know what? It’s like that meme that’s going around. We’ve been at this “stay at home” thing for so long, there’s nothing to talk about. Nothing new, anyway. So I sit here at my computer, waffling over what to write. I actually get nervous. (There’s those nerves again.) And then I wonder, what’s the point?

Just Jot it January was easy for me, because all I had to do was make stuff up. Fiction is so much more interesting than real life these days, isn’t it? In fiction, we can pretend sickness doesn’t exist.

Maybe I should make up a fictional life for myself. Then I could live vicariously through the fictional me. I’ve even got a picture of the fictional me in mind. Aren’t I cute?

Photo: A snowman made out of a pointy snowbank with a single ball of snow on top with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and two twigs for arms sticking out of the snowbank.

Yeah, looks like the fictional me has about as much of a life as the real me.

sigh

Sorry I’m late with my SoCS post. Almost a SoCM post now.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This sad post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/02/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-20-2021/


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#SoCS – Above and beyond

Okay, so what’s the opposite of above and beyond? Below and back? Below and insufficient? Doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

My expectations for myself, for the future, are often on the side of above and beyond. Which leaves me in a state of feeling inadequate and causes me stress. Which sucks.

Yet, those expectations are often what pull me through and help me succeed. I’m one of those types who waits until the last minute to do what I need to do in order to hit a deadline. Most of the time. I’m much better when I’m editing for a client. My self-control is far better.

So what’s that about? Basically, when you boil it down, it comes down to my caring about other people more than myself. The old, “It’s just for me, so it can wait” thing.

Turns out self-care is difficult.

Can you relate?

Oh, and happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there. For the rest of us? Let’s love ourselves a little bit more today. ❤

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This off-the-rails post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/02/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-13-2021/


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#SoCS – White Flag

This post started off in my head this morning. I was thinking about a white flag, not because I am or was waving one, but because I didn’t. For a while there, it looked like I might not get my novel ready to upload in time for the preorder date I have set on the retailers. On most of them, it’s not a big deal: you can change it. On Amazon, if you change your preorder date for a later one, you lose the privilege of setting a preorder date for a year.

But, against all odds, I managed to get it finished and uploaded. I never waved that white flag.

So why didn’t I post this post this morning when I thought of it? Because of a song.

It’s one I hadn’t heard in years. I listened to it all the time about ten years ago, though, and all I could remember was one line that went something like “I will not lie down.” So I searched the Internet. I Googled, I wracked my brain. Nothing came up. I couldn’t remember the name of the song nohow.

Until I stopped trying.

And damn me, the name of the song is “White Flag.”

Doh!

P.S. The lyric I was trying to remember that I got wrong was “I will go down with this ship.”

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This age-showing post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2021/02/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-6-2021/


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#JusJoJan 30 & #SoCS – A day

(NOT FICTION)

At the end of a long, long day

that consisted of editing a novel that feels like it’s never going to end

I wonder how I’m going to make it to bed,

with so much still to do.

Because as it turns out,

A new day has already begun.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This tired not-really-a-poem post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday and Just Jot It January! Find the prompt here and join in!https://lindaghill.com/2021/01/29/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2021-daily-prompt-jan-30th/