Life in progress


by 32 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – I don’t understand

I don’t understand cameras—both photos were taken when it was equally dark outside.

Photo: A snowy scene with a small front yard surrounded by bushes, trees and houses in the background, all covered in snow. The sky is almost as white as the snow. Photo faces northeast.

Photo: A view through a darkened window with gauzy drapes and outside, the roof of my neighbour’s house and a snow-covered leafless tree glowing white against a dark gray sky. Photo faces southeast.

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, 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

Available now! Click the image.


by 23 Comments

When having a to-do list sucks

This morning I woke up ready to take on my to-do list. I was pumped and raring to go.

I got out to get my grocery shopping done as I usually do every Tuesday morning … and it only took me 20 minutes to clean off the car and shovel it out.

Got back home at a decent time, and after a bit of doom scrolling I took Alex to his program. Great! I had a couple of hours to get some things crossed off my to-do list.

I just had to get gas first. And pick up Alex’s computer from Best Buy. And stop at Tim Horton’s for lunch—gotta keep my energy up for my to-do list. Oh! And I needed sausages from a different store than I get my groceries at.

Finally I got home … just in time to pick Alex up from his program!

Now, at 4:30, I’m sitting at my computer getting the first thing done that was actually on my to-do list (blogging), and feeling a combination of satisfaction at getting so many things done and frustration that only one of them was on my list.

I don’t know if I need a longer list or I should just say to hell with everything else. 🙄

Suggestions welcome.


by 27 Comments

Hmm

I’m sitting at my desk in front of my laptop, drinking my coffee and staring at a blank page. Okay, not quite blank, because it now has two sentences on it.

Hmm.

When I’m writing a story, I often launch into it with no idea what’s going to come out. What’s going to flow from my fingertips. That’s why I love stream of consciousness writing so much, I guess. It comes natural to me.

Far more natural than, say, speaking.

If I’m faced with talking about something? If I don’t know what to say, I usually end up saying something stupid. Something that plays on repeat in my head, making me want to slap myself.

Why is it always the stupid things you say that you remember most often?

Or maybe it’s just me.

Hmm.


by 34 Comments

Hey!

I’ve decided I want to try to keep blogging every day. We’ll see how long that lasts.

So what are we all talking about these days aside from politics?

The weather? That I can do.

But not today. I’m staying indoors. 🥶


by 28 Comments

#SoCS – I don’t believe it

I have to preface this by saying I’ve never actually tried it.

Or maybe I have, but if so, I was too young to remember it now.

But I refuse to believe that a spoonful of sugar would help the medicine go down.

I’m, like, imagining popping a Tylenol into my mouth and trying to wash it down with sugar.

It would be so … dry!

Don’t you think?

Either way, not helpful in the slightest.

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

This silly post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


by 19 Comments

Just Jot it January 2025 – We did it!

Yay! We did it! We made it through what seems like the longest month in history, January 2025. 🎉

I mean seriously, is it just me? Or was that a looooong month?

Despite time traditionally flying when you’re having fun, I did have a wonderful time blogging every day and visiting other blogs whenever I could. I hope you did too!

So tell me how you did with the challenge this year. Did you post every day in January? Did you at least jot something somewhere? Let me know in the comments, or write your own “I did it! #JusJoJan25 Edition” post in the next few days, even if you only posted once, and link it back here.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in on this, our 11th annual Just Jot it January! Here’s your annual participant badge to use in your “I did it” post or to pin anywhere you’d like.

Have a happy February!


by 13 Comments

JusJoJan25 the 31st – Infinity

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “fini.” See how to join in here!

It occurred to me tonight that being a parent means having to accept help sometimes.

Even when you don’t want it.

Because sometimes your kids want to help.

And what would have taken you five minutes to do, ends up taking an infinity.

Or so it seems.

But you’ve gotta love ’em, don’t you?

🙄😂

This whiny post is the last post of Just Jot it January 2025! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks to everyone who joined me in Just Jot it January!


by 35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 1, 2025

Friday is here and so am I with your first Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt of February, 2025. It’s been a hectic January, hasn’t it? Like, this year really seemed to start off with a lot going on. I hope things calm down in February! Here’s this week’s prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “spoonful.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our beautiful SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

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

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a particular subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 28 Comments

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 31st, 2025

Well hello there! It’s time for our final prompt for Just Jot it January 2025. Today’s prompt is more of a SoCS-style prompt in that it’s not an entire word. But don’t feel obligated to write a stream of consciousness/no editing allowed post. Plan away!

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 31st, 2025 is “fini.” Find a word that has “fini” in it and use that as your prompt word. Have fun!

If you’d like to see the entire prompt list for Just Jot it January 2025, you can find it HERE.

Be sure to come back tomorrow, February 1st, for the annual “We Did It!” post. 😁

Here are the rules:

1. Please be sure to put your link in the comments on THIS POST for Friday, January 31st, 2025.

2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

4. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

5. Tag your post JusJoJan25 and/or #JusJoJan25.

6. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

8. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

9. Have fun!


by 8 Comments

JusJoJan25 the 30th – Hesitation

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “hesitation,” comes to us from Wendy. Check out her blog here!

Hesitation has to be my biggest downfall. It happens on different levels.

At the smallest level, take this post, for instance.

I got the title and the first two lines ready to go almost two hours before I finally started writing what was going to be in the body of the post.

At the most critical level (of my writing and publishing career), I tend to hesitate before I publish a book, putting it off—putting off the steps to getting ready—sometimes for months, leaving me to scramble at the last minute to get everything set to go.

I’ve often thought this might be a form of self-sabotage.

And maybe it is.

But the core reason behind my hesitation is the NEED for everything to be perfect.

And it never is and never will be.

What sucks is my hesitation causes me actual physical pain.

Before I started writing this post, my heartburn was extremely painful. Now? After, like, four minutes of writing? It’s almost gone. In fact it was gone before I started writing this paragraph, but now that I’m thinking about it … (Stop thinking about it, Linda. It’s entirely stress-related.)

So yeah. I wish there was a cure for hesitation.

For perfectionism.

And for worrying about screwing up when I’ll never know if things will go smoothly unless I actually start doing them.

This woeful post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Wendy for the prompt!