Life in progress


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#JusJoJan prompt the 3rd – “Servant”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Di at http://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/ for the idea for the story.)

Petra was practically dead on her feet. But working the New Year’s Eve party for the Jones’s did that to her every year.

Midnight had come and gone and the be-tied and be-gowned guests were showing no signs of wanting to go home. The men with their “haw-haw-haw” laughs and the women who gossiped about one another the moment they were out of earshot made Petra’s eyes roll so many times, she’d been able to count her own eyelashes.

So she was less than amused when she went into the kitchen with her umpteenth tray of dirty champagne glasses and Geeves, the elderly butler that looked like a fireplace poker in a waiter’s tux, turned to her and said, “‘Mother’ wants you upstairs.”

“Why me?” Petra asked, but Geeves just turned up his nose and walked out of the kitchen with a sniff in Petra’s direction and not much more. She was almost positive “Mother” hadn’t asked for her personally, but what was Petra to do? She needed the job.

So usually twinkletoed Petra weaved her way through the stuffiness of the living room full of guests and trudged up the massive, winding flights of stairs to “Mother”‘s room, passing portraits of “Mother” on her way.

(To be continued on Tuesday.)

(Di’s prompt was “Petra as a name, wine cellar as a setting, and ‘getting caught’ as your what if. “)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. 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!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. 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.

3. 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.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. 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!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

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

8. Have fun!


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#JusJoJan 2 & #SoCS – In the corner

(NOT FICTION)

In the corner of my mind …

In a dark corner of my mind …

I wonder all kinds of things.

Like, why does my mind have a corner? It’s not square, is it?

Or maybe it is square.

A box that I keep my memories in, that might start leaking as I get old.

Hmm.

That kind of makes sense, if you think about it.

The corners of my mind are cluttered. Stuff I stick there to “do later” that never get done.

Never get done because they get hidden by dust bunnies.

Dust bunnies in my brain … that explains a lot.

Maybe a lobotomy is just a good spring cleaning.

Like a house fire that takes all the photographs with it.

Wow, this is getting depressing.

I think I’ll keep my dust bunnies, thanks.

Problem is, they multiply like bunnies …

Hey! Bunnies! Stop doing that in my brain!

No wonder I write romance.

HA!

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

This dusty 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/2021/01/01/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2021-daily-prompt-jan-2nd/


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The Escapist Coloring Club Prompt – January 1, 2021

It’s here! The new year! And even better news than that (okay, maybe not), I’m here with your Escapist Coloring Club prompt. If you’d like to join the club, all you have to do is post pictures of your own colouring, your kids’ colouring, or that of anyone you know and have permission to share. This is a month-long prompt, which means you have all of January to link back here.

I got my calendar page coloured early this month. Here’s the before:

And here are closeups of the parts of the finished product: (Click for a closer look.)

And here’s the whole thing:

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in December!

I look forward to seeing your new projects throughout the coming month.

Please find the “rules” below.

1. This prompt is designed for relaxation. As such, I encourage you to take your time to link your own post here, BUT, when you comment, please click the “Notify me of new comments via email” button. That way you’ll receive a notification when someone else links their project and you won’t miss anything. As with all the prompts, the more you visit others, the more your community of like-minded people grows.

2. Ping back! It’s important so that I and other people can come and read your post. To execute a pingback, just copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into the body of your post. 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.

3. There will be a prompt on the first of every month. I will try to post the prompt here on my blog at 9:30am -5 GMT. The prompt will simply be photos of my own colouring project. If you would like to host this prompt on your blog on another week during the month, either once, occasionally, or on a regular basis, please e-mail me at hilllindagmaru at gmail dot com and we’ll get you set up. All I ask is that you have an active blog and that you regularly reply to comments and visit other blogs.

4. Feel free to use The Escapist Coloring Club badge in your post.

5. Have fun!


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The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 2nd

Welcome to the Daily 2021 Just Jot it January Prompt and the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt for SATURDAY, JANUARY 2nd! I want to wish everyone a very happy new year! May 2021 be … uneventful.

For those of you joining SoCS for the first time, it’s a little different than the other prompts in that it’s not always a whole word. Much may be left up to your discretion: this week is no exception. Having said that, if you’re joining in from JusJoJan, don’t want to write stream of consciousness style, no worries. It’s up to you! If you do want to try it, please check out the rules below. It’s fun! Here’s your Saturday prompt:

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in the corner.” Write about whatever the image or thought of “in the corner” brings to mind. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at 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 post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our 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/

You can also use the Just Jot it January badge! To find the rules for Just Jot it January, click here.

Here are the rules for SoCS:

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. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a 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 simply a single word to get your 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 everyone’s! 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 right 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!


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#JusJoJan prompt the 1st – “Speech”

(FICTION)

*ahem*

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theys and thems,

Thank you all so very much for being here. I’d like to start off by saying it’s not my fault. I know, I know. Calm down. I know you’re angry at me, but hear me out.

I’m not the one who brought you the fires and the murder hornets and the plague. I didn’t stick you in your homes and not let you out, and I’m certainly not the one who made you forget what day it was.

Random person from the crowd: Then what did you do for us?

I gave you the time you wanted. All those extra hours in a day you’ve been asking for? I might not have given you extra, but they sure felt longer, those days.

Random person from the crowd: You still suck!

Fine, fine. I suck. I’m leaving now. But know this: if you survived me, which you did, you can survive just about anything.

All of the crowd: You suck, 2020!

*2020 leaves the stage, mumbling, Thanks for being here.*

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. 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!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. 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.

3. 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.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. 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!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

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

8. Have fun!


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Just Jot it January 2021 – The Rules!

Hey there! Welcome to the 8th annual Just Jot it January challenge! This year is going to be far simpler than the last couple of years. One prompt per day, link to that post, that’s it. Details below.

But why should you participate in this challenge? To keep the ol’ fingers warm and meet up with an awesome blogging community, that’s why! Just Jot it January, AKA JusJoJan, is a challenge to write a post every day of the month of January. We’ve grown from a handful of participants in 2014 to close to fifty for the past couple of years. Let’s see if we can make it to sixty this year!

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. 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!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. 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.

3. 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.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. 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!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

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

8. Have fun!


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One-Liner Wednesday – Energy

Whomever  lives in this house has a lot of energy for decorating. Still missing the snow.

Photo: The same house I posted a picture of at Halloween, now with some awesome Christmas decorations: lights, nutcrackers, trees, wreaths, and lots more.

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 – Boxing Day

I don’t know about you, but Christmas on a Friday really screwed me up for some reason. I was convinced it was Sunday all day today. Which is going to make Sunday (the real Sunday) reeeeeally long.

So it was Boxing Day today here in Canada. I’ve never really known the true meaning of Boxing Day. I think it’s either the day you throw out all the boxes from the stuff you got at Christmas or it’s the day you box your kids’ ears when they whine about what they didn’t get from Santa.

That Santa guy must have really had his work cut out for him this year. If the rest of the world is any indication, at least a few of the elves had to be out with Covid. I mean, you don’t even go to work with the sniffles these days.

Sniffles is, by the way, the name of one of the elves. Or so I’m told. He was really lonely this year.

Where was I?

Oh yes, Boxing Day.

I need a Boxing Day just to get rid of the boxes from the computers that don’t work anymore. You know, the boxes they tell you to keep in case you need to ship it back to be fixed? Those boxes somehow manage to outlast the computers every single time.

They should make cardboard computers. Maybe they’d last longer.

Is it Sunday yet?

Yep. Sunday.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

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

This slightly tipsy post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/12/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-26-2020/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 26/2020

It’s Friday! And it’s Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m here (because it’s Friday) with your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. OH! Oven’s ready. Got to put the croissants in. Here’s your prompt for this week:

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

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 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!


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One-Liner Wednesday – All we’re missing is the snow

We’re going back into lockdown on December 26th, but at least we have lights.

Photo: A gazebo with a red roof, decorated with blue, red, and white lights at the edge of the water. The reflection is almost perfect.

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