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JusJoJan25 & #SoCS the 11th – It’s the little things

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

It’s the little things …

A row of knitting on top of a row of knitting that eventually makes a blanket.

A piece of paper I no longer need shredded and put out for recycling.

A word on my blog that leads to the next.

Without the little things, I’d never wrap my head around the idea that I can get the big things done.

Problem is, there’s always another big thing waiting to get done.

Still, I like the idea of the little things.

It’s the little things that make me happy.

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

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

 


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JusJoJan25 & #SoCS the 4th – Sticking to it

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

Every day, I write out two to-do lists for myself.

One is the stuff I need to get done “today,” things like edit this, write that, read a book, post for Just Jot it January … stuff I know I need to do without making a list, but it’s nice to be able to cross off the easy stuff.

The second list is stuff I need to get done in the near future—update my editing site, update my author site, get covers for my new series, etc. Some of the things on this list have been there for years.

Procrastination is a thing, and apparently so is self-sabotage. But I digress.

Every day, I see the things I need to do—the things in front of me.

But I only go back to see what I’ve accomplished—the things behind me—once a year.

Maybe I’d be less down on myself for not getting things done if I looked back more often and saw that there are things on my second list that I have accomplished.

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

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

 


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#SoCS – Just plain lazy

There’s no other way to describe my weekend than just plain lazy.

I’ve barely done anything this weekend.

Well, I did go for a mile-long walk with Alex today.

And I am going to write “The End” on a 93,000-word novel tonight, as long as life doesn’t go sideways on me.

But I didn’t write all those words this weekend. It’s taken me three months.

Maybe I’ve earned a lazy weekend.

Happy Easter!

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

This short, day late, plain lazy post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – My spare … bedroom?

When I decided on the house I’m living in, one of the things I liked was that it had a spare bedroom. Somewhere my mother could sleep when she came over for a holiday.

And it worked out well for the first … I’m going to say eight years I was here.

Then it was 2020 and my mother stopped coming over. She moved to a nursing home and I needed somewhere to put her stuff.

Guess where it went.

Guess where some of it still is.

I decided to repurpose the room as my office since it already had a desk in it, at the foot of the bed.

The bed that’s piled two feet high with stuff I didn’t have anywhere else to put.

But my back is to it, so I only see it if I get up. Or if I’m on a video call.

My office is where I work. Where I procrastinate.

I have evidence.

It’s sneaking up behind me.

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

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


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#SoCS – ‘Tis the season

Seems like the season for woolly hats and blankets is almost over.

I’m looking forward to spring, to being able to get outside for walks more. I’m not looking forward to the increasing wind and storms that are sure to show up again. The areas around us are planning for fire season already too—not something I’ve ever seen before in this area of the country.

It all feels a bit too apocalyptic for my tastes. For my comfort level.

So yeah, I’m looking forward to woolly hat and blanket season again even more than spring and summer, and even fall, my previous favorite season of all.

Sure, we still get the winds in the winter, but without the resistance from the bulk of the leaves on the trees, they don’t tend to fall on houses as often.

*sigh*

Maybe it’s just me getting older.

But the world out there is getting increasingly scary.

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

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


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#SoCS – Seems clear …

The fact that I’m a day late with this post …

The fact that I didn’t post at all in the last two weeks aside from the prompts …

Seems to signal that I haven’t changed my ways after all.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

It’s been a stressful couple of weeks here, worrying about Alex and getting busy with a new proofreading job. Plus, I have to drive to Ottawa on Tuesday, so that’s got me stressed out too.

I hate writing posts that sound like “woe is me,” because I’m not actually feeling sorry for myself, and neither should you. It’s just life. You take the ups and the downs.

I do plan to do better with my posting. Maybe not this week because I have a lot going on, and I’m going to have to catch up after Tuesday’s all-day trip.

But next week for sure.

Yeah.

*touches wood*

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

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


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#SoCS – Fail

Despite everything, despite all precautions, I have failed.

We have a cold.

Two of my kids came down with it first—the two who haven’t left the house in a month—and now I have it.

I blame it on chicken.

I ordered out for Valentine’s Day. Swiss Chalet. Do you have Swiss Chalet in the US? They specialize in roasted chicken dinners.

The two kids had chicken, I had ribs.

I figure someone sneezed on their chicken skin. It’s the only explanation.

I know the very moment I caught this cold. Standing in the hallway beside the bathroom door, Alex yelled at me (we were playing around) from only a few inches away. I felt his breath on my face and had a moment of absolute clarity.

I’m sick, I thought. This is where I got sick.

And sure enough …

I’m sick.

It’s totally the chicken’s fault.

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

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


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#SoCS – Modern Photography

There was a time long ago, back when I walked to school uphill both ways, when I was very careful about the photos I took. There were only so many available on the film, after all. I didn’t want to waste them! I had to buy the film, take it to the store when it was full of pictures, then pay to wait a week until it was developed.

Now that kids have it easier and presumably walk downhill both ways to school (like seriously, did the schools move?), I can take a thousand pictures of nothing and it doesn’t cost me a cent. AND I have them immediately—no waiting a week.

Why am I going on about this? I’m getting there, young whippersnapper.

Because we were so careful, we’d make sure not to get strangers in the backgrounds of our photos if we could help it. And yeah, I still try to be careful, but I can take ten of the same picture to make sure the majority of the strangers are facing the other way.

There’s always been the danger of getting sued by someone who ended up in your picture, especially if you post it publicly. But we take so many pictures these days without really thinking about it. Videos too. It’s a national pastime to photograph as many things as we can.

So that got me thinking—how many strangers have taken pictures of me? Not because they wanted to, but just because I was there at the time.

It’s kinda creepy to think about it.

Kinda.

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

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


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#SoCS – Ah ha!

I noticed last month that my blog stats were a little light on the views. And by a little light, I mean it was the second-worst January I’ve had in ten years of Just Jot it January. 2024 was tied with 2015.

And only just now, I realized why.

(I’m so behind the times, but that’s what you get when you pretty much drop off the face of the blog-earth for three years.)

What darkness came to light?

It’s because of the whole subscription thing. The fact that we don’t follow blogs anymore, we have to subscribe to them.

When I look at my email opens, I find they sometimes weigh heavier than my views on my blog.

Friends don’t need to visit anymore. They can just read in their emails.

Which is great! Don’t get me wrong. WordPress is still as clunky and unreasonable as ever, maybe more so.

(Definitely more so when you have to sign in fifteen times a day because you made the mistake of trying to comment on a blog you’ve never visited before. Grrr.)

I’m just glad to have figured out why my stats were so dismal, despite following the prompts every day. 🙂

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

This enlightened (and bonus-point-ful) post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Watch this

Watch this.

It’s me, writing a SoCS post on a Saturday morning. On one cup of coffee (it’s not enough).

I’ve spent the last half an hour looking for the last time I participated in my own prompt—barring Just Jot it January and the occasional post, I think it’s going on three years.

Here’s what I wrote in April 2021 in one of my last posts:

“I’ve been paralyzed every time I’ve thought about writing something. It’s not fear, exactly, but it kind of is. Anxiety, maybe? I dunno. Maybe I’m just totally out of practice.”

And as far as blogging goes, that hasn’t changed. Until now, when I’m still running on momentum from January.

So I’m going to try to be here more often.

I wrote six (6!) posts last year that weren’t One-Liner Wednesdays or Friday prompts.

I need to remedy that.

Just watch me.

 

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

This determined post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in!