Life in progress


32 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS December 12/14

Greetings. I’m the second of your Linda’s Christmas Holiday Substitute Teachers. Eyes front. No hall passes.

I have a sort of preoccupation with things I don’t understand, like time and space and Black Friday and the minds of toddlers and why the English language has words like “kerfuffle” (utterly useless) but no answer for the German “schadenfreude” (I would use that word EVERY DAMN DAY). Also, Helen’s prompt gave me a certain kind of nudge in a certain kind of direction, and I find that when you feel nudged, the thing to do is nudge back, unless of course you’re a senator nudging toes in a bathroom stall at the airport.

Er, right. The prompt. I had about a thousand variations on a theme that I pondered for the prompt, from the highfalutin to the plebeian (and, see, now I’m just doing wheelies on my vocabulary bicycle since I’m playing in somebody else’s sandbox). But as intrigued as I was by some of those ideas, I ultimately came to the conclusion that simpler is better, and I, for one, could use a dose of simplicity after the week I’ve had. Let the distractions and the stresses fall away. Take a step back.

So, for this week your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is one word: “Back.” Use it however you’d like: as a standalone, as a prefix, a suffix, noun, verb, or adverb (can you tell I’m an English teacher in my daytime life?); just make sure you have fun and enjoy the words flowing onto your screen so you can share them with us!

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 Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the 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!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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. 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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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.

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. Have fun!


11 Comments

Thank You for the Warm Welcome

Linda is a pretty amazing and very trusting person. She told us we could post on her blog while she is away, but I wasn’t actually planning on it. I have my own blog, after all (that I feel like I’ve been ignoring),  and it’s still pretty intimidating, if I’m completely honest. I look at that 4,000 follower count and do the slow blink as my heart starts to beat a little faster. It pales in comparison to my own list of followers, especially considering I never imagined my blog would get over 10, much less over 100!

But I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciated the warm welcome I received and how much fun I had yesterday reading all your wonderful posts and commenting back and forth. I love how one word can bring so many different types of responses and it was heart-warming and lovely spending a Saturday with all of you.

If any more posts trickle in today, I will keep reading and responding. I’m pretty excited I managed to keep up with all the posts that came in yesterday! (It was fun sitting in my pajamas half the day with a cup of coffee just enjoying the experience)

I also appreciate the positive feedback on my prompt as I was a little worried about how it would be received. It’s funny when you start something new how overwhelming it feels but when you do it enough times, it just becomes a thing. I imagine Linda was maybe a little nervous when she did her first SoCS prompt but after doing it enough, she became the expert. It makes me appreciate what it entails to host something like this and I am even more grateful for her prompt each week.

I’m going to leave you with a quote that ties in with the prompt yesterday and wish you all a blessed week in your blogging, your writing and whatever life has in store for you. Thank you again for putting up with me for a few days. Stay tuned for Pav, Leigh and any other posts we might decide to put up in Linda’s absence.

“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.”
-Eckhart Tolle

 


33 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS December 6/14

Hello all! I’m here to fill in for Linda while she’s away and it’s our favorite day of the week… it’s the day we get our prompt for SoCS!

I actually thought of this prompt a while ago, when I first volunteered to help out, not even knowing if Linda would choose me or not. I was happy to find it hadn’t been used before and, if you’re so inclined to use it that way, it could tie in very nicely with the Christmas shopping I know you’re all busy doing right now. Well, anyone who is ahead of the game. Me? I usually wait until the weekend before. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.

So, for this week your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “Present.” Use it however you’d like, just make sure you have fun and enjoy the words flowing onto your screen so you can share them with us!

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 Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the 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!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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. 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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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.

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. Have fun!


28 Comments

Get Ready

Over the next few days I hope you’ll all join me in welcoming our Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosts, who have graciously accepted the task of taking over while I’m away. These three wonderful bloggers will be writing posts here at Life In Progress starting tomorrow, to introduce themselves. They’ll be coming up with the Friday prompts and visiting all of your upcoming SoCS posts during the next three weekends.

I know they’ll do a fantastic job and I hope you’ll all visit their blogs and follow them if you haven’t already.

Just so you know, I’ve pre-scheduled both of the One-Liner Wednesday posts that I’ll be absent for, as well as all of the “Second Seat on the Right” posts over at my fiction site, Inspiration in Progress, so you won’t miss a thing!

I have to say, it feels really weird to just end a post without a shout-out to someone after a month of participating in NoBloMooglyWoo and Mr. Fantastic’s Team Pepper Mystery Tour. Really awkward.

So visit your hosts when you see their posts. You’ll be happy you did!!


44 Comments

SoCS – Scattered cents and sense

You know what’s weird? The fact that now the penny has been taken out of circulation in Canada, you never find a penny on the ground anymore. The last coin I came across as I was walking was a dime. Are people more likely to just leave dimes on the ground now rather than pick them up? Or was this just some unfortunate soul who didn’t realize he or she was dumping his or her change out of his or her pocket?

Grammar really makes no sense, does it? My best friend’s brother, who was on the team that wrote spell check and grammar check, tells me that with all the different rules in all the different countries on grammar, it isn’t possible to write a grammatically correct sentence. One rule will be broken unless you completely ignore all the other countries and are never read outside of your own. Interesting stuff, that.

In other news, I have the weekend off. No kids. Lovely, eh? Yet I have so much to do, it’s hard to know where to start. I’m just plowing through everything as a result. Which is good, except I keep forgetting to eat and drink. I often make myself a cup of tea and leave it to steep… for an hour. I can’t stand cold tea, or coffee, or anything else that’s supposed to be hot when it’s cold. Except pizza. And occasionally spaghetti.

I need to go now.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-2914/ It’s fun! Give it a try!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

and also Nano Poblano, hosted by Mr. Mark Bialczak himself

image98

and SlapMeSillyBloMoPoWhatever

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS November 29/14

Guess what? It’s time for your Friday Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! This week’s prompt came to me completely out of the blue – I love it when that happens!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “sense/scents/cents,” with a bonus word this week – “sent.” Choose one, use them all or simply write whatever comes to mind- it’s up to you!

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 Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the 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!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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. 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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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.

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. Have fun!


44 Comments

Nano Poblano – Day 25: Goings On

My blog isn’t normally about my personal schedule, but because of the community I’ve kind of built around this site, I feel obligated to let you, my friends, know what’s going on for the next little while.

First, tomorrow, I’m going to an occupational therapist to see about my bad shoulder in the morning, and to an optometrist in the afternoon. I’ll have drops in my eyes, which probably means no screen time after that since the horrid things usually affect me for at least eight hours. I hope to be able to post tomorrow before I go.

Then this Saturday will be my last “live” SoCS entry until the 20th of December. I leave for Tokyo on Saturday the 6th and will be home on the 17th. Considering I leave Japan two hours after I arrive in Canada, I’ll be pretty bagged and doubt I’ll be online again until the 18th.

What this means for you, my dear participants in One-Liner Wednesday and SoCS, is that you’ll still be able to participate in both, except I won’t be around. I’ll have the One-Liners scheduled already for the 10th and the 17th, and for SoCS I’ll either do the same or I’ll have guest-posters here to organize things. I still have to contact the three people who said they might be willing to help out, to see if they’re still “in.”

I hope to have reliable enough wifi where I’m staying that I can check in once in a while, but I don’t plan on spending too much time online.

In the meantime, as you can probably imagine, I’ll be pretty busy getting ready to leave and doing as much Christmas shopping as humanly possible so I don’t need to do too much while I’m away. Luggage space will be limited. Again, what this means is that I won’t be able to read as many blogs as I usually do, or keep up with the comments. But I’ll do my best!

For anyone wondering how I’m paying for this (I’m looking at you, Social Services), I’ve been saving for years. There’s a reason I have only one pair of shoes, have a hair cut once every three years, and am still wearing a coat that was bought for me as a Christmas gift 30 years ago – and no, that’s not an exaggeration.

Oh, and as a side note, I just got a call from Best Buy to say my laptop battery is in – let’s hope it fits!!!

This random goings-on post was brought to you in conjunction with Captain Pepper’s Happy Hearts Club Band

image98

and RoMoBloPo

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


35 Comments

SoCS – Look! A New Word!

I used this prompt to look up a new word. A new word for me, at least. I’d always wondered what it meant; now I know. The word is “insouciant.” It means easy-going, gay, happy-go-lucky, and untroubled.

I want to be insouciant. It’s pronounced “in-soo-see-ant” if you’re wondering. I want to be carefree and not worried about anything. And I think I can be, if I really want to. How, you may ask, would someone with as many people relying on them as I have be insouciant?

I think the key (or one of them) is in not procrastinating. I find that if I put things off I end up with a whole ball of stress sitting with me at the end of the day – stress caused by all the things I need to do tomorrow because I did none of them today. It adds up and I end up worrying. And uninsouciant. According to my spellcheck that’s not a word… and neither is spellcheck. Go figure. But will I worry about that? Hell no!

How else can I be insouciant? I think just by deciding not to worry about things I can be a little more carefree. Not to say that I don’t consider my responsibilities important… but only concentrating on what’s in front of me rather than doing things I’m supposed to be doing AND worrying that I’m not doing something else – that’s senseless. In fact, by fully focusing on the task at hand, I’m more likely to be more efficient at it than if my mind is elsewhere.

So here’s to insouciance! Practice with me, won’t you?

 

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-2214/

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

And Nano Poblano:

Fish of Gold

And SoBloMoNo:

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


38 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS November 22/14

Welcome to the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Here you will find fun and excitement in blogging excellence all in the comment section… But first, we need writers!

This week’s Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in-” Find a word that begins with the prefix “in” or use the word itself anywhere in your post. Easy!

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 Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the 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!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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. 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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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.

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. Have fun!


31 Comments

SoCS – Three out of Four

According to my horoscope I’m an Air sign, though I’m not sure that’s my favourite element – at least not all the time.

There have been times in my life when I was in my element out of doors, particularly when I worked with horses. I loved being out on horseback no matter what the weather. Except freezing rain. That sucked for everyone. But in general I love nature, and so sitting on a fence rail, breathing in the air and just watching the horses graze was a gem of a time for me.

I love being in a canoe as well. Floating on the water, paddling my little heart out is a great time as far as I’m concerned. Swimming as well – I used to enjoy holding my breath and just laying on the bottom of my neighbour’s pool for as long as I could. Sounds are muffled and it’s simply peaceful.

When I went camping when I was younger I was always the one to tend the fire. Keeping it going was a constant occupation and could keep me busy for hours. Sitting by the fire at night with the crickets singing and a million stars overhead could be heaven. As long as it wasn’t raining. Then again, crickets don’t sing when it rains, and chances are I wouldn’t see the stars either, so scratch that. Ah stream of consciousness and no editing, eh?

The one element I could never really get into is earth. Digging in the garden holds absolutely no appeal to me. Sitting in the garden reading a good book on a nice day… priceless.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-1514/ Come an join in!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

And Nano Poblano:

image98

And NaBloPoMo:

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll