#BlogJune for 2024… done!!!
I think 28 June blogposts, almost in a row, is close to my record, so I’m happy with that 🙂
I also found time, before church this morning, to burn off the pile of stuff that’s been accumulating over months and months now, so that was also a very fulfilling accomplishment.
And I think my fire may even have been larger than my friend Steven’s from the other day, so there’s that too 😛
Here’s wishing you a successful end of month too, dear Reader!
KRidwyn
Today was meant to be a shopping morning, followed by a party tonight.
But Miss16 decided that shopping could wait for another day, so it was ‘just relax at home’ before party instead.
De-cluttering happened. Organising happened. Numbers of Gilmore Girls episodes happened, and now I’m with Kiya in her favourite spot. And I have to agree with her, it’s one of my favourite spots too.
Here’s wishing a relaxing day for you too, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
And there’s actually no ‘good’ reason for missing yesterday’s, either! In fact, I was part-way through writing it, yesterday morning, but got distracted. And never came back, obviously 🙁
Oh well. I’m going to choose to be kind to myself rather than ‘beating myself up’ about it. There’s always today.
So here’s what I was thinking I’d share with you for today’s post: a haiku I made up this morning while feeding Kiya her breakfast. Poem inspired by a conversation with my Miss19, after whose words I’m choosing to title it. And a disclaimer: this is BAD haiku. As in… you’ll probably hate it. Sorry in advance if you do! But I find it highly amusing. So here goes:
Brain rot (?)
YouTube, TikTok meme
Sigma Meals: Skibidi Sliders!
I am the Rizz Lord.
So… whatcha think? Bad haiku, hey. I mean, who’s ever heard of an 8-syllable middle line?! Really!
Okay. I’ll show myself out. See you tomorrow, folks! (Hopefully!)
– KRidwyn
I missed a day! Sad 🙁
but a friend I hadn’t heard from in simply ages replied to a tweet and also commented on here (hi Snail!) so: happy!
Reason for missed day: my Mum had had a car accident on the 11th (hence the cryptic post because I was too emotional to write coherently) and – although she’s okay and in fact, better than okay, she’s remarkably good praise God! – I spent hours (literally) on the phone with the insurance company and that chewed up good blogpost-writing time. Sigh.
I *had* intended to post this photo (taken yesterday, when I discovered its existence!) as I found it so amusing:
I guess I’ve reached the age whereupon (ha! Check out that old word!) I receive birthday cards from politicians by virtue of not dying yet. Ummm… not sure how that makes me feel, really, but… okay?!
Have a ‘not dying’ day yourself, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
I left home at 6.45am. Arrived back at 6.15pm. That’s an 11 1/2 hour day, people!
No wonder I’m tired. And my photography skills aren’t as sharp. But hey, it is what it is 🙂
I hope your day was a shorter one, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
Better late than never, amiright? Truth be told, it wasn’t until the early hours of June 2 that I decided I was going to do the #blogJune challenge again this year. And 2024’s theme? Daily photo.
So apologies for being several hours late, but here was June the first’s:
Hope your day was similarly festive, dear Reader!
Today marks my 15th weekly blogpost. I’m pretty stoked with myself for that, because I’m not as successful as I’d like to be with creating intentional habits. But every Sunday I wake up and think ‘it’s blogpost day today’ and, so far this year, I’ve liked that thought 🙂
It’s both scary and humbling though. Externalising my thoughts, to be read by whomever wants to… but also realising that my thoughts are – quite likely – not particularly interesting enough for others to read!
Still, it’s a commitment I decided I’d make to myself, back in January, and – so far! – I’ve kept that commitment. Hopefully I’ll continue to. I’ve made it to 15 weeks! That’s more than a quarter of the year, after all 🙂
And milestones, after all, are best celebrated. Who knows when (or if?) we’ll get another one?
I’m counting down to another milestone, too. 50 laps around the sun, coming up on Friday 7th June.
50!
To tell the truth, I never actually thought I’d live this long. When I was a kid, I couldn’t see myself getting past 26. Living past the year 2000 seemed just too incedible to even believe.
Yet here we are, 24 years past that, and I’m going quite strong still, it would seem. (Well, my back’s feeling decidedly weak at the moment, but that’s probably a direct result of the burning of Hubby’s hedge annihilation pruning earlier in the week, and the cubic metre of crusher dust I’ve shifted [one metre down, one to go… note to self – get less in future!] in the last two days…)
So, that’s what I’ve been ruminating on this past week. Milestones, and how I’m blessed to have them. And I think I’d like to need to remember that!
How about you, dear Reader? What are your thoughts on milestones?
Hubby and I have had dogs for many years now. Late last year, we lost our beautiful Aksel, our 14 year old German Shepherd. Like most shepherds, it was his back hips.
Last Sunday, we lost Rocky, our 14 year old Australian Cattle dog. He had cancer 🙁
Meaning we have one dog left, our kelpie puppy Kiya.
It’s been a hard week on all of us…
See you next week, dear Reader. I hope it’s a good one for you!
And so it begins; my first blogpost of the New Year. And I’m in Melbourne, which apparently used to be called Batmania prior to being renamed back in 1837.
(And no, although it’s amusing to think of a black-winged crime fighter controlling the convicts in this area of Down Under, apparently it was named after John Batman, a leading member of the Port Philip Association and the person who negotiated a treaty with the Aboriginal elders to purchase 600,000 acres… so nothing to do with DC Comics, Inc.)
But discovering this fact the other day got me thinking about the past, and how so much of history gets forgotten, both intentionally and accidentally.
I met a lovely lady last night – my cousin’s mother-in-law. It was her 76th birthday party and our conversation had moved onto the topic of tattoos. I related the story of one of my family member’s, who’d faithfully kept a diary – until the day his girlfriend at the time found it, read it, and used it against him. Unsurprisingly, he’d decided to stop journaling, and ink his memorable events onto his skin instead. I’ve always wondered if this second method resulted in lost memories. And this saddens me.
2023 was one of those years which I’m glad has ended. And although I could blithely say “I could happily forget whole chunks of it” I know that, should I *actually* do so? Sure I’d be more free-from-pain than I am right now, but I’d also no longer be me. Our memories are what makes us who are we – and there’s lessons I learned through those painful 2023 experiences that I’m glad I won’t have to re-learn.
So here I am, starting 2024 more despondent than I can ever remember being, but intentionally trying to look for snatches of hope for a brighter year. (They *do* say when you’re down, the only way is up, right?) And hope, after all, is all we need, yes? Aren’t there a plethora of films out there whose entire premise is that hope is stronger than hate, or fear, loneliness or depression?
So that’s how I’m looking at 2024. One day at a time, one hour at a time. Trying to see the good, rather than focusing on the less-than-good of the recent past. Moving on, moving upwards. And recording it in words here on this blog, which I’m grateful to be able to do. Not everyone feels they have the luxury to record their thoughts in text, after all.
So. Here’s to a hope-full week ahead for us all, dear Reader, and I’ll see you next week 🙂
⁃ KRidwyn
PS Just cos I can: the doubledecker bus I rode from Tullarine airport to Melbourne CBD. The last time I rode on a doubledecker was in 1980 in London!
Yes, I know, it’s been 7 days already. But hey; I’ve been having a good holiday, okay?
Speaking of holidays, it’s been more of a ‘hiatus’ from this blog, hasn’t it (insert sheepish expression here). What a lovely word that is too, by the way. According to my Apple dictionary:
Hiatus, as in a ‘physical gap’, or ‘to gape’. Well, there certainly is a gaping hole in the timeline of posts on this blog! But as much as I’d like there not to be, I can’t change the past, so here’s hoping 2023 fares better for blogposts. Once a month even, perhaps?
Looking ahead, I’m also looking forward to querying again, probably around mid-March. It’s been years since dipping my toes in the querying waters, so I’m apprehensive. Well… downright terrified, truth be told. But now I’ve posted this – even if only on a sporadic blog such as this! – my brain is telling me it’s a commitment I’ll be unwilling to break. I hope…
On the reading front, I’ve challenged myself to anther 104 books this year. I absolutely LOVE that Goodreads has their ‘Reading Challenge’ function, where I can track my reading year by year. I recorded just over 110 in 2022, which I was pretty happy with. In 2023, I’m planning on the majority of those being YA, followed by MG and a smattering of adult and also non-fiction in there. Not only because those are my faves, in order, but also that’s where I’m at with the Library collection I’m trying to forge my way through at work. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how BRILLIANT my job is, yes? Teacher Librarian for a K – 12 private school, where I get to spend the school’s money on books I know the kids will love? What can be better than that? (Well, writing full time perhaps, but that’s a scary thought right there…)
Anyway, here’s hoping all this reading I’ll be doing will help the writing some. And between the writing, the reading and the job, plus a newly-graduated daughter to help negotiate the big wide world of work and university, and two younger children completing Year 11 and Year 9 in 2023… this year’s ending will probably come around quicker than even I’m expecting! I wonder what my life will look like by then?
Well, that’s it from me, dear Reader. Have a great January and “see” you in a month!
– KRidwyn