Written for Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share
Weather
Happy weekend already! It’s warmed up to 36 here in Prescott, AZ. The three inches of snow that fell here last night is melted and mostly dry where it’s been shoveled. We feel like mountaineers. I looked that up to see if it was a word and yay, it is. Mountaineer – a native or inhabitant of a mountainous region.
Fitness & Exercise
My walking partner, Barbara, and I walked around the mall, one day, but most of my walking, about 10,000 steps a day has been in the house during this snowy week. I went to the gym one day for a yoga class and plan to go again. It was closed today because of the snow. I watched a video on the Silver Sneakers website today.
Yesterday Vince and I did an online class together. He thought it was way too easy and wasn’t doing anything. But I can tell a difference in my strength, balance, and a little in my breathing after just a week.
I started tracking my food on Fitbit – at least for a while. I reached Day 24 with no sweets, and Day 11 with no bread without seeing any appreciable change in weight, so I amped it up a bit to see what might be going on. It’s easy to do once you have your normal foods logged in and much easier than writing everything down. That’s way too onerous.
I sound like a normal January fitness resolution maker, don’t I? Let’s hope I can keep it up. Fitness is A much more compelling goal as you age. There’s a lot more going on to make people unfit, and my main concerns are NOT falling and BETTER breathing.
Reading
All this inclement weather sent me running to my Kindle for company, and I checked out Amazon Prime so that I don’t have to buy any books this month. I read Beyond the Moonlit Sea by Julianne Maclean.
Rough Riders published a book in 2014, I think and I started that this week. It’s so fun to read 99-word stories about different topics and themes from people you know. Well done Riders at Carrot Ranch.
I’ve also been reading a Chronological Bible for the last month or so, which feels very different than the normal Bible reading, which is a bit more random, and more interesting than reading from cover to cover. Right after the Creation story, the book took me right into the trials of poor Job who had the worst friends EVER!
Blogging & WOTY – Compelling
I published 14 posts last month and nine so far this month compared to 33 in January 2022. I participated in Bloganuary last year and didn’t this year. It was my biggest month last year. There is definitely a correlation between the number of posts published and the number of views.
My challenge, Wednesday Quotes, WQ still draws about the same rewarding participation as last year so that is lots of fun. I’m super pleased that I am keeping up with my goal of writing more poetry and have written 7 poems this month – a record for me. I can’t tell you if they are compelling or not.
I spent a lot of time experimenting with Lightroom and Canva this week and several people commented about my Canva angel. The pictures I edited today were all done in Lightroom to make them as compelling as possible. I was pleased with a couple of the pictures to which I added vignettes.
Interestingly, my Weekend Coffee Share posts do the same or better than my WQ challenge. Last week I think I visited most of the other coffee sharers and that’s my goal again this week. I will be on the road for a week, so I won’t be posting for next week’s coffee share.
Double Dips This Week
CMMC – Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge – Pick a topic from my photo – fog, weather, telescope, candid, metal wire, fence, building, lighthouse, mural, crow, bird, candid, beach, wild grass, blue, green, and silver.
My Choice
Not only that, it was taken in Oregon at one of Cee’s favorite lighthouses. It has a dog rather than a bird, but I’m sure he’s on the prowl for a bird.
CBWC – Cee’s Black & White Challenge, Brashley’s Midweek Monochrome Challenge, and Monochrome Madness for Leanne Cole – Circles & Curves for Cee, Ruins for Brashley
This week David’s guest poet, Denise, invites us to try using technology for writing poetry. This first poem is an acrostic in which they ask you to enter your name and gender. Here’s how mine came out.
I like this Marvelous Marsha. Thank you Poem Generator.
M is for Mature, you always know what to do A is for Amiable, so pleasant to be with R is for Receptive, an open mind S is for Sharp, always observant H is for Hyperactive, perpetually on the move A is for Analytical, solving problems with logic
This site has all types of poems you can create by filling in words that answer the questions the generator asks. Then the generator creates a poem using both the question and the answers you provide. If you can’t come up with a name for your band, there is even a band name generator available. I didn’t try it. Shala la la la la!
Lighthouses
By Biker Dudes An Original Song I get on with life as a explorer, I'm an adventurous kinda person. I like mountain climbing and parasailing. I like to contemplate lighthouses. But when I start to daydream, My mind turns straight to beach. Shala la la la la la! I like to use words like 'awesome' and 'right on.' I like to use words about lighthouses. But when I stop my talking, My mind turns straight to beach. Shala la la la la la! I like to hang out with Crock O. Dial and Jenny Rater. But when left alone, My mind turns straight to beach. Shala la la la la la! I hate thistles and splinters. But I just think back to beach, And I'm happy once again. Shala la la la la la!
Next, I used the Word Contraction Generator. I learned: what a portmanteau is and some common ones like Emotion + icon = Emoticon “A portmanteau word is a contraction of two words or a group of words.” After a while the portmanteau becomes so familiar you don’t always know what the original words were.
To try it, I chose the words ankle and bracelet. This one made me cringe – BRACANKLE. Would you use the word ANKLBRA? ANKLET is what they are really called. I looked it up to make sure because the word also means a short sock.
Denise also suggested using Random Word Generator. This was fun, too. You can create several words, but I just did one starting with the letter R and ending with the letter K, having 9 letters. There were no such words. When I shortened the number of letters to 6, the word generated was reebok – small South African antelope.
What great learning tools for children, particularly the last one for learning vocabulary.
Chilled Coffee
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to get up and down so many times during our visit, that my coffee got chilly. I hope you’ve had a wonderful and productive week. If you get a chance please visit my WQ post and share a Belly Laugh or two. You’ll be healthier at the end of the post. You know what “they” say about laughter!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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