Not Much to Say

I looked back at my N posts for the two years (2012 and 2015) that I managed to successfully complete the A to Z Challenge.  They weren’t very inspiring.

I seem to struggle with N.  Maybe it’s something about being halfway through? 

For those of you participating in the challenge, do you find yourself struggling around the half-way point? 

So, since I do not have much to say today, I’ll leave you with some photos to enjoy.

Howard

Duke

Caroline

Mortimer

Naked Mole Rats

We saw these little guys for the first time on a recent trip to the zoo. I think they’re very unusual and pretty cute. What do you think of them?

Never Say Never

Are there things you’ve said (or thought) that you would never do or like that you one day find yourself doing and/or liking?

For me, yard work has turned into one of those never say never things.  As a teenager, I hated yard work.  I swore that when I had my own house I would never garden, and that I’d pay someone (that was well before I realized how much things cost) to cut the grass.  Well, never say never.

Nick and I bought our first house about three and a half years ago.  It has a very small yard, but every year I’m finding myself doing more and more in the yard.  And I find myself actually enjoying some of the yard work.  

This weekend was beautiful and warm, and Home Depot had a Spring Black Friday Sale. There’s another never say never.  I never would have thought I’d utter the words, “Home Depot is having a Spring Black Friday sale.  We should go and get things for the yard.”  But once again, never say never.

We decided to go with some raised beds in the back yard for our vegetable garden, and we are slowly mulching and planting flowers in various beds around the house.  We’re both really excited about the raised beds because we’ve read and heard a lot of good things about them. We put the first one in on Saturday, and I am ridiculously proud of it.  I only have four plants in it so far.  It’s still a little early, but I just had to go ahead and try to get started.  We’re planning to put one more in this weekend, and will be planting lettuce in it.

We had a cold snap (hopefully the last one) last night and today, so I’ve moved all of my flowers onto the porch.  Yet another thing I never thought I’d do.  I’ve already planted the more cold tolerant flowers, and I’m looking forward to planting my daisy, marigolds, and petunias as soon as it warms up a little more.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really excited about our plans for the things we want to do with the yard, and the vegetables we plan to grow. 

What about you?  Any never say never things you’ve surprised yourself with?

Not. Giving. Up.

Throughout the challenge I have noticed that my blog has been moving up the sign-up list; I started off somewhere around number 1176 (I’m not entirely positive of the exact number) and when I checked the list this afternoon I was at number 1072. So in 16 days I have moved up roughly 100 places. I assume this is due to other bloggers removing themselves from the challenge, or being removed due to non-participation.

When I first signed up I half-way expected that I would find myself removed at some point. I’ve never lasted with any structured writing program for more than a week or so. I mean to, I have good intentions, but somehow I just don’t. I signed up for the challenge in part due to getting nervous about my 30th birthday, and in part to see if I could do it.

Today’s post has been one of the hardest ones for me. I just started drawing a blank on the letter N. I was frantically googling “words that begin with n” last night in an effort to find inspiration for today’s post. On top of that, I knew that today would be really busy at work, and I have committed to a few things this week that will be keeping me pretty busy for a few hours after work today. I started to panic about my N post.

Needless to say, the thought of just skipping N crossed my mind. I began to reason that I was justifiably busy, and that I could jump right back in tomorrow with O. Maybe no one would even notice. Then I realized that M was the half-way point. I’ve already made it half-way, and it has been FUN! N has been the first letter to cause me resort to midnight googling. So I decided that I wouldn’t make it half-way only to lose to N. I decided that I would NOT be giving up.

I realized that deciding I was NOT. Giving. Up. was all well and good, but I still needed an N post. Then I realized I had it. (So I was a little slow on the up-take last night; I will plead that it was after midnight and had been a very busy weekend.) Not. Giving. Up.

So there we have it, some things are just worth not giving up on. Sure, they take time, effort, and energy, but that’s just a part of life. And things get better, they really do. I have ideas for quite a few of the letters coming up, and I will come up with something for the ones I don’t have ideas for yet. I will not give up to a single letter of the alphabet. I am Not. Giving. Up. As Winston Churchill once said, “Never, never, never, never give up.”