Bloganuary – what the heck is that?
Finally I am joining in with a post for Bloganuary, it’s only taken me 10 days or so to get myself into gear!
So what’s it all about? I first saw this WordPress challenge mentioned on Hugh’s View and News and then kept seeing other favourite bloggers participating, so joined up. I have great memories of previous challenges run by WordPress, some many years ago, which brought a lot of bloggers together and inspired our collective creativity.
If you haven’t heard the news, WordPress is running Bloganuary during the whole month of January.
By participating in Bloganuary, you’ll get access to the Bloganuary community site, where you can meet and get to know others working toward similar blogging goals. You can share tips, learn from others, reach a new audience for your blog, and make some new blogging friends. Click here for more details.
Welcome to our first ever Bloganuary! (from WordPress)
Our goal is to start a fun challenge to help jump start your blogging habits in the new year while connecting you with other great bloggers from around the world. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
What to expect
Each and every day during the month of January, we’ll post a prompt to our community site, as well as sending it out via email. The prompts will either be a question or a directive, helping to serve as inspiration for your blog content that day.
Daily Prompts
Every day an email comes in with the daily prompt and I look at it and throw a few ideas around and move on. I may have already had a post scheduled for that day or it didn’t grab me enough to write a post, or I may have be too busy doing other things – life you know?
5 Things I’m grateful for
But yesterday the prompt was What are 5 things you’re grateful for today? and it got me thinking. I didn’t want to just write about the ordinary things I’m grateful for so I came up with this list in no particular order:
- My legs – they are strong! I may be 61 years old but I rode a PB yesterday on our rail trail 21kms in 51 minutes. It helped that I was trying to catch up to a group, including a guy riding a penny farthing, and they’d started out about 40 minutes ahead of me. I worked hard the whole way and felt strong and capable!
- Inside plumbing – I saw this old outside dunny at a friend’s place last week and it took me back to the day we had one of these in our backyard. This particular one is now used as a gardening shed, it looks so iconic doesn’t it? I’m so grateful for inside plumbing!
- Blogging connections – What would I be without my blogging connections? The linkups, the meet-ups, the sharing, the comments, the support – it all makes it such a wonderful community to belong to. This photo is from my online bookclub’s latest baking session – at the end of each book we get together over Zoom and cook something from the book’s time period. It’s always a fun session as you can see by our happy faces.
- Wedding Anniversary – This weeks sees The Mathematician and I celebrate 42 years of marriage! Isn’t 42 the meaning of life?? I’m grateful for all the years we’ve spent together.
- Tea – I am so grateful for tea throughout the day and to my friends who know how I love tea and buy me some fabulous tasting ones to stretch my taste buds. This Gypsy Rose tea is delightful!
So there you have it 5 things I’m grateful for apart from the usual suspects like my family and friends!
And of course I’m grateful to the Bloganuary challenge! Whether I’ll continue to respond to the daily prompts in this way will have to be seen, but it keeps my mind active at least!
What are you grateful for?
Happy Tuesday 🙂
Deb
Latest posts from Deb’s World:
- I’d rather be… #SundayStills
- That empty feeling when you finish a series #WOYBS
- Tell Us About…Scent
- You’re amazing just the way you are
- The Nation of Deb’s World
You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.
Everyone has a story to tell! Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. She never imagined being Granny Debs would bring so much joy to her life! You can read more of Deb’s story here
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Deb's World 
Welcome to Bloganuary and the sub-clique of people participating but not commiting to the long haul of daily posts.
Your five items are inspiring … and I learned a new word: dunny!
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Thanks Sandy, I’m not into daily posts very often but I like the idea of dipping my toes in and out as the whim takes me! Yes I wondered if ‘dunny’ would translate 🙂
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Happy Anniversary Deb! What a wonderful relationship you and the Mathematician have. Thanks also for writing about #bloganuary and you’ve inspired me to join in. I don’t know if I can do every day but it is fun to have some prompts to follow. I’m grateful that you are my friend. xx
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That’s fabulous Sue! I’m not doing it every day either but every now and again is good to keep the creative juices flowing! I’m grateful you are my friend and cheerleader too xx
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I’m sure you will do Day 11 though LOL 🙂 It is right up your alley xx
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Hi Deb – a lovely fun post – and it’s so important to focus on the simple pleasures of life. We used to have an outside dunny at our beach house when I was a kid – complete with the guy who came to empty the drum! Gross!! Congrats on the wedding anniversary – it’s so lovely to share your life with someone who still loves you after 40+ years 🙂
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Yes the simple things are often most important and can be overlooked Leanne. Yes the poor old ‘dunny men’ how good is it that most of that is now history! I’m hoping he still loves me after all these years 🙂
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I love your interpretation! Appreciating your legs kept me reading as I feel the same way! Great motivation on your ride.
Happy anniversary and cheers to tea! Donna
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Thanks Donna, my legs can do a lot and I’m so grateful for that 🙂
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Happy 42nd Wedding Anniversary, Debbie & TM!
Congratulations on your Personal Best ride yesterday – that’s an awesome time — especially when if followed another strenous workout.
Love, love, love the blogging connections!
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Yes Donna, where would we be without those connections. Thanks for the awesome photo and congrats on our 42 years of wedded bliss :). I was well worn out yesterday when I rode home with a total of 42+ kms under my belt and an early morning workout!
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Happy Anniversary Deb. I love your Bloganuary post. It’s good for our soul to look at what we are grateful for in our lives occasionally. I’ve been writing Bloganuary posts but haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do with them. The prompts have been great. I won’t be using them in January, that all I’m sure about.
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Thanks very much Jen, it was a good one to do for Bloganuary! I like looking at different things to be grateful for, hence my photo of the outside dunny 🙂
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Happy 42nd Anniversary. This fun idea.
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Many thanks, the daily prompts have offered some good ideas 🙂
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Happy Wedding Anniversary! What a lovely set of things to be grateful for. Thanks for the link to Blogauary – have just joined.
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Thank you. SO many things to be grateful for, it was hard to pick just 5 but as i had taken that shot of the outside dunny, I knew it had to feature!
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That picture of the ‘dunny’ made me smile and reminded me of a tv show that my kids used to like called ‘Round the Twist’! Do you know the programme?
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Yes Round the Twist was a favourite of my kids too! Such a good show back in the day 🙂
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Thanks so much for the mention and the pingback, Debbie. And congratulations on your 42nd wedding anniversary.
I remember some of my aunts and uncles having outside lavatories. Some of them also lived in houses that initially came without a bathroom. All washing was done in the kitchen, which often contained a big tin bath with a wooden board over the top used for chopping vegetables and placing kitchen items on. So I’m with you in that I am grateful for indoor plumbing and a separate bathroom.
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My pleasure to share a link to your post Hugh, I wouldn’t have found the challenge unless you’d mentioned it! Thanks for the congrats too, 42 years is a very long time, I was only 19 at the time!
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Congrats on 42 years of wedded bliss…Great response to the #bloganuary prompt…Love the image of the funny I remember that well down the bottom of my grandparents garden…:)
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Thanks Carol, I’ll be honest and say they’ve not all been wedded bliss 🙂 but we’re still together so that says a lot! The dunny deserved to be featured for sure.
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Indeed it did, Debbie and I think we can all say that its not all been wedded bliss..lol
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Wonderful things to be grateful for Debbie. The simple things that make life worth living. I am the same with the challenges, I have them planned in my head and just never get my fingers to the keyboard in time. I am just enjoying everyone else’s posts at the moment with a few original posts of my own
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Oh yes many congratulations on your wedding anniversary.. you obviously chose a keeper!
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We both did 🙂 Thanks!
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Thanks Ali, you are doing well considering you are away from home too!
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Thanks Debbie, I did buy myself a MacBook to help with blogging ! Too hard on my iPad
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Great move, I love my Mac!
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I wish you very happy anniversary dear.
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Many thanks 🙂
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What a wonderful expression of gratitude! I love teas of different types and understand your gratitude. This is one of the bloguanuary prompts that I posted on, too.
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Thanks for stopping by Michael, it’s a great way to see what others are posting about and the challenge is just that – a challenge!!
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