The Ultimate Blog Challenge is now over, and I succeeded and failed. The challenge is to do 31 blogs – one post per day for the entire month. I failed the challenge because I wrote 26 out of 31 blog posts. But, it’s okay. The days that I didn’t write were days that I had more important things to do.

One night, I finished work late and still had a blog post to write. But, my son passed his board of review for Eagle Scout, and people were going out to celebrate. How could I miss that?

I couldn’t. So, I didn’t.

I had many successes in last month’s blog challenge. Many more ups than downs. Here are some of the things I got out of it.

• 26 Blog posts  – I am proud of that number. I wrote 24 more blog posts in December and 23 more than I wrote in November. My goal is always to complete the blog challenge, but if I don’t make it – at the very least, I have a new daily writing habit.
• New Subscribers – Welcome to my new subscribers and those who found me on Facebook. I’ve been at this for a long time, but I don’t have much of a following. So, I greatly appreciate it when people sign up to receive an email from me in their inbox on a regular basis.
• A supportive writing community – I participate in this challenge with about 40 other bloggers. I don’t know the exact number, but each is incredibly talented and passionate about their families, businesses, communities, and hobbies. I learned so much from everyone, and their support means the world to me.

The best thing about these writing challenges is that when they are over, I still love writing. I never tire of it; I’m inspired to keep going. Even though it can be lonely to sit in front of my laptop trying to come up with something to say, I feel amazing when an idea comes to mind. And when that idea turns into a post, I am excited to hit publish and put my voice out into the world. And when you like, comment, share, or text me to say how much you liked what I wrote, it’s an incredible feeling.

So, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more.

XO,

Elisa

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I was hoping to be incredibly productive on the writing front today, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I took two naps, listened to a few chapters of my book, and did some laundry. I also went through a large stack of papers that I’ve been shuffling around for months. There was a lot of trash and also a few gems that I am filing away for another day. Here are some of the things I found:

• Class notes from a digital marketing class I took last year. There are many tips and tricks that could make my work life a lot easier to manage.
• A list of writing prompts from January 2019. At one point, I must have made a list of things I wanted to write about. Some of them are no longer relevant, and others are evergreen. It’s a good list to keep around.
• A holiday card from my writing coach turned friend. She wrote, “thank you for believing in me as much as I believe in you.” Love her!
• Membership cards to Longwood Gardens. I will need those as soon as this cold weather breaks and the flowers start to bloom again.
• Bed Bath and Beyond coupons – you can never have enough of them!

Maybe my day was more productive than I thought. I managed to fill up my recycling bin with papers I no longer need, which is always good.

And maybe tomorrow I’ll have a better writing day.

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