I can repeat much of what I said two years ago:
The turning of the year as always have me thinking ~ Challenges? Why? How many? Which ones? And so on.
For the last many years, challenges have come and gone on this blog and in my life in general. Some I liked, some not so much. Some were fun, some were not.
For the last many years, challenges have come and gone on this blog and in my life in general. Some I liked, some not so much. Some were fun, some were not.
This
past year has been an ungentle year ... I once heard the saying
"waiting for the other shoe to drop", well for me 2023 was a centipede.
Much - among those my family, this blog, all kinds of fun challenges,
my garden, oh so many things - have been suffering from my
lack of energy and joy in anything ...
Like 2023 and 2024 12025 has been an ungentle year of the millipede variety. Deaths in real life and in in blogland, sad stories everywhere ... the less said the better. But as for the blog challenges this day at the close of the year is a fine day to reflect a bit. Which ones are keepers, which ones are not?
Keepers
Words for Wednesday - hosted by Elephant's Child until her demise in October, it's a perfectly enjoyable writing Challenge, which I so much hope will continue.
Poetry Monday - Normally hosted by Diane. Mimi and I have taken over while Diane enjoys some family time and travels the world. Link to Mimi - Poetic fun where for some time now the clues have been taken from from 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group. This is a Facebook group with a prompt for each day of the year, but no worries, the prompts will still be here and at Mimi's blog.
IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Link - A question to answer every first Wednesday - can do!
Sunday Selections - Link - good photo fun. I will continue participating in the coming year, but maybe not every Sunday - and I'd like to combine it with
Colour of the Month - Link - It did not work out as intended, but it has grown into something different. It's a keeper.
365 days of drawing prompts - Link - Yes the same one we use for Poetry Monday. It has a Facebook group, that's neither very supportive, nor very talkative, but on the other hand quite active. The prompts are different enough to be mostly inspiring, and not too woke. And it is not streak-oriented, which is a huge positive for me. You won' see much of this on this blog, but I draw almost every day and on my dedicated drawing blog, something happens sporadically.
Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.
Sleepers
Fredagsfrustrationer / Friday Frustrations - A way to vent my grumpy so that it does not pervade the whole blog. This too has been suffering - and the grumpiness is spreading as a result - but it's going to stay.
Tirsdagstips / Tuesday Tips - Suffering, but not totally abandoned.
Duolingo* - Link - studying Japanese, Italian, and a couple of other languages this way is good fun. I'll return, as this has been suffering, and try to keep it up.
Wørdle* - the Danish edition of Wordle. I like this kind of games. They have also been suffering. Only recently I started again, now also regularly solving Minute Cryptic, a tough nut, and Lingule, where I almost never hit upon the exact language, but often enought the correct sub-family of languages to keep me interested.
Maybe-keepers
A to Z Challenge* - very stressing but also very fun. For the first year ever, I finished the challenge in 2924. I suppose. I might do a light version without signing up in 2025. I bit off a great deal more than intended with Susan's co-apprentices, but it was fun.
Not keepers
Wordle, Spelling Bee, Strands, Connections, and Tiles* - I have enjoyed solving these four for the past three and a half years, I even based this year's A-Z Challenge on Wordle, but now it's over. Tiles, The Mini Crossword and Letter Boxed are only for subscribers as of September 1st. I know that Wordle, Strands and Connections are still free to play, but for how long? For me making Tiles pay to play was the last straw.
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* Many of these Challenges are centered around maintaining a streak (participating on a consecutive series of days) the longer, the better.
For such Challenges I regularly skip a day on purpose so as not to accumulate long streaks. I do this because keeping a streak in any streak-oriented activity is a big stress-factor for me. I know I'm strange this way and that this streak-business keeps many people focussed, but I really, really hate it and wish that I could opt out of it being counted.
Challenges can be great fun, I am glad you want to keep Poetry Monday. If you ever need to skip a week, please feel free to do it, crazy things can happen, as I understand.
SvarSletThank you. I often opt out by citing an old poem - by me or by someone else, and I think I'll continue this in 2026. I hope you use the same attitude towards yourself <3
SletI have had a lack of energy and joy too, it got a bit worse after I fell over and while I have recovered I do feel more tired than I used to. Several of my neighbours of similar age are also feeling tired, we agreed that 2025 is the year we "became old"
SvarSletFor me 2023 was the year, I became old. That thrice-damned gall bladder took the snuff out of me, and I obviously am just too old to bounce back again. I might just get angry enough to do something about it in the year to come, but disasters and sad things seem to be popping up whenever I get a little better, so I'm almost afraid to give it another try.
SletI hope you have more luck bouncing back in 2026.
I was thinking the same thing just yesterday. Recently I found out Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date has ended this month and it seems kind of sad. I hadn't been participating but I was going to try to for next year but now who knows.
SvarSletIWSG - I'm thinking of stopping. Every question they post are kind of questions I don't seem to have an interest in. And anything relating to writing just seems like I don't care to talk about.
Words for Wednesday will definitely continue. If not, I'll do my own WFW.
A-Z Challenge - I'm always thinking of not doing it but end up doing it so I guess it's a matter of my mood. This is a truly tiring challenge since it's not weekly, it's every day.
I haven't done any of the other challenges you've mentioned here. But they do sound like they would be useful for those who don't have ideas what to blog.
Streak-oriented - I think I'm slacking in participating because all the challenges are weekly or daily so that sometimes it's just too much to me as well. I prefer challenges that are constant but maybe every two weeks because I find I'm always late when it's weekly. Slacking now and then is not a bad thing.
Have a lovely day.
I agree on the topic of streaks - I feel very stressed the longer the streak.
SvarSletYou do so many challenges - I admire your drive!
How true everything you write Charlotte is and how much it expresses me.
SvarSletFor me, 2024 was a very difficult year, fortunately 2025 was just difficult and I hope 2026 will be great!!
Unfortunately, lately my time is minimal and I don't follow the developments. I wish you good health, inspiration and creativity!!
I didn't know Sue had passed away, I read something on your blog but I thought maybe it was a mistake and went to Elephant Child's blog and found it. How sad, I cried for Sue. She left us her blog and we will remember her with love!
SvarSlet