Reflections of a Challenge

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is over, and as you can see by the new badge I am proudly displaying on my sidebar (picture that being my chest and it is a medal, will ya?) I am finished with a capital "F"! Now you know this girl likes writing "to do" lists, then crossing them off when I accomplish the tasks. Not only did I cross off each letter, I also crumpled up the yellow legal-sized piece of paper and tossed it in the garbage. Boy did that feel good when I was done!

When I stumbled upon the challenge, I thought long and hard if I wanted to get involved. I have been slowing down on my posts and have even contemplated dropping out of the blogging sphere. I started blogging when my husband and I began our life on the road - traveling in our RV - or as we like to call it, our "candominium". But once we got off of the road, I was posting less and less.

I saw the challenge and thought, "I wonder if we've traveled to places that began with every letter of the alphabet?" So, first task. I wrote the alphabet down on a piece of paper. Next I searched through our countless files of photos on the computer. I wrote down the name of the place corresponding to the letter and the date of the pictures, and would come back later to choose which pictures I would use. Right off the bat I had 24/26 letters. I thought, "I could do this!"

Not only did this challenge push me to write six posts a week, but it also brought back such wonderful memories. The experiences were only from the past eight years, but we've been to so many places that I forgot some of them! It made me realize how lucky my husband, Jim, and I were to be able to just take off and travel across the country and see so much.

Believe me, I didn't know I was lucky at the time. When my husband suggested that we sell our home, get rid of everything or store our things and hit the road, I looked at him as if he had grown two heads. But my husband is a charmer. I still recall sitting at the bottom of the steps in the foyer, crying, while he took a chainsaw to my dresser because it didn't fit down the stairs. (True, it was kind of falling apart, but still.) I thought it was symbolic of what he was doing to my heart by dragging me on the road. My family was appalled that one of their own was leaving the "nest", so to speak. I'm Italian, what can I say?

But, back to the challenge. It was fun, it was hard work, and a feeling of great accomplishment when I finished.

Thanks to Arlee Bird, the founder of  Blogging from A-Z

Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

and the hosts this year

Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs  http://amloki.blogspot.com/
Alex J. Cavanaugh http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/
Tina Downey at Life is Good  http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com/
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0  http://dlcruisingaltitude.blogspot.com/
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie  http://izombielover.blogspot.com/
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse  http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/
Matthew MacNish at The QQQE  http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small http://nothoughts2small.blogspot.com/

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs http://stephentremp.wordpress.com/

Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia  http://leaveittolivia.blogspot.com/
L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips  http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/
Nicole at The Madlab Post  http://www.madlabpost.com/