A is for activity

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a blog about an A-Z blogging challenge (http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com) that has been going on for a couple of years with bloggers all over the world. To accept the challenge you commit to posting something on your blog every day (except Sundays) for 26 days. You can follow the suggested theme or make up your own or just completely wing it with no theme at all. The challenge begins in April but I thought I’d get a head start trying out this idea on my own. Generally, I don’t post unless I have some motivation to share a specific topic or event. So, for me, the A-Z challenge is a writing prompter that requires my commitment and creativity for an entire month! I’m in. I’ll be following the “wing it” theme which seems the easiest way to start. So here’s my first post for the letter a for activity.

Activity in the plural defined my life in 2015. Between our relocation from Nebraska to Arizona that involved the downsizing of a good deal of our collective stuff to renovating our new old house in Tucson, nearly every day has been a flurry of activity. Most of it has been enjoyable especially the design decisions we made creating our new kitchen where most of our activity takes place (like how I used that word again?). We both love to cook and typically you can find one or the other of us (sometimes both) whipping something up in the kitchen. As I write, Jack is actively preparing a shrimp omelet for our lunch. :)

Since settling in Tucson most of our activity surrounds organizing our home and the remainder of our stuff that we didn’t sell or donate while in Nebraska. It’s hard to imagine after the massive garage sales we had in Nebraska that we’ve both made several trips to the Salvation Army with loads of items we can no longer justify keeping here in our new home. Since the move, so many things I thought I couldn’t live without were surrendered into cardboard boxes and hauled off to our local thrift store. The idea of downsizing stuff is a liberating activity to be sure though I have to admit I have purge regret about some items I parted with and remain conflicted about the righteousness of minimalism over clutter. Still debating that (may be a good topic for the letter m).

When it comes to “physical” activity, we’ve made a leap in that direction too by joining the local YMCA. It was Jack’s idea but I’m 100% actively onboard! Can’t wait to get back to a regular yoga practice and work on strength building. Enough activity already? Stay tuned for tomorrow and the letter b! Barcelona, blogging, bacon, butter, baking… so many to choose from!