WEEKLY GRATITUDE JOURNAL: WEEK 1

Having seen this on a few different blogs of fellow bloggers & in the interest of staying positive and grateful during stressful situations, I’ve decided to begin a gratitude journal to remind me of the good things that have happened me and the good people in my life!

This Monday I’m grateful for:

• My incredibly clever oldest daughter who got a letter off commendation & her name in the school hall of fame from her principle last week for her good behaviour & appetite for learning. Only in Junior Infants but already setting high standards.
• The gift of laughter. I never stopped laughing at Neil Delamare’s “Delamarium” gig in the Tullamore Court Hotel Saturday night gone by. The guy is both really sharp and very funny! 😁🙏😂
• For completing my 1st ever competitive 5k on Sunday past over at Banagher A.C’s Offaly 5k Road Race in a very satisfactory time of 20:47. All the hard training starting to pay off!

That’s it for this week’s Gratitude Journal. Please tune in next Monday for more of the same.

SUNDAY BLOG RECAP

Hey folks! It’s long overdue but welcome back to my Sunday Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere. So without further ado, let’s get cracking! 👍😁

On Monday; Wednesday; Friday & Saturday morning I shared 4 motivational running quotes with ye. You’ll find the links to them below: 👇

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/running-owning-the-road/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/running-lets-go/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/10/running-seeking-out-new-sights-under-your-own-power/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/11/running-for-those-who-keep-going/?preview=true

Also on Monday, I posted my 1st poetic offering of the week titled: “Furry Fashion Accessory” written in response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. Here’s the link to it:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/furry-fashion-accesory-sadjes-whatdoyousee-wdys-poetry-image-prompt-176/?preview=true

On Tuesday I published 2 new poems titled: “A STILTED INHALE OF AIR” & “MAGICAL HIDEAWAY; TRICK OF REFLECTION written in response to d’Verse’s latest Quadrille Prompt & Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge respectively. The links to them are below: 👇👇👇

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/07/a-stilted-inhale-of-air-dverse-quadrille-171-gasp/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/07/magical-hideaway-trick-of-reflection-tanka-tuesday-poetrychallenge-310/?preview=true

Then on Wednesday I composed a poem in honour of INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY titled Woman (More To You Than Meets The Eye). You’ll find the link to it here:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/woman-more-to-you-than-meets-the-eye-international-womens-day/?preview=true

On Thursday I published my 5th & 6th poems of the week titled: SERIOUS PLAY OR SILLY REDISCOVERY: d’Verse Poetics Prompt (Playtime) & STAINED CERAMICS; CAFFEINATED BURN: Weave Written Weekly: w3 Prompt #45 respectively. You’ll find the links to them below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/09/serious-play-or-silly-rediscovery-dverse-poetics-prompt-playtime/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/09/stained-ceramics-caffeinated-burn-weave-written-weekly-w3-prompt-45/?preview=true

Lastly but by no means the least I published my final poem of the week titled: “A Timorous Type of Equity” written in response to Reena’s latest Xploration Challenge. Here’s the link to it:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/03/11/a-timorous-type-of-equity-ragtag-daily-prompt-friday-reenas-xploration-challenge-271/?preview=true

Well, that’s all for this week folks! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog. 🙏😁 Sincerely hope ye enjoyed the catch up! 🤞🤞🙏🙏 Until next Sunday, mind yourselves; stay creative and take care!

SUNDAY BLOG RECAP

Hey folks! Welcome back to my Sunday Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere! 🙏😁 Hope ye’re all having a wonderful weekend! 🤞🙏😊 So without further ado we’ll get cracking with it!

On Monday; Wednesday; Friday & Saturday morning I shared 4 motivational running quotes with ye that, hopefully inspired ye! Here’s the links to them:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/running-easy-to-quit-hard-to-keep-going-remind-yourself-why-you-do-it/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/running-escape-peace-freedom/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/24/running-melting-away-your-worries-with-timeless-beauty/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/running-embracing-who-you-are-its-in-your-dna/?preview=true

On Tuesday I published 2 new poems written in response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt & d’Verse’s latest Quadrille Prompt respectively. You’ll find the links to them below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/setting-our-words-on-fire-sadjes-whatdoyousee-wdys-poetry-image-prompt-174/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/spinning-around-our-world-dverse-quadrille-music-is-my-refuge/?preview=true

Then on Wednesday I published my 3rd poetic offering of the week with my response to d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt encouraging us to compose a poem on the theme of kisses & kissing. Here’s the link to it:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/a-tender-kiss-of-intimate-desire-dverse-poetics-prompt-prelude-to-a-kiss/?preview=true

On Thursday we made a welcome return to my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings which this week featured a recitation of “Paint Me A Picture (With Words).” This was followed up later in the day by last poem of the week titled: “The Ultimate Question” written in response to a picture prompt at Reena’s Xploration Challenge #268. You’ll find the links to them below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/23/throwback-thursday-poetry-readings-painting-pictures-with-words/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/23/the-ultimate-question-reenas-xploration-challenge-268/?preview=true

We finished off the week’s blog posts with a blog on my favourite poetry quotes that provoked much thought & debate which is exactly the point of it all. It’s titled: “Poetry: A Withheld Form of Clarity or Misunderstood Communication”. The link to it is here:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/02/24/poetry-a-withheld-form-of-clarity-or-misunderstood-communication/?preview=true

So folks, that’s it for the catch up this week. Thanks very much for stopping by & reading the post. Hope ye all enjoyed the Recap, tell your friends about my blog and tune back in next week for more of the same. 😁🙏😊🤞

BLOG GOALS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Hey folks! Hope ye all had a lovely weekend! 🤞🙏 Welcome back to my weekly Blog Goals for the Week Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week. Hope it helps inspire & motivate ye as much as it does me! 🤞🙏😁

I’ve already posted my 1st motivational running quote of the week for ye earlier and there’ll be 3 more where they came from on Wednesday; Friday & Saturday mornings. So please tune in for them! 🙏😁

Tomorrow, with it being Valentine’s Day and all that, will be all about the love. Will be doing a special reblog of my popular “Love Is…” poem featuring my own reflections on love. Hope ye will enjoy reading that again or perhaps for the 1st time!

It’s also, strangely enough, the 4th anniversary of my mum’s passing. So I’ll also be reposting a poem called “Freeze Time” reflecting on my then wish to stop time and prevent her death from ever happening. And showing some poetic love to ye guys and gals for all the support

On Wednesday, I hope to respond to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt and d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt respectively. Should you wish to participate in Sadje’s prompt then you can access it through the following link: https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2023/02/13/what-do-you-see-173-13th-february-2023/

From Thursday onwards, I’ve nothing planned as kids will be off school so difficult to plan stuff. However, I’ll still be responding to various poetry prompts from Moonwashed Weekly Prompt to Ragtag Daily Prompts to Reena’s Xploration Challenge & WeaveWrittenWeekly etc whenever the opportunity & inspiration arises.

On Sunday, I’ll be rounding it all up with my regular Sunday Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. I trust you’ll all join me for that & keep following for regular updates. Thanks again for your support; encouragement and feedback.

BLOG GOALS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Morning folks! Hope ye all had a lovely weekend! 🤞🙏😁 Welcome back to my weekly Blog Goals for the Week Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week. So, without further ado.

First up today, after this blog of course, will be my 1st motivational running quote of the week followed by 3 more on Wednesday; Friday & Saturday morning. Hope they will inspire you all in some way. 🤞🙏🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️😁

Then tomorrow, I plan to publish 2 poems for ye’re enjoyment. The first one of which will be titled AFFECTIONATELY HEADSTRONG inspired by my youngest girl: Ava! 😁 This will be followed by my response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. If you want to participate in the prompt then you can access it through the following link:

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2023/02/06/what-do-you-see-14/

On Wednesday, I hope to publish another poem which will be written in response to d’Verse’s latest Quadrille Prompt.

Then on Thursday, I plan to recite the poem I wrote around this time last year titled LOVE IS… for my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings which for the next 3 weeks is going to feature readings on the subject of love & loss. Then later in the day I’ll be posting my response to d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt

On Friday I hope to respond to some of the other prompts on here such as Moonwashed Weekly Prompt; Reena’s Xploration Challenge &/or WeaveWrittenWeekly over at the Skeptic’s Kaddish. And maybe return to my Poetry Quotes reflection blog?!

On Saturday, we’ll have one more poem for the Week which will be followed up by my regular Blog Recap on Sunday with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Hope you enjoyed the read and come back next Monday for more of the same. 🤞🙏😁📖

BLOG GOALS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Good morning folks! Welcome back to my weekly Blog Goals for the Week Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week. It’s been a while but it’s a big week ahead. So, without further ado.

Later on today, along with Friday & Saturday, I’ll be posting my regular motivational running quotes for ye guys. On Wednesday I’ll also be celebrating/recognising my 1 year running anniversary with a special post. Later on that day, I’ll hopefully be responding to d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt.

On Tuesday, I’m going to give the Haibun Monday a go and I’ll be responding to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. Should you wish to participate in the prompt then you can access it through the following link:

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2023/01/30/what-do-you-see-171-31-january-2023/

On Thursday, I’ll be beginning my first in a series of Throwback Thursday Spoken Word readings for the month on the theme of love & loss given that Valentine’s is 2 weeks from tomorrow and also the date my mum passed away. So, please tune in for that.

Later on in the week I plan on responding to Ragtag Daily Prompts; Moonwashed Weekly Prompts & hopefully Wea’ve Written Weekly over at The Skeptic’s Kaddish. And on Sunday I’ll be doing my regular Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week.

That’s all the plans & goals for the moment. I’ll keep you posted on any updates or changes to this of course. Thanks again for all ye’re support; feedback and encouragement. Until next Monday, mind yourselves; stay creative and take care. 🙏😁

SUNDAY BLOG RECAP

Afternoon folks! Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend! 🙏🤞😁 Welcome back to my weekly Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere. So, without further ado.

On Monday; Wednesday; Friday morning and Saturday evening I shared 4 motivational running quotes with ye. Here’s the links to them:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/running-the-frustration-of-an-injury/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/18/road-running-unreasonably-crazy/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/20/running-bad-weather-good-time-to-run-dont-wait/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/21/running-we-dont-hibernate-or-stand-still-we-run-on-our-outdoor-threadmill/?preview=true

Also on Monday I published the 1st of my poems for the Week titled EYE’VE BEEN WATCHING YOU written in response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/eyeve-been-watching-you-sadjes-whatdoyousee-wdys-poetry-image-prompt-169/?preview=true

No posts on Tuesday but on Wednesday I published my 2nd poem of the week titled RUNNING INTO THE BLIZZARD composed in response to d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt: The Blizzard of the Self

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/18/running-into-the-blizzard-dverse-poetics-prompt-the-blizzard-of-the-self/?preview=true

Then on Thursday I posted my 3rd poetic offering of the week titled INDISPOSABLE TIME written in response to that day’s Ragtag Daily Prompt

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/19/indisposable-time-ragtag-daily-prompt-disposable/?preview=true

This was followed up later in the day by d’Verse’s Prosery Prompt: EVERYTHING IS STITCHED challenging us to write a piece of fiction based on a given line of poetry. It’s titled: STITCHED IN BLUE and the link to it is below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/19/stitched-in-blue-dverse-prosery-everything-is-stitched/?preview=true

On Friday I published my final poem of the week titled THE TWO FACES OF NEW BEGINNINGS composed in response to Reena’s Xploration Challenge (Janus: The god of January) and Moonwashed Weekly Prompts (Evolve) respectively. Here’s the link to it:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/20/the-two-faces-of-new-beginnings-reenas-xploration-challenge-264/?preview=true

That’s us all up to date for this week folks! 👍 Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me on my catch up, hope ye enjoyed the read! 🤞🙏😁📖

RUNNING: THE FRUSTRATION OF AN INJURY!

Ha! That was me last month! 😂😛👍

SUNDAY BLOG RECAP

Hey folks! Welcome back to my weekly Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere! 👍😁 So, without further ado.

First up, on Monday gone by, I published my 1st poem of the week titled: CERAMIC OR BUST written in response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. You can access it through the following link: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/ceramic-or-bust-sadjes-whatdoyousee-wdys-poetry-image-prompt-168/?preview=true

On Tuesday I posted 2 poems, the first of which was titled: EM-BOLD-EN, composed in response to d’Verse’s most recent Quadrille Prompt which encouraged us to write a piece using the word: BOLD or a variation thereof. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/10/em-bold-en-dverse-quadrille-167-bold-ly-go/?preview=true

This was followed up by my attempt at a Tanka Tuesday image prompt where Colleen encouraged us to write a poem in response to a wintry; snow themed image titled SNOWCAPPED BEAUTY. You’ll find the link to it below: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/10/snowcapped-beauty-tanka-tuesday-weekly-poetry-challenge-no-302/?preview=true&preview_id=4550&preview_nonce=70bc03db8b

Then on Wednesday I published a poem titled: CHASING DREAMS written in response to a combination of d’Verse’s latest Poetics & Wea’ve Written Weekly’s prompt on the theme of Visions & Dreams respectively. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/11/chasing-dreams-weave-written-weekly-dverse-poetics-prompt-visionary-poetry/?preview=true

On Thursday I returned to my motivational running quotes blog posts with a quote encouraging us to KEEP GOING. You’ll find the link to it here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/12/running-keep-going/?preview=true

This was followed up later in the day with my 5th poem of the week titled: PROVOCATIVE LITERARY AGITATION written in response to a Moonwashed Weekly Prompt. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/12/provocative-literary-agitation-moonwashed-weekly-prompt-125/?preview=true

Then on Saturday I posted my final blog posts of the week with a motivational running quote and a Ragtag Daily Prompt poem (titled BLURRING THE LINES) respectively. Here’s the links to them:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/running-taking-your-power-back/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/blurring-the-lines-ragtag-daily-prompt-saturday-blur/?preview=true

That’s all for this week folks! Thanks for stopping by taking the time to read and comment on my posts. Your support and feedback is much appreciated! 🙏😊😁

RUNNING DOWN A…

Not back running yet (least not in the New Year) due to sickness. But I did promise a post with a running theme while also wanting to carry on with the New Year/dreams/goals theme of the last few days. It got me thinking what had a title featuring the word “running” and “dream” in it? And it brought to mind 1 of my all time favourite rock songs from the unmistakable Mr. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: “Runnin’ Down A Dream”.

Chorus

“Yeah, runnin’ down a dream that never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream…

Verse 2

I felt so good, like anything was possible…”

It’s that time of year where we chase after our dreams with fresh energy and purpose. Even though it also seems to remains just out of our reach, we follow it all the same wherever it leads us. As it seems like “anything is possible”. And anything is, if you keep plugging away at it! 👍😁

Whether it’s your exciting business idea; get a new job; your promise to finally write that book you’ve always been talking about; that itch to travel the world; build a new house; find love; get back out onto the road or into the gym, we all have those hopes and dreams that won’t go away.

Keep chasing after them folks; keeping running them down with all you’ve got, no matter how difficult; painful; expensive or elusive it may seem. They were put in your heart & mind for a reason, they give you purpose and a reason to get up in the morning. That’s enough to keep anyone running & dreamin’.