1-Million-Words

So here we are, another week gone by already! I am writing this from the South Office of work on a nice Tuesday morning, although rain is threatening for later - I won't complain as we do need it! The last couple of years we've had plenty of rain, but 2025 is starting out a lot drier and you can tell - the grass everywhere is so brown! I just want it to end by Thursday as my family and I are off to the beach for a few days, so we'd like it to be sunny! I hope the weather is as you'd like it where you are.

How are you all doing, anyway? Our Big Buddies should be at around 39% of their goal for the month - I hope you're all there, or close to it! You still have plenty of time to make up the words, anyway. Our current Long Challenge is the WIP Push, so don't be afraid to dust off something old and start adding words (or stitches! ;-)). It'll be around till the end of Feb, so you still have a couple of weeks to participate. I'll hopefully get a new post up soon with a couple more prompts for anyone interested.

Daily Count challenge people are continuing apace! YOU GUYS ROCK! I love seeing how you're all doing, even if I don't comment!

If you need extra prompts, don't forget to scroll back over the last week's entries, or check out the tags for any of the regular items that you love! We have so many good prompts in amongst them all!

Now, your flash challenge for today is: Big & bright! I'm sure you know it's Chinese New Year (CNY) around this time of year, and we are just going into Year of the Snake - I work with a few people from China and others with Chinese ancestry, so we are being treated to a morning tea by them shortly, and I am so looking forward to all the yummy food! I chose today's flash challenge because if you know anything about CNY, there's one thing it will definitely be, and that is big and bright! You don't have to write about CNY unless you want, but I'm sure you can find a few words about the prompt, or maybe just make some pretty graphics! Link or post your fill in a comment so we can all enjoy! No word/graphic minimum or maximum!

if you haven't checked in on the recent posts with the new Long Challenge (LC) and Weekend Challenge (WC) schedules, please do so, especially if you are hosting, so you can be sure the dates I have given you will work! Even if you're not involved, the LC post will be of interest if any of the upcoming challenges look like ones you want to be involved with! You can mark them in your calendar a bit early so you can start to prep beforehand, if you want, or just so you know when they're kicking off to roll up your sleeves and get into them!

And I think that's all I have! Let's be creative out there! ;-)

So it's probably still Monday where most of you are, so I'll get this party started by telling you that the title of this post* is a couple of lyric lines from a very well-known (in NZ) song that was a smash hit here a million years ago, called "Outlook for Thursday" by DD Smash. The next line seems about right for Tuesday here: "With a wind that chills you to the bone" even though we're in the midst of summer! I believe we are getting La Niña weather pattern this summer, one of the effects of which is "More north-easterly winds blow towards New Zealand, bringing rain to the northeast of the North Island". The rain hasn't hit us too hard yet, but OH BOY, those north-easterly winds are in full gear! Anything loose outside is getting blown across the garden, and it's just not pleasant to be outside in it. *sigh*

I shouldn't complain because I know how tough things are in places like California with the wild fires destroying so much, and the bitter cold and snow in other parts of the USA, but it's hard not to be disappointed in summer here so far! Anyway, I hope everyone you know is safe and well, and that none of our members and friends here have lost anything or anyone to the vagaries of the weather or fires. *hugs*

( And now to business! )

I am writing this from Monday morning at my Home Office desk; I've scheduled it for tonight because for most of you it's still Sunday! We like to get ahead of things here in NZ (yeah, right! LOL!) Anyway, thought I'd better do it while I was thinking about it, or later I'd forget (story of my life).

Speaking of which, if anyone knows where I put that one Peter Pan handwarmer (I lost the other one at the airport in May), I could use it about now, as I'm currently wearing a wrist-wrap on my right hand because every now and then it's been giving me problems, and then it will be OK, so before I waste untold $$ going to the doctor's for it where he's likely to say 'Use a wrist-wrap for a while; see if that helps', I thought I would try the $20 option. If it doesn't help after a week or so, I will bite the bullet and pay the $$. It's cool over here now, since we are mid-winter while most of you are enjoying (far too much?) heat on the northern side of the planet, and I need to keep my hands warm when temps are down as purple doesn't suit me. Who knew one handwarmer would be useful - wherever I hid it from myself must be a good hiding place... and I know I didn't throw it out because I determined I would make one to match at some point, as I'm like that. ;-)

Right, enough banter about my idiocy! What's new on your writing horizon? Anything fun you'd like to share? I have not written for months, but that's hardly news! I am WAY behind on the monthly count - the last month I counted was March!!! I need to get that fixed, but will probably wait until July ends and do the month-by-month thing then. Make sure you update your figures between now and early August to be counted! I'm excited to find out how we're doing!

Now, our current Long Challenge is a WIP Push (Thanks for hosting, simplyn2deep, you did an awesome job!), but that's about to finish, so I hope you are well onto your goal with that one, if you took part! You still have time to get a few more words in before it ends, right? The next one up is a Drabble/Icon challenge, and I happen to know that angelus2hot has got a lot of awesome posts lined up! Jump on in; I will try to do so myself, since I've missed the last couple of challenges.

Big Buddies, you should all be at around the 48% mark on your goals, so I hope you're there or above! If not, how can we help you add words? Let us know!

Daily challengers - you guys are stars! You are doing so well! Keep up the good work!

Flash Challenge: No cheering from the crowd. Use it how you will! If you have the time, link us to any creation you get from it, so we can all tell you how fabulous you are!

And don't forget to scroll back over the last week, or check out the tags for any of our regular challenges, to pick up any prompts you missed, and use them to ADD WORDS!!! I know you want to!

That's it from me; have a great Monday, and may the rest of your week have you adding words like there's no tomorrow! Let's be creative out there! ;-)