If we were having coffee – 16 April 2016

Hello come on in! Would you like to have a nice cup of tea? And what about some fruit? Little one and I went to the market this morning and bought some fruit for the weekend (it won’t last longer than that).

If we were having coffee, then I would ask you how your week has been. Did you do anything exciting? Do you have any thing planned for the weekend, the week to come?

Solveig's MugIf we were having coffee, then I would tell you about my past week. Last Sunday my best friend came to visit. We spend a lot of time talking about my mom, kids, work, our childhood memories and other things. S was so kind and cooked us a Gratin Dauphinois and we had a good salad and steamed leeks, maybe one day I’ll share some recipes… All four of us went for a good walk in the park, little one and I actually went for two on Sunday as it was such a beautiful day.

During the week I spend quite a lot of time in sandboxes and on playgrounds. There is a playground about 5 minutes from our apartment, and I have managed to meet 2 stay at home moms in 2 days! One of them I actually met two days in a row. So this means that I am maybe on a good path to start making some mommy friends. I also found out this week that little one is very very very very tall for her age, she is as tall or taller than the 3 year old kids and she is 26 months old… I am sure wondering how tall she will be once she starts school in September 2017, as she already has the height (or is taller) of all the kids that are in the first year of the Ecole Maternelle as it is called here. Little one has suddenly started to be very interested in other kids, and she loves playing with them, which is great to watch.

But I don’t want to be one of those moms that only bores her friends with her kid’s adventures… I worked very little during the week, and will work even less in the two weeks to come as it will be the school holidays. This means that I have all the time in the world to write my blog, read, comment, and reply to comments (I did catch up a tiny bit on the last point). I will also start seriously applying for writing jobs/pitch stories, because after all that was why I did start my blog in the first place. Let me rephrase that, I felt that I needed to get my writing back on track, build a portfolio, an online presence before I could dare applying for writing jobs. Now, my blog has been around for a little more than a year and I think that it is about time to put this project into action. No more procrastinating (I do far too much of that).

To beat the habit of procrastinating, I have finally given myself the symbolic kick in the butt and put up a page in English about my German lessons, it was about time… Oh and then today, I decided I needed those some visible links in my sidebar. I signed up for a Canva account and made some badges, I also made a header/logo to go with my Discovering Traditions guest series.

If we were having coffee, then I would ask you if you would like to be my guest for Discovering Traditions  one day. And as you are probably a fellow blogger I would tell you that I have managed to be on time for the A to Z Challenge. I would ask you if you are participating too. Are you? I would confess that at the moment there is no O word in my head yet.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I decided to join StoryADay in May, not all stories will be posted here (because one day I want to publish a short story collection), but some (here you can find some of my short stories). In order to keep up with the challenge I might participate in more short story linkups than I usually do. I will probably join #BlogBattle a bit more often, I just read last night that there is a new website for it, and that it will probably take place less often, which will leave participants and readers more time to read.

If we were having coffee, then I would thank you for the fact that you have lend me your ears for such a long post. If the weather will be nice this weekend (we have a mixture of sun and rain, sometimes hail at the moment) I will most likely be outside soaking up the sun.

If we were having coffee, then I would tell you to head over to Diana’s blog Part Time Monster to check out her post and the linkup, you should join too!


© Solveig Werner 2016. All rights reserved.

30 thoughts on “If we were having coffee – 16 April 2016

  1. Sounds like you had a good week! Can you tell me a little bit about the story challenge? Is it like the A to Z? I clicked on the link but it says write on a Wednesday and then gives a prompt. Is that what it is? Since I’m so new to blogging I like to try these challenges to help motivate me to write! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Hey, well I have not done the storyaday challenge before, but it does not necessarily have to be posted on your blog. You can find more on it here http://storyaday.org/faq/
      If you are looking for blogging events/prompts for blog posts then you might like these two posts that I did in the past.

      https://solveigwerner.com/2016/01/27/great-blogging-events-part-1-weekly-events/
      and
      https://solveigwerner.com/2016/02/10/great-blogging-events-part-2-fortnightly-monthly-and-yearly-events/

      there are many more and I will probably do a 3rd part one day in the future 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  2. We sound as though we’re in very similar writing places. I’ve got to make myself sit and do some of the hard writing. A to Z has been pretty good for me, though, because I haven’t really written this much since I left grad school. Now that I’m writing again every day, I can switch up the subject matter in May, I hope, and use the time I’ve been working on A to Z for other writing while the blog publishes 3 days a week instead of 6.

    Hope you’re enjoying the weekend!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I wrote a whole lot during my undergrad degree, writing for the degree, writing music related things and things for myself, but then grad school happened and I gradually stopped to write. I had to write a lot less in my Master’s degree than during my BA, besides a big research paper at the end of the year… For some reason my graduate degree did slow my writing and cut off my writing energy for quite some time.
      You should have more guests 🙂
      I am probably going to start doing interviews on my blog starting May, would you be interested in being interviewed? I’d love to have you 🙂 (I am staring to do a little list of bloggers/and non-bloggers who I would like to interview).

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ah—because I was working on a degree in literature, I wrote quite a lot during my graduate school career. Reading and writing were really the bread-and-butter of what I was doing.

        And I’d love to do an interview! I’m glad it’ll be in May, though, because I think April has reached its capacity!

        Liked by 1 person

  3. It was great the weather was nice and you could take walks with your daughter. Don’t dispear about her height now. In grade school I was the tallest one in my class, but I had my height by the seventh grade, 5 feet / 2 inches.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I am not worried about it, I am rather proud as she takes after her mom, we are quite tall in our family (my dad is 196cm and one of my cousins on my mom’s side of the family was 205cm at the age of 16…).

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Sounds like a delightful week with your little one. I wish you the best with your writing pitches. Obstreperous has always been a favourite “o” word. it probably wouldn’t fit with your theme though. Why would it? It’s obstreperous!

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Your week sounds quite nice. I remember when my children were little, how nice it was to connect with other moms and compare notes. Giving your little one a chance to learn how to play with others is so important too. I think that if you have been procrastinating on your writing, it is because you’ve been busy experiencing your daughter’s childhood-a very worthy reason!
    I have looked over the other post on your “Discovering Traditions” series and I have been thinking of what I might contribute. I will get back to you when I come up with an idea. It is such an interesting series!! Enjoy your week. We are having lovely weather here too and I plan to spend my Sunday outdoors.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I did spend a lot of time this weekend (real weekend was Sunday/Monday for me) outside and napping. I do think that there is a lot of wanting to be a good mom for my kiddo that interferes with my writing, but I think that I am getting back on track.
      Please do check out discovering traditions.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Hi Solveig, nice to hear about your week. I’ve been in the playground too! I’ve started a job at my local primary school so looking after kids at lunchtimes… By the way I was a bit curious what is a Canva account?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I really hope that you enjoy looking after the kiddies 🙂 so you changed jobs again? I remember that at Christmas you took a job in retail, right?
      Canva is a great way of making logos/badges/beautiful pictures/infographics and stuff check it out here https://www.canva.com you can sign up with your google+ or Facebook account
      Sacha Black did a great post about why bloggers should make use of it https://sachablack.co.uk/2015/12/28/5-mind-boggling-reasons-canva-is-your-blogging-design-heaven/

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much Solveig, I shall have check out Sacha’s canva post….. Yes the retail job was just temporary over Christmas. I’m trying out different things work wise but the problem is I just want to write, and blog! So difficult to settle to anything really… Ah, such is life! Have to make a few pennies somehow!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Ah I feel your pain. Now we all have to find a way to make money with our writing and blogging 🙂 If we work hard we’ll get there 🙂
          Well observing kids will give you many stories to write about, maybe some will be happy to listen to your stories?

          Liked by 1 person

  7. When my youngest left the nest in 2008, it was supposed to be my time to concentrate on my writing. Well, before I could settle into a life living alone, along came grandson number one and my time was no longer mine. Things happen. Life goes on. Your writing time will come.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I am sure that it will come, after all it has come back after a big break… I actually forgot about the fact that I loved writing and wrote all the time for a few years, it really is strange how things work out.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. It is so important to make mommy friends when your kids are small. I hope you’ve found some good, supportive ones, with fun playmates for your little one. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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