Taking on the #AtoZChallenge

Now that I’m settling into my blogging career, I’m noticing something – bloggers love challenges.

There are all kinds of them out there: the Daily Blog Challenge, the 30-day Blog Challenge, NaBloPoMo, the Photo Blogging Challenge, the Student Blogging Challenge, the Ultimate Blog Challenge. (The more I type the word “challenge” the more it looks like its spelled wrong.)

Although I’ve never done one, I can see the appeal. Writing is tough. Seriously. Most days, I sit down with my laptop, stare out the window and think, “…. oh look, a squirrel …” I’m amazed I’ve only written about squirrels once given how often I contemplate their daily activities.

In an effort to push myself a little harder, I’m going to jump in and do my first blogging challenge. I think I picked a fun one. It’s the April A to Z Challenge.

My mission is to blog every day in April (except Sundays) and use each letter of the alphabet as a prompt – so April 1 is “A,” April 2 is “B,” and so on. You’re smart people, you get it.

I have a theme of sorts. I’ll give you two guesses. No, it’s not squirrels. No, it’s not my kids. Although squirrels and kids combined could be interesting…Nope, too late. I’ve already chosen a theme: song titles.

Music is a big part of my life. I listen to it as much as I can, wherever I can. Sometimes I even listen to it in the can. So, song titles seem like a natural fit for this challenge.

In most cases, I won’t be writing about the songs themselves so much as how they fit into certain times and places in my life.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks coming up with posts ideas and jotting down notes, and I have to say, this challenge is a lot harder than I originally thought. My memories aren’t cross-referenced with an alphabetical list of songs. I’ve had to reach deep down in some cases. Like the letter J. I’m really struggling with that one. M is also a little sketchy at this point.

What this challenge means to you is you will be getting a lot more of me; roughly five times more. I apologize in advance if this is more of me than you signed up for.

It also means you get to zig-zag with me through some of the best and worst music the 80s and 90s had to offer. I hope you liked Amy Grant as much as I did. If not, I apologize in advance for “Baby Baby.”