What I learned as I made my way through the A to Z Challenge

I am a survivor!

The A to Z Blogging Challenge is over!  I DID enjoy it. But it sure did not meet up to the expectations of what  I had felt was going to happen. There was NOT a surge of new visitors to my blog. In fact there were days that No one from the A to Z Blogging  visited me. That did not stop me, however, from making it all the way to the finish line. I hate to leave things un-done.When I start something I usually finish.  But I did not start this challenge to increase visitors to my blog. That would have been nice. We all like to know that people are reading what we have to say and making comments.  I think the challenge is probably mostly for REAL writers, of which I am not. Maybe it was my topic. I wrote about places that I have visited in the past. Maybe people just don't find that all that interesting  But I DID follow the rules. And I am proud of that. And I have started following a lot of blogs that I did not read before. And some I will even stay with because I found them to be so much fun. I stepped out of my comfort zone and that was my goal for this challenge.

What DID I LOVE?

I loved reading all about Scottish words at A Daft Scot Lass' blog She is a hoot! If you didn't follow her, then you must go now and read her posts. I also fell in love with Adventure's in the Ballpark and will go back and read her blog from the beginning (because sometimes you just need to do this.) I also totally liked Raindrops on Roses because her writing was simple and easy to read. I feel as if I have found a new friend in Monique over at Freckles and a Pink Tiara (even though she has moved, this is where I read most of her A to Z).Her new blog is called a life beautifully imperfect I have fallen in love with a book named BlackFeather from Nel Ashley that I will have to soon purchase and read for myself. I am not at all a huge fan of that type of book but she made it sound so fascinating through her daily posts that I just might be a convert. I found it so interesting how Random Guy came up with his post prompts that I just had to jump there daily and read. I found a new friend in Cat at Cat's Meow. She was my biggest commenter (is that a word?). Others who visited me quite a bit and left such nice comments were Me At Scribblings, Udita Banerjee at Shreds and Shards , where  I loved reading  posts about Scotland; ,  Nina Gray at Nothing, and Jen at We're living a full life. I followed their blogs and commented on their posts and I found new friends.   I could go on and on. But you get my point. I left comments everywhere I went. Some answered and some did not. But I didn't let that stop me. I added  a few new blogs to my Bloglovin' feed.

What BOTHERED me about the challenge?

I wouldn't be truthful if I didn't say that I was disappointed that I didn't get a lot of new comments on my blog. My stats showed that there were a lot of new viewers. People just didn't leave comments. I don't know why people do that. I always leave a comment, even if I don't have much to say about the topic. Just to let people know that I was there. I don't think I even had a visit from one of the hosts(there many have been one host, I wasn't sure but clicking on their name always just took me to the A to Z Blog)  which I thought was a bit odd. But like I said before, this was not the reason that I did the challenge. My goal was to post everyday and visit at least 5 new blogs every day. And I met my goal.

What did I LEARN along the way?

I found new books to read. Like Blackfeather. I discovered new recipes. Like the Pistachio Pudding Cake  that I found at Coming Down the Mountain. I found interesting crafts. Check out the  post on Mosaic Turtle Plant stakes at Spark My Creativity. In fact, I like how she did the whole alphabet dedicated to crafty-type letters. As I have mentioned before I learned things about Scotland by visiting A Daft Scots Lass and Shreds and Shards. I have never been to Scotland, but I would like to one day visit. I learned the Value of a Woman from Scribblings. One of my favorite posts was called Facebook Lies written by
The Procrastinating Mommy which hit the nail on the head to how I feel about most Facebook statuses.

Do I have SUGGESTIONS for next year?

I will plan to do this again next year. Why? Because overall I did enjoy it. I planned my posts and wrote them ahead of time so I did not feel stressed or pressured. Now I have a full year to decide what I will write about. My suggestions to those who do the challenge next year is to try to visit more blogs. Visit ones that don't have very many visitors maybe. They are the ones who will read and take in every morsel of your comment. And appreciate it. And you might even find a new blog to follow. Someone who has something interesting to say.  And make finding your blog easy! Sometimes I just simply could not find the blog.  I hope that I have not stepped on any toes with my comments. Feel free to let me know what you thought of the challenge.

See you next year!