New year, blah blah blah

No, it was not a new year’s resolution to start blogging again, but since I’ve found a little bit of my writing-outside-of-work mojo again, here I am (it’s a relief there was an autofilled password for the back end of this site, because I don’t remember it offhand.

2023 wasn’t the worst, but lots of small things sucked out a lot of the colour, optimism and confidence that other years tend to bring. Fortunately, I ended the year feeling like “myself” and hopefully fortified by the lessons of 2023.

Here’s my wrap-up of last year:

Lows

  • Rebecca breaking her arm
  • Toxic work situations (I could write a novel on these)
  • Torn meniscus that prevented me from running for the first quarter of the year
  • Substandard mental health
  • The war

 

Highs

  • Family health and general awesomeness
  • Buying an apartment
  • Starting an awesome job in November
  • Seeing our family several times this year
  • Summer road trip through Germany, Slovenia and Croatia (and a day in Italy for gelati)
  • Getting over the torn meniscus, and running again
  • Seeing my kids do well socially and at school
  • Doing puzzles with my daughter – the most mind-calming activity of the last few months (except for the fox in the snow puzzle that almost made me anxious)
  • Few days in Paris to visit my family
  • Reading a lot, including some non-fiction which I’ve added to the mix
  • Baking old favourites and trying out new ones
  • Going to London three times and catching up with a school bestie
  • New friends and the support of older friends, plus our monthly bookclub dinners
  • Running the Nice to Cannes marathon
  • Discovering the best shakshuka and challah in Amsterdam

Sunrise on the Amstel in autumn

These foxes literally foxed me

I have no grand resolutions for 2024. Rather, I’d like to have mini goal or goals each day, whether it’s finishing part of a puzzle, going to sleep early, not doomscrolling, reading 10 pages of nonfiction a day, or remembering to take my omega-3s. And if a mini goal of writing a blog post happens to appear on the list, then I’ll definitely be here more. My need/want to write seems to be returning, so let’s see.

I wish you all a safe, fulfilling and wonderful year.

xx

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