Changing things up

With the new year coming up I have been thinking a lot lately about what is important to me, what I want to focus on next year and what I am going to let go of, moving forward.  

I want to focus more on my health and on my family.  I'd like to kick start the year with going back on Paleo, getting back to Zumba and taking up running again.  I used some of my Christmas money to buy running shoes today and I'm looking into a couple of organised runs in the new year.

Thinking about family, I want to spend more time with the kids and more time with Nico.  I'll be keeping up our two main documenting areas - Project Life and the one second a day videos.  Both have been really fun this year and are so nice to look back on.  We're also planning our first real family holiday in 2019 and I am so excited about it.

This year has been huge in terms of my career.  Things are still being worked out and finalised but I am making the hours fit better with family and I'm looking forward to just settling in more at my new school and finding my feet there.  After a turbulent year of change and uncertainty, I am finally where I have been fighting to get to for the past seven years and that feels great.

I'm still carrying on with my goals and with my crafting but in a bid to ease up on myself and reduce some of the stress and pressure I have felt this year, I am going to stop aiming to do my languages every day - I do that anyway through work and I'll still dip into it during my commute but it's off my to-do list.

Finally, I'm going to stop blogging every day.  I don't want to let go of this space completely, it has been an important way to keep up with friends and family over the last eight years and put my thoughts out there.  Lately it feels like I am writing for the sake of it and to be honest, I'm boring myself and getting stressed about it.  Going forward I will write when I have something to say and when I have the time to say it well.

Here's to a fabulous 2019!

Happy New Year!

I love the fresh start of a new year and this year is special as it marks a real new start for me with new jobs starting soon.

2017 was equally unique in that I was home with Joshua and looking back, I can't believe how far we have come in the past twelve months from that new born haze that felt like we'd be breastfeeding and co-sleeping forever.

In 2017 we bought a new car, Nico started a new job, Joshua was christened, we attended a wedding weekend in Arnstadt, I resigned, we travelled to England, Isabella turned three and finished nursery, I flew to England for a hen do and again for another wedding, I joined a fitness studio, we went to the Harz, Isabella started Kindergarten, I took and passed the C1 German exam, my best friend had a baby, Joshua turned one and started nursery and we got through the crazy Christmas season.

Amongst all of that, I kept my resolutions of creating every day and reading a book per week.

2018 looks set to be equally busy for us and I'm really excited about this new phase. This year I am renewing my efforts to try the one second per day video as a new, fun way to document our lives.

The rest of my goals and my One Little Word, I'll be sharing with you later this week.

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

I know we are almost a week in already but it feels like the new year is just starting for us now that we are back from our travels and back at work.  As it is the first day back and a Monday at that, I am keeping this short today but after the break I am refreshed and looking forward to sharing lots of exciting posts with you soon.  For now, stick to those resolutions and don't let the "most depressing day of the year" get you down!

Thoughts on the New Year

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Goodbye Christmas

Yesterday, after the twelve days of Christmas, the decorations finally came down.  I wanted to show you how things looked at the end of the festive period with all our cards and the finished advent calendar. 

I mentioned the advent calendar back at the beginning of December but in case you missed it: Nico bought us an advent calendar with a difference this year.  Instead of chocolates, each day revealed a new card with the next installation of a story on one side and a relevant picture on the other.  You can see the finished product above.  Great idea.

We had so many cards that we also filled the bookcase:

It looks a little bare but it's nice, clean and tidy ready for this new year!

New Year's Eve - German Style!

As I've probably mentioned many times now, this New Year's Eve was my first in Germany.  In fact, I believe it was my first outside of Morley...  I really enjoyed trying some new traditions this year: melting lead and setting off fireworks.  Okay the latter isn't completely new but it's much bigger in Germany and it was the first time I have ever lit one myself.

The lead melting was fun but as I was warned, most of the results looked like tear drops.  We thought some could also have been birds which tended to be lucky on the list of results but lots of things weren't on the list.  I'd definitely try it again.

The fireworks were also fun.  The pictures came out fairly well too.  It was nothing compared to what actually went off at midnight but it was fun for us and I'm no longer scared of them!  You can even see me running away from that first one, having lit it.

Happy New Year!

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