When I said I was going to slow down, I didn’t mean to disappear for weeks. I was trying to find the best way to incorporate blogging into my life (because just when I feel like it doesn’t work for me) and I even had some drafts ready. But life filled up quickly after that last post.

With normal things like:
:: laundry that seems to multiply everytime I think I’m almost done
:: a tiny and full house that makes it hard to balance between work and rest
:: cooking litres of soup and realizing that I still don’t really like soup. But I do like how it fills that time between “getting-hungry”and “everybody-is-home-for-diner”
:: a cat that was demanding (using his very loud voice) to be let out and in again about every half hour (or more often), that we gave his own door because we were fed up with his screaming and that is now screaming that he doesn’t like that door every half hour before he finally uses it
:: a daughter who forgot to set her alarm on her last day of internship, who I drove to the busstation, where we saw the bus riding away when we arrived there, followed by a chase of said bus to get her at work only 20 minutes late instead of 50

Also, life threw me some serious curveballs and right now my days are mostly filled with fear, insecurity, relief (because it isn’t the worst case scenario) and daily drives to the hospital to visit my husband.

I really, really hope to resume a somewhat regular blogging schedule soon. Because that would mean he’s better and home.

I had so many goals this year.

Besides homemaking, mothering, bookkeeping and writing (which is quite enough to fill my days) I was going to do more photographing, more blogging about more subjects and more projects with more text and more pictures,  more twitter, more facebook.

and…

oh, that’s right…

I was going to slow down (since last year was not the best health- and otherwise)

Uh. Okay. Let’s try that again.

This year (starting today), I’m going to slow down.

(no, I’m not quitting blogging but it will be (a lot) less frequent and only when I feel like it)

That picture? A Sunday walk all by myself. In the frosty cold, in the sun. Bliss.

One of my goals this year is to work at my desk more (usually I’m on the couch with my laptop). That’s why I put it there in the first place. And I hope it makes writing, bookkeeping en my normal household and family life easier to combine. So today I will be here. I still need to work through half a book until I can send it back to my editor.
(Not really an honest picture. I moved some laundry and the bin away before I took it…)

Right now I am…

:: smelling the good stuff I’m making in the kitchen (draadjesvlees and vegetable soup)
:: editing my newest book (due in May)
:: and constantly thinking about my next story (but I can’t say anything about that yet)
:: are all these words and letters blocked by numbers, since there are some tax returns waiting to be filed (I know, it’s a strange combination, being both an accountant and a writer)
:: also trying not to forget my camera. I started a 365 again this year. Last year it went well till April. I’m trying to add some words to record my days Habit-style too, but I’m not sure if I can keep that up. We’ll see how it goes…

Looking back on the pictures I took the last seven years (since I got my first digital camera) I find a lot of photos taken in my garden.
I love taking my camera outside and finding little or bigger changes. In that big lot of pictures I see seasons com and go and plants, bulbs and trees flower year after year. It has always been a recurring blogpost for me, but I thought it would be fun to make it a bit more official.
So, from now on each Friday I give you a little peak in my garden, with or without words, because sometimes the pictures say it all and sometimes, well, they don’t.

I do like a new year. It’s so full of possibilities and has a lot of room for new plans
Especially since I was able to finish some longrunning projects in the old year. Like the quilts for my girls.
Some of you know which quilts I mean. For the others I put together a little timeline (in Flickr links, because my photos – though not fully updated and sorted yet – are a lot better organized then my blog):  in 2009 I bought the fabric, in 2010 I got them out of the cupboard and on my pile of to do’s and two weeks later I actually started cutting. In 2011 I finished the tops, but I put them aside again. This summer I decided they needed to be finished and I did.
But then I had only two quilts and I have three daughters. Luckily there was another longrunning project waiting to be finished. Making enough hexagons to complete the quilt proved impossible, but I found a creative way of using them anyway.
And so I had three quilts under the tree this year. I have to admit that I lack the materials, the machine (still sewing on a very simple and cheap sewing machine), the work space and the motor skills to make them as perfect as I wanted them to be. But I like them. And more importantly, the girls like them too.

Wishing you all a very happy and sun filled 2013!