(I was keeping an eye on the iguana to see how he would get off that cactus, but I missed it. I went into the house to get something and then he was gone.) 

In my quest to simplify my life and my blogging, I thought it would be better not to post on Mondays. I like my weekends to be computer-free and a Monday post would mean the first thing I have to do in a new week would be thinking about what to write. Too much stress on a Monday morning. Preparing on Friday wouldn’t work either, since I’m usually rushing to get things done. One day I’ll have enough blog posts prepared in advance, but for now skipping Mondays felt like the best solution.

But this morning I felt I really wanted to start the week the right way. One of the customs I like very much here is that people tend to wish you a good week if you meet them Sunday after noon or on Monday.
So I thought I’d just pop in with one picture and wish you all a great week!

Since I found out I have some foodallergies, I’ve been struggling with lunches. I used to love my simple sandwiches (just bread and some sliced meat), but I can’t eat bread anymore, since gluten is one of the things I have to avoid. Glutenfree bread is not an option though, since I also have to stay clear from soy, sugar, milk and some nuts (I’m sure about cashews and walnuts, and probably almonds too).
T. eats ricecakes as a substitute for bread, but those affect my bloodsugar too much (I have hypoglycemia).
I need something with a lot of fibres, fat and protein and not too many carbs. I can’t eat eggs for lunch, since I already have two for breakfast. So it’s really been a struggle.
I do eat a green salad with chicken or beef every once in a while, but I don’t like it enough to eat it daily.
What I do like, as silly as it may sound for someone living in the tropics (and we’re in the hottest period of the year right now), is chili con carne. Or something similar to that, because the batch I made last week has very few beans compared to other ingredients (bell peppers and tomatoes). It’s more like a very thick tomato soup, or maybe a stew. But I love eating it and my body reacts very well to it.
So now I’m contemplating making other stews and thick soups for lunch. Jeannie shares some good soup recipes every Sunday, so I’m sure I’ll turn to her blog first. And maybe it’s time to revive my pinterest account and start pinning recipes…

What’s your favorite stew or soup recipe?

… we moved to the new old house!
… we made some (but not a lot of) progress renovating the house (still no ceilings)
… I didn’t knit one stitch. But I got a bit of an itch to dig up my knitting this morning, so there’s hope. I don’t think my 20 hats before 2020 goal will be met though.
… I didn’t take a lot of pictures either, but I picked up my camera last week and now I can’t stop trying to capture sunsets, birds and moments.
… I’ve felt happy, depressed, motivated, frustrated, energetic, tired, healthy, sick, calm, stressed out, optimistic and pessimistic. You know, life happening. I have to admit that the negative outweighed the positive, but I’m slowly digging myself out of that dark tunnel.
… I realised that I really, really miss blogging, so I guess I’m back at it again.

I don’t feel like blogging (or being on Instagram) lately. I thought it would be good for me to keep it up, but it feels more and more like one more thing to check off the list, instead of doing something fun, so I think I’ll take a little break.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a longer time, you know it happens every once in a while. Nothing to worry about. Just too much on my mind. I need a little mental reset and being offline (as much as possible) usually does the trick.
I’ll be back 😉

When all other ideas fail, take pictures of plants…
Wishing you all a relaxing weekend!

I’m not really sure where July went. Well, actually I do know, I spent most of the month worrying about my parents and T. Since the reason for that won’t go away, I need to learn to live with it.
I don’t want to spend the rest of this year feeling as lost as I have felt this month. And I guess setting goals (or rather, intentions) for the month will help to focus on other things.

So here I three things I will be working on this month:

1. self-care
I actually wrote a long blog post about that, but I decided to just leave it at this: no matter how counterintuitive it feels, I really need to take better care of myself. Not despite everything happening with people around me, but because of it. I don’t help them by ignoring my own needs and I really can’t help them when I’m tired, sick and depressed.

2. homemaking
I think it will help to counteract the lingering homesickness and my frustrations about not having a lot of paid work these days if I’m more mindful of my home here. We hope to be able to finally move this month, but there will still be so much renovating to do, that it sometimes feels overwhelming. So I want to focus on the normal homemaking too. Cleaning, taking care of my plants, cooking healthy and/or delicious meals, rearranging things for the joy of making it look pretty. Just being (mostly) a homemaker for a while.

3. having fun
My husband told me to stop feeling guilty when I’m doing something just for fun and he’s right. Life is too short to be busy just because society expects you to be.

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday

Knitting: 
still working on the sweater, didn’t make a lot of progress yesterday. I am thinking about knitting a lot though. I miss knitting hats and think I’d like to challenge myself to knit 20 before 2020 (next week there are 20 weeks left in the year). I probably won’t make it, but it’s fun to try.

Reading: 
finished the book I told you about last week and moved on to another book by Maria Schneider. I love this one too. Under Witch Moon is a paranormal mystery. The main character is a witch, there are were wolfs, vampires and shapeshifters and a few murders that need to be solved. Good fun. I also like that the magic is thought through really well. Not the cliche ‘everything is possible with magic’ way to make the impossible happen and solve the problems in the story, but digging deeper in how spells could work and what is needed to use a magical talent.

Linking up with Kat’s Unraveled Wednesday