this was january
This is the post to read if you are too lazy to go through my whole blog ; ) Here I write about my month and put all my posts in one place. You don’t have to search for anything, it’s all here!
So, January... it was a month that didn't feel like a January at all to me. I did not have that extremely exhausted feeling I usually have (only the last week of the month). I tried to focus on my health. Not by starting a new gym membership ; ) But with trying to keep a steady rhythm with my qi gong lessons. I managed to prevent a hiatus, like all previous years happened. It was the first year I didn't pause my lessons for several months due to being too exhausted for it. I was so happy I was able to continue!
Focusing on my health also worked in different ways. I tried to write down a lot of my thoughts here on my bear blog this month. That definitely also added to a better month, mentally.
So for a January it was a really good month! If you read on you can see what I did, listened to, read and tried to accomplish...
bear feels...
Remember my ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ emoji post? I will add every month how the overall mood was. So here goes for January:overall mood: ʕ◕ᴥ◕ʔ feeling great
Most weeks I felt like a bear with a good mood. Except for my PMS week. But the bad moods were over quite quickly this time.
overall health: ʕᵔᴥᵔʔ content
Even though I had more and more days my knees were hurting... I think health wise it was overall a good month. I managed to do several qi gong classes every week and noticed progress!
overall weather:
1.5 weeks of ｡ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ°｡❆ snow
sometimes ʕ◕ᴥ◕ʔ☀ sunny
but mostly ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ☁ cloudy and ʕ⸝⸝>﹏<ʔ ☃︎❆ freezing cold
january in highlights
✶ happy new year!Our 2026 started quiet. And I loved that! We celebrated at home with a glass of rosé, watching the fireworks from our window. It's (probably) the last year that fireworks are allowed in The Netherlands, so it seemed like people put some money in.
✶ not a slow month
December is the busiest month of the whole year at work. And in January it's the opposite, not a lot to do. But this year it was different! And I was very happy about that! Because if I hate one thing, it's a day where we barely see any customers, or a day where I have to look for tasks to do. I rather be busy! I know it's part of the job... but I'm always very happy when the months flow.
✶ the urge to clean
I don't know what it was this year, but the urge to organize and give the house a thorough clean was huge! I cleaned out the bookcases, the utility room (again) and the pantry (again). And some of the daughters toys that she's too big for now were brought or given away.
✶ changes to my blog
This month I read a blog written by sylvia about adding a status page to your bear blog. That was exactly the code I was looking for to incorporate my old a photo a day blog. And with a bit of help from Peige I could finally add the pages I wanted to have for some time: I added a status page and a photo a day page.
✶ focus on fresh air
January is the month where I try to focus on getting more fresh air. Winter is definitely the time of year where we are more inside than outside. This year, we even got 2 weeks of snow. It was the first year that I really loved it! But that also meant that we were inside more than usual. So the last 2 weeks I focused on making more walks. After school with the daughter and in the weekend with the three of us. I feel like it's a necessity in winter...
✶ fixing my knees
My knees have been giving me more and more troubles the last years. It started with warmth and redness a couple of years ago. Last year my knee started to buckle and that evolved into workdays with knee pain and more need for rest. I couldn't seem to find a pattern of why this was happening. So the doctor advised to make an x-ray and physiotherapy.
✶ a lot of binging
This was definitely the month I watched the most shows... ever? We saw 4 seasons of slow horses and I saw 6 seasons younger.
this was week 1 ✦ this was week 2 ✦ this was week 3 ✦ this was week 4 ✦ this was week 5
details worth remembering
✏ the year started with our yearly tradition: waking the daughter up with cupcakes and candles for her birthday!✏ every year I get a different countdown calendar. the 2026 calendar we started on the 1st is from the new york times.
✏ for the daughters birthday we had 2 days celebrations. one day we celebrated at home with my family. and one day we went bowling with the German fam (the daughters first time, and she loved it!).
✏ she got the loveliest video messages from friends singing her happy birthday ♡
✏ there was a lot of snow! it stayed for a whole week and it was the first year I really enjoyed it!
✏ I watched more series that I usually do.
✏ and I took more baths than I usually do.
✏ the daughter made several lovely portrait drawings. I love kids art more than any art!
✏ I re-organized some cabinets in the house, the bookcases and the utility room. and I moved some plants around. our living room looks more airy now.
✏ we made several sunny walks.
✏ the daughters weekly play dates with kids from school were getting more frequent.
✏ we booked our spring holiday! we're off to Turkey in April!
✏ I started with jumping on the trampoline again after years of hiatus.
✏ I cooked a sweet potato mash with vegan bacon that was so lovely I wanted to remember it!
✏ my doctor sent me to get an x-ray and do physiotherapy to fix my knee.
✏ I found a cute secondhand little cabinet that I will paint and turn into a key box.
✏ and on Vinted I found a very cool and very unexpected birthday gift for the husband (that I have to hide for 2 months now, haha).
✏ a buzzard flew right in front of me while I was biking, just 1 meter away from me. never saw one this close!
the stories of the day
Every day I write down what the 'story of the day' was. I try to look at my day with a cinematic eye and filter out the most important thing that happened, and that I want to remember. Here are the stories of January:week 1 ✦ week 2 ✦ week 3 ✦ week 4
I had things to be grateful for
In week 2 I started writing down the things I was grateful for. A practice I maintained for some time in 2025, but also stopped doing for some reason. I wanted to pick it up again and here are the things I was grateful for:week 2 ✦ week 3
a photo a day of january
see all pictures herewhat I listened to
apparat - hum of maybeThe new Apparat album is coming in February. This month 2 tracks got released and I'm loving it! Thinking of ordering the vinyl.
kensington - first rodeo
At the end of November the newest album of Kensington came out. They changed singers and it's the first release with singer Jason Dowd. I am loving their album and have been listening to it a lot.
bente - hoogtevrees
A song I heard on the radio a lot this month and that I really liked.
what I watched
It was a really good month for watching series. I guess this was my coping strategy of surviving January this year ;)Series I finished watching till the end this month:
pluribus (season 1)
slow horses (season 1 - 5)
younger (season 1 - 7)
what I read
I listened to 1 hour of green lights. And read a few pages in xiu yang.what I wrote this month
03.01 goals: what I want to do this winter03.01 break is almost over
06.01 tech changes I made this week
07.01 members of the always tired club
07.01 magnesium treatment
12.01 rewiring your brain
12.01 another one in the journaling series: gratitude journaling
12.01 qi gong practice
13.01 tweet: hello bunny
13.01 how I journal: wins of the week
13.01 winter bingo
14.01 ʕ｡•ᴥ•｡ʔ
15.01 thoughts: mindful consumerism
18.01 just some thoughts about music
19.01 a meditation epiphany
20.01 yeahhh, this css noob finally got it!
25.01 a winter recipe
25.01 about getting older and ughhh
26.01 why I make goals every month
goals for january
✘ buy storing boxes for the atticI guess this one didn't work out because the money I reserved to buy boxes was spent elsewhere. Not a big problem, but it is a delay for this goal. I will move this goal to February!
✘ organize the attic
That means this goal is also moved to February.
✘ finish the acupressure course
Uhh, this one was a bit ambitious! I continued with section 2 and finished that. But I still had 5 sections to go. I'm in the middle of the theory now and am looking forward to really practice. Working on it, but slowly. I'm not in a hurry.
✔ meditate before sleeping
I count my qi gong classes as meditating. But I wanted to meditate more. The best way to that, for me, is meditating before sleeping. So I put on my smiling mind app a few times this month to listen to a meditation. I never managed to make it till the end :') But I enjoyed doing it so I will try to continue.
✔ make a linocut
I managed to make one linocut this month, a new member of the always tired club. I wanted to make more. And the plan was to work on lino's at least once a week. But the tiredness got in the way. I'm trying to be not too hard on myself and start it up again when I have more headspace.
✘ make the first puzzle of the year
This one didn't work out. I was just not really in the mood to sit at the dining table in the evenings and make a puzzle. So I didn't start a new one. Maybe next month?
✔ focus on making it a healthy month
I feel like I can check this one off. I managed to do more qi gong classes than I expected to do, so I'm happy about that. I even got the trampoline out of the shed to start practicing again (it's been years!). And I'm taking action to get my knees in better shape. And hopefully pain free.
✘ think of ways that suit me, to participate in the analog life project
Just like Lori from the analog life project, I tried to read more this month. There were a few evenings that I went to bed a bit earlier and read some pages. Most evenings it was not more than 5-10 pages, because I got extremely sleepy and fell asleep. But that doesn't matter. Every page is a page read.
Something I also tried, was only being online on my laptop to write on my bear blog. If I wasn't writing for my blog, the only other thing I did was read other blogs. And if I wasn't doing that, the laptop was put away. I'm trying to be mindful of when and why I use my laptop.
One thing I still want to try, is limit my time reading blogs. That's the only thing I still get a bit lost in sometimes. Since I broke free from social media doom scrolling last year (by deleting all my socials), the only thing where I 'loose' my time sometimes, is reading blogs. To limit my time, I will use a timer next month to see if I can improve my awareness of the time slipping away with this activity.
goals for february
> get back into regular trampoline jumping> fix my knee with physiotherapy
> make the first puzzle of the year
> make sure theres flowers on the table every week
> buy storing boxes for the attic
> organize the attic
> only read blogs with a timer (see last goal of January)
> try to read 1-5 pages a few times a week before sleeping
> make a linocut