this was july
July was quite the month! D had her last days of school and then her 6 week summer holiday started. The weather was great! Almost every day 25+ degrees and some outliers up to 30 (and sometimes more).
As far as my health was concerned, things became a bit more uncertain. The first week of the month I had a hand therapy session to see what was up with my wrist. And in those 3 remaining weeks I got more and more symptoms that kind of made life hard. I'm still not sure what it is exactly, because I'm on the waitinglist to see a rheumatologist. I'm just hoping it will not take too long to get it all checked (and diagnosed?), because it doesn't feel good at all to walk around like this.
That was the big news... Now onto better news ;)
july in highlights
✶ linocuts and printsAfter a long break, July was the month that I started with my linocuts and prints again. I decided I wanted to put some time and effort in making a new website and instagram. So that's what I did! And I'm enjoying it so much that this is a part of my life again now. Oh how I've missed it!
✶ the yearly solo city trip
In principle I decided on not doing a solo city trip this year (like I usually do every year). I spent most of my money on my new tattoo and was okay with skipping the trip this time. But the husband encouraged me to go. This time I planned it a little different. One thing I really would like to do more, is spend time creating. I want to make prints and take the time to let my work evolve. So what better way to do so as with a mini art retreat? So I booked a hotel in a city not too far away (a 1 hour train ride) and take some days to really dive into printmaking again. Visit some museums, stroll through the city, photograph everything and get inspired. I've been preparing what I want to do every day, making moodboards and researching things, filling up on supplies and thinking about how to pack everything :') In August I'm going and I'm sooooo stoked!
✶ sports was a bit different this month
In the hiking and weight lifting department there were some changes this month. And mostly due to the hot weather. When the temperatures drove up to 30+ degrees, I completely let go of sports. Because I'm so prone to developing headaches and migraines, I decided I didn't want to risk getting sick.
✶ hand therapy
After struggling with my wrists and fingers for a while, I finally had my first hand therapy appointment this month. The physiotherapist told me to look into ehlers-danlos syndrome and if I had the feeling there would be a syndrome that I felt fitted to my symptoms, he strongly recommended making an appointment to get diagnosed. I wrote about my first hand therapy appointment here. So in July I started with daily hand exercises to make my hand and underarms stronger.
✶ is life about to drastically change?
As written above... I developed a lot more symptoms in a very short time and it made me worried... After writing all my symptoms down daily, I started leaning towards 'could this be rheumatoïd arthritis?' (let's hope not, but it's in the family). All these new pains, the new painful nodules, the inflamation, the swelling, the redness and stiffness was (and is) making daily life harder. I'm trying to stay off meds for now, as long as I can take the pain. I'm currently waiting for an appointment at rheumatology at the hospital, but the waitlist is 40 days! So I have to be patient and strong for now. I hope my family doctor can do something for me in the meantime. I hope I have some news in August.
✶ celebrating in the sauerland
The husbands brother celebrated his 50th birthday in the Sauerland woods and (like 10 years ago), we were invited to come celebrate with him. We had a lovely weekend, listening to punk bands play and we stayed in a super cute hotel. For my brother in law I made a print as a birthday gift.
✶ the yearly team outing
Every year the boss plans an outing with the whole team. And this year it was a bbq in her garden. We had a lot of delicious food, good talks and a fun quiz the kids made for us. I think I even liked it more than a dinner in a restaurant!
✶ school summer vacation started
Summer vacation started on the 10th of July for D. Six weeks no school! I had her home for 3 days a week and we filled our days with crafting, baking cakes and playing games. I love having her home and doing a lot of stuff with her. But it's hard at the same time, because it's asking a lot more from my body. I can't split up housework like I normally can and I have less time to plan my hikes (that my body just needs to function). I did my best to get through it as best I could. And we had some help from all the grandparents, which I'm VERY grateful for ♡
✶ a little family vacation
At the end of the month we drove up North for a few days of family vacation at a holiday park. We rented a tiny house directly at the Hoge Veluwe (nature park) and had a lovely time. We visited a museum, biked around in the park the whole day, went swimming that day we had bad weather and had a day at the outdoor pool. It was lovely to have some quality time together and it was just what I needed: nature, the woods, loved ones and just fun stuff!
✶ 'the incident'
We got scared out of our wits when we heard about an incident at the school holiday day care that D goes to. Something happened there that was really out of line. I will not go into it here in detail, but let's just say it gave me a big knot in my stomach and kept me up for some nights. Kids were talked to, parents were talked to and let's hope they all learned from it. Because it was definitely not something that should've happened. It took a few days for my anger to subside a bit.
details worth remembering
✏ I stocked up on new printing ink this month and am loving all the new colors!✏ I also cleaned out all my crafting drawers and it feels so much easier now to find stuff.
✏ D had some playdates with schoolmates and went swimming in their garden 2 times.
✏ most of my dreams this month were about my mini art retreat in August.
✏ I was happy to be more creative again and loved the feeling of getting inspired and getting new ideas for prints so often!
✏ now that I was on insta again with my linocuts, I had to be careful not to fall into the doom-scrolling trap again!
✏ D got more and more interest in learning to write and practiced a lot.
✏ during one of my hikes I found a feather from a buzzard, so cool!
✏ I cut my hair really short on the sides.
✏ at work we got artichokes again and I directly brought some home to put in my big green bottles. it looks so nice on the table!
✏ this month I had a hard time remembering the names of things, just random things - which is one of the fibromyalgia symptoms - and it got quite bad sometimes, ugh. like needing 5 minutes to find the word artichoke... I don't know why it was so bad again all of a sudden.
✏ D had a sleepover at the grandparents in Germany and that meant a kid free weekend for us! we planned a dinner date + movie in the city.
✏ had my second tattoo appointment and we finished my arm!
✏ I went on a little adventure to a touristy town close here with D and it felt like we were on holiday!
✏ we had a pizza party for my mums birthday.
what I listened to
In July I made a 'linocut playlist' with all the songs that get me into a flow while making linocuts. It's mostly songs from my citytrip 2 summers ago, when I was also in the same city I'm going to in August. That trip left such a big positive feeling, and I connect those songs with that feeling, even now still.Some songs on the list:
rival consoles - world turns
kink - leko (session victim remix)
pantha du prince - heaven is where you are (fejka remix)
low island - in your arms
low island - robin
what I watched
heartstopper foreverproject hail mary
the odyssey
what I wrote this month
06.07 today's brain dump07.07 week 27
07.07 hand therapy brain dump
12.07 week 28
14.07 it makes me so angry...
15.07 in all honesty...
15.07 zerbrechlichkeit
20.07 week 29
28.07 week 30
things I would like to do in august
> go on my solo mini retreat!> spend more time creating and working on my linocuts (evolve my style, technique and way of working - I want to get better!)
> find a way of journaling (and reaping the benefits of it), that doesn't take up too much time
> get back into 2-3 times hiking a week
> follow a qi gong workshop
> go to the cinema
> visit a museum