But of course...

...and I was so proud of being somewhat consistent about blogging! Where did the first two months of the year go? It's not that time passed by too fast, or at least that's not the whole picture. I think it had more to do with my weekends (specifically Saturdays) being super busy. This past two months I had two 2-3 day long work related conferences, taught a Hungarian cooking class, participated in a koto recital, went on a 5-day holiday to Sapporo, enjoyed Valentine's Day a day late, and participated in a walking tour. That's seven out of nine weekends. Other things that also took precedence over blogging were our weekly cleaning mini-marathons, and Skyping with family.

I guess I was busier than I thought. Still, I'm a little sad that the last update about Rini's development was a combined post of her being 19 and 20 months old back in mid-November, and she will turn two years old this Saturday! Unbelievable, it really is.

I hope sometime soon I will be able to catch up on some of the things I wanted to write about, but considering my husband is leaving for two weeks to visit family and friends in about 10 days, I don't know how realistic these hopes are. Still I just have to try, because I have so much to talk about, so much I want to remember, so much I'd like to think through using this blog. 

Here's hoping...

2013 in Review

2013 was ... tough... fun... enlightening... and a whole bunch of other adjectives that I'm sure I could list would I be a better writer. I definitely learned a lot.

In 2013, I posted 35 blog posts and have 6 drafts in the works. While to many people this might not seem like a big number, to me it's an accomplishment. Even though I did not reach my original goal of 52 blog posts in 52 weeks, I'm really happy, because I posted four times (five, if I add the drafts) as many blog posts as the previous year, and over twice as many than ever before. That's a lot of memories and thoughts, which in previous years came and gone without a trace.

In 2013, I drastically increased the days when I was out of bed before 6 A.M., hence making sure I left for work on time. This habit called for waking up before 6 A.M. five days a week, and though I only have 13 weeks of complete success, I have another 14 weeks of success on 4 days out of the 5. I really like my habit app, but I wish there was a way to not count days when I didn't have to work, either because it was a holiday or because I was sick. I think my numbers would have been much higher if that was possible.

In 2013, I also finally got into the habit of brushing my teeth twice a day. Out of the 360 days that I kept track of this on my app on my phone, I succeeded 327 days. 

There were some other resolutions that I didn't do so well on. 

I promised to finish knitting a sweater for my husband by his birthday (December 22nd), but there is still a little bit left to go. I will focus my energies on this for the next couple days, so he can wear it before work starts up again.

I also didn't do well with studying Japanese. OK, my attempt at it was abysmal and almost nonexistent. But I also used it more often than ever before. My goal is to pass the N3 level of the JLPT in July, but I have yet to open any of the N3 books. I guess I should make this one of my new resolutions for 2014: to make regular time for studying. 

* * * * * * *

Some other things that happened in 2013 were picking up koto lessons, participating in boardgame nights almost every week, and trying to educate myself in personal and family finance. I'm also thinking about our move back to Hungary a lot... the whats, whens, and hows.

2014 will be an eventful year, and I'm looking forward to every minute of it!