I can’t help but be a little sad to say goodbye to 2018. Overall, it was a great year. At this time last year, we weren’t sure how it would turn out. It was just before Christmas (2017) that we found out that our landlord was going to sell the house we were living in. We wondered if this unexpected change was going to push us in a different direction and really shake things up. It turns out, it only pushed us a couple miles down the road and we didn’t have to navigate through the storm we expected. Still, this and other obstacles caused us to do some soul searching, narrowing our vision to focus on what was most important to us. The three H’s – Health, hobbies and holidays – played a major role in transforming our year.
Health
We put new workout routines in place – mostly individually, but also including some family exercise days this summer. Brett and I have experimented with daily workout regimens, personal trainers, daily meditation and good ol’ running – almost always with our 4-legged companion. The girls started playing basketball and have continued doing yoga every week. Matea tried volleyball this year and Dahlia has been enjoying judo.
Hobbies
We’ve always known that life can’t be all work and no play, but it’s easy to find ourselves running on the treadmill of jobs and school and forget that these are only small parts of who we are and what we do. There are so many things we care about and ways in which we want to continue playing, learning and growing. As a result, we all read more books this year (mine are listed at the end of this post). The girls spent a lot of time cooking and baking. Dahlia took horse riding lessons, Matea continued in her drama group, Brett started volunteering with a local environmental group and I continued to find time for knitting, photography and hiking. We broke our no-tv-at-dinner rule sometimes to watch things like BBC’s Dynasties together (if you haven’t watched it, stop what you’re doing right now…). Brett and I went on more dates together, and we also finally went skiing as a family, which brings me to…
Holidays
Not only did we travel to some incredible destinations this year – South Africa, Austria, Italy, Seattle, Prague and Cyprus – we spent a lot of time with family and friends, in Seattle and here in England. All of this counts as holiday to us – not just the jet-setting variety.
Here’s a little month-to-month look at what we’ve been up to:
January
- Walked in the woods
- Went on a date to the Tate Modern in London
- Reina saw her first snow
- Enjoyed lovely local walks
- Started (reluctantly) looking for a house to rent
February
- Dahlia took horse riding lessons
- We tried skiing indoors in the UK
- We explored Innsbruck, Austria
- We skied in The Dolomites, Italy
- We visited Verona, Italy
- We went to Venice with friends
March
- Dahila turned 10, had a sleepover and did more horse riding
- The trees looked pretty
- The weather was very confused – more snow and blooming flowers!
- We went to a photography exhibit at the Natural History Museum
- The girls took lots of swim lessons, meanwhile I knit
April
- We went to South Africa
- Matea turned 12 at the safari lodge
- I turned 42
- Brett made a basketball hoop backboard
- Cherry blossoms bloomed
- We moved!
May
- We visited the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park
- Reina was spayed
- The sun came back with a vengeance
- Harry and Meghan got married
- Brett and I had a lunch date at the Sky Garden
- I took a lot of photos of wisteria
June
- We had a picnic
- The girls made a club house in the garden
- We visited Nymans (National Trust)
- The girls did some baking
- We went to the beach with cousins
- We picked wildflowers at Wimbledon Common
- I took a lot of photos of wisteria
July
- We rode our bikes
- We celebrated the World Cup
- We visited markets and fairs
- Reina won lots of medals at our local dog show
- We bought a cargo bike
- We left for Seattle at the end of the month
August
- We spent time with family and friends in Seattle
- My parent returned with us to England
- We went to Windsor
- We toured Arundel Castle
- I took my parents to Prague
September
- My Mom was still here and we did lots of walks together
- We went to Oxford
- The girls took a baking class
- Mom and I had tea and scones at Buckingham Palace
- We visited cousins in Winchester
October
- My mom was here until the end of the month
- It started to look like autumn
- We went to Frensham Little Pond
- Matea had a Halloween party with friends
- We went to Cyprus
November
- We went to see fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night
- We had a few frosty days
- Reina went on lots of autumnal walks
- The Tower of London lit up for armistice day
- Dahlia went away on a school trip
- We had Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin’s house
December
- We visited cozy cafes
- We ice skated at Hampton Court Palace
- We saw the Christmas lights in London
- We had an incredible Peruvian dinner with good friends
- We celebrated Christmas
- We walked in the woods with friends
Books I read in 2018
- The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey
- The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson
- The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod
- I am, I am, I am, by Maggie O’Farrell
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
- The Heart’s Invisible Furries, by John Boyn
- The Wind up Bird Chronicles, by Haruki Murakami
- Educated, by Tara Westover
- Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
- Essentialism, by Greg McKeown
- Stay with me, by Ayobami Adebayoo
- Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid
*My Top 3: Educated, Stay with me, The Heart’s Invisible Furries*