Feeling pensive today as I reflect on the past year and consider my intentions for the future.  So as part of that I spent some time looking through my blogposts from the past year and weighing how they reflected my memories of 2015.

Some of the larger happenings of the past year include:

• Moving house (again) in the late spring,  to a nearly-perfect 95 year-old bungalow with a large garden & so much light.
• Having a hysterectomy in the early summer.  Few friends even knew that I did this–it was scheduled quickly and I had a remarkably (and also unremarkably) speedy recovery.  At some point I may write more about why that surgery was necessary, but for now I’m just relieved to have it behind me.
• Repeatedly having problems with my prosthesis.  This is still far from resolved, despite dozens of repairs and appointments and (re-)fittings.  I have almost given up on having a comfortable and well-tuned leg, and I am exhausted by the constant discomfort of an ill-fitting one. I could whine  say much more on this topic, but will move on instead.
• Teaching a remarkable set of courses: Environmental History, Digital Humanities, and American Disability History.
• Visiting the Gold Country in the Fall, and in doing so marking a big item off of my bucket list.
• Paddling in the off-season with IMUA.  I’ve also been training in gyrotonics, which is increasing my joint strength & flexibility (especially my hips & shoulders).
• Accepting a new managerial role in IT at Chapman, where I work with an amazing team to provide technical support for the university.
• Choosing to learn a new instrument.  I’m still a total n00b, but it’s wonderful to try something hard and different.

And I’m writing this list as I’m snuggled up on the living room sofa of our Brussels home (photo below).  Life continues to be interesting as I straddle the cultures of continental Europe and Southern California, and as Stijn and I consider our future together.  It’s hard to predict how that will evolve as we make professional and personal choices, but what is obvious is that it’s wonderful to have many possibilities for the future.  In past years I’ve found my greatest longing was for home, and now I have two of them.  🙂

My resolutions for 2016 are pretty simple, so far:

• invest time and energy into our Orange home, to make it more comfortable–both inside and out
• be a better friend, by making time to spend with mine one-on-one, and also by hosting more events at our place
• send monthly care packages to E&C at college
• practice Dutch and banjo, 3 days/week
• speak French often
• grow more food and cook more with our homegrown food
• have some travel adventures
• relax
• laugh often
• worry less

I’m tempted to also set some writing goals for 2016–I’ve totally slacked in that department in the past few years and I just haven’t felt inspired to write. So, I’ll give that some more thought and see if I feel ready to formalize a plan for writing this year (or not).