Where have I been?

The longest time I’ve been MIA on this space was no more than a consecutive week or so. A month never occurred in the almost 3 years of this blog’s existence. Until a few days ago. Life simply caught up with me and I had been so busy that something had to go so I could get back to normal and decide where I wanted to go with this blog and what I want to do with it. So let’s back track and I’ll give you the low down of my life during the last 6 weeks or so and tell you a bit more on what’s in store for you on this blog.

Source: weheartit.com

Where to start? Because these past couple of weeks have been crazy, especially the first 3 or so. At the end of June I was still stuck in piles of grading, long meetings, writing an article for uni and finishing up my thesis. I am happy to tell you that I finished all of that, on time, but to get it all done was quite stressful. By the end of a school year you’re always under pressure as a teacher because you have to round up before summer break and ideally you already prep for next year too. Unfortunately I didn’t have time for the latter, but I decided around the second week of July that I had had enough: I finished my duties before the vacation and I will pick up where I left off after summer break. As for the thesis and article: both have been handed in, I just have to sit and wait now to hear from my co-authors and supervisor.

Socially it has been a hectic time as well. I saw some movies, celebrated birthdays (including my own), went to a few parties, went to the beach or park, met up with tons of friends and family and I also went to a music festival in Belgium called Rock Werchter in between all that as well. That combined with work and going to the gym was a bit much so I think I need about 2 weeks of my 5 week summer vacation just to recuperate and get into vacation mode. I also spent 2 weeks eating quite a bit of crap food and so I have also been sick because my wheat intolerance propped up twice. In between stomach cramps, social gatherings and work outs I managed to clean my house, go to Ikea for a clothing and shoe rack and reorganize some of my clothes, shoes and some other bits and bobs.

Thinking about it, it has all just been busy busy busy and by the time I was home doing nothing I was glad. For an entire month I honestly did not even feel like writing anything here. And then I did my nails yesterday and it was the first time where I thought: let’s post something. I had been on the fence about this blog and my other online activities such as social media for a while now. So I got to work: I cleaned up my Twitter and Facebook accounts, deleted a ton of blogs on Bloglovin’ and decided to cut down on my time spend behind a computer doing, well, nothing really. Instead, I have finally made my way through a pile of magazines I had lying about since April, all the songs I downloaded since March and all four seasons of the TV Series White Collar. And all that in the first 2 weeks of my vacation.

I still have two weeks of vacation left and I am enjoying not going on a holiday and just staying around the house, going to the gym, cooking food, making snacks and smoothies and just being lazy as all hell. I’m enjoying the weather and lo and behold I already managed to read 4 books in the past week alone. On top of that I’ve been watching movies and meeting up with friends and family. Life is good again and I can literally feel all the stress seep from my body. Now all I need is to get on a more regular sleeping/ eating schedule again and I know I will be just fine. But that’s the beauty of vacation: there’s no need for a regular sleeping & eating schedule, so I will start that back up when work does.

As for the blog, I’ve thought long and hard what to do with it. I’ve considered giving it up completely, but I know that I’ll get the urge to write, so I’m not going to do that. What I will do however, is tone down the frequently. Instead of: I have to post a blog every day. It will be: I will post when I want to. And that means that I will sometimes post every day, or every other day, and sometimes leave more time in between posts. I will be aiming for 3 posts a weeks, 5 max. and if I am feeling really inspired I will make it daily, but I don’t want to make that a thing. So 3 posts a week, I think is a nice average that I think could work. And when I find it doesn’t for whatever reason than I can always adjust it when the time comes.

What have you been up to? And do you have any ideas for blog posts that I could do? I need some inspiration to get me going! In any case: leave a comment below.