Well this has been a big year for us: a new baby and not just moving house, but moving country. Considering how frustrated we were with trying to move in the UK in 2013 I can’t really believe how easy it was to move here. Everything really seemed to fall into place! Partly because we seemed to find really good people to work on our behalf and get things sorted, and partly because I get my organisational skills from my father 🙂 as well as a lot of luck and things going our way!

We are settled here now, though there are still things to get sorted in the house. And of course to improve our language skills. I can just about order a drink and something to eat in Dutch, and recognise some words from the radio/TV. We are becoming regular Sesaamstraat viewers! I hope by the end of the year to be able to have conversations in Dutch.

Now that we are moved and settled in it’s time to start thinking about the future. We’re (just about) starting to come out of the fug of having a new baby, so it’s a good time for me to start working out what I want to do. Obviously for the next few years the children will be my priority, but I need to start doing things for myself too. I plan in 2015 to write more, both on this blog and (hopefully) in other places too. I will share details of those when they’re confirmed.

One big thing I want to improve on while I’m playing with the children is being present – it’s all too easy to be concentrating on what else needs to be done, or checking Facebook on my phone, and that’s really not fair to them. So I really want to focus on this in 2015, and as part of that to be proactive and vary the things we do.

It’s also going to be a big challenge to stay in touch with people now we’ve moved away, so my goal in this area is to reply. I can be rubbish at staying in touch with those I don’t see – not because I don’t want to – so I hope this is one action I can take that will have a big impact.

To summarize my key goals for 2015 are to: