The half-year gone, the half-year to come

I have been such a desultory blogger this year. I have been busy, but it has been more than that - I'm finding myself more inclined to use my writing energy on poetry and flash fiction rather than life logging, and that is OK (to everything a season ...)

However, I'm not ready yet to give away my blog. It has served a lot of useful purposes for me over the years, not least as an aide memoire regarding the many things we've done, thought, tried, and loved. I thought it might be time to do a meta-check-in, for Future Me if nothing else!

2018 is now half-over. So far, in big-ticket items, it's brought me:
- A poetry award
- Our wonderful trip to Japan (April)
- A fulltime workload in my freelance business
- Great family birthday celebrations
- 3 business trips to Adelaide
- In sadder news, the passing of my mother-in-law

For the rest of this year, I am looking at:
- Continuing fulltime workload
- Small family trip to Sea Lake (just 5 days, but should be good)
- Possible USA trip for my eldest kid to Space Academy (she is hoping anyway!)
- Release of my poetry book, She Said: Women of Story
- Planning and booking our next overseas holiday to New Zealand (early 2019)

Health-wise, it has been a good year on the whole. We've all had minor colds and stomach upsets, and I have had one fatigue crash probably due to one of my autoimmunes lolloping out of control temporarily, but basically it's all been good.

Family-wise, I won't say it has been an unchallenging year. The events preceding and following my mother-in-law's death were very difficult, as well as, of course, the death itself and the emotions surrounding that. We have also had other problems of varying scope and severity, which we have worked through, but it hasn't been an easy journey.

I feel like I have already run a marathon this year and there is still half of it to go - both with tiring but amazing things, and with tiring and hard / painful things. Working a fulltime load and juggling between three clients, as I have been doing since returning from Japan, is taking a toll on me, and it will not let up this year - maybe not until mid-2019, depending on how things go.

I am hoping that the back half of 2019 will be a little less booked with work - my ideal would be 3.5 - 4 days a week, instead of the 5-6 I am currently doing - but that is a year away, which might as well be a lifetime.

The money is really nice, and is allowing us to make extra mortgage payments, have a holiday in NZ next year to celebrate my partner's 50th birthday (way earlier than we had thought we'd be able to go overseas again!), and look at some house renovations that we've been wanting to do. The cost, though, is real, in terms of energy, health, creativity, and family life. I can do it for another year and we'll certainly be able to make good use of the funds. But I don't want to keep going like this indefinitely.