I’ve decided to switch it up this year, so my Good Things Friday posts will now be monthly on the last Friday of the month.

• New Year, New possibilities?
• I’ve already mentioned my mum’s Christmas Pudding, but I’m listing it again because I ate it in January.
• Our son, E and K’s excitement about their engagement.
• E and K arriving home safely from their trip to South Africa.
• Getting back into a proper running schedule
• The Mountain to Surf fun run and a weekend away with friends
• Bananagrams. A fun and portable game.
• Picking berries and making jam
• Beach days. Swimming in the ocean.
• Having a real summer. The weather this year has been fantastic. Warm, but not ridiculously hot, with enough beach days and no days when we needed to get our jackets.
• Time with my parents and extended family at Point Lonsdale. Having a break from deciding what’s for dinner and more hands to share the work around.
• Booking our accommodation for Wales. I had to rough out what I thought we might do so I could work out how many nights to spend where. I settled on six nights at a cottage in the countryside near Bangor, four nights in St David and three nights in the Brecon Beacons. I also booked three nights in Oxford for myself while G will be working. The anticipation and planning of the trip are a big part of my enjoyment.
• Seeing lots of Splendid Fairy Wrens – at Lorne, Point Lonsdale and bayside on the foreshore.
• Celebrating dad’s 85th birthday with a big family lunch.
• Puzzle making. Even with our time away, we finished the 4000-piece the girls gave me for my birthday.

• Produce from my garden
• A massage. I think my last one was in 2023, and I was well overdue.
• Horseradish or horseradish creme. We’ve had roast beef several times this month and I love, love, love having horseradish with it.
• Steak night at the pub with the kids and a couple of friends.
• Getting back to Tuesday night sessions with our running group. I hadn’t been since last March. On Tuesday nights, I will drive to the girl’s place, meet our daughter, S, and run together to Xavier, where the sessions are usually held. I work harder in a group environment and think S does, too.
• Australia Day long weekend. We went back to my parent’s place at Point Lonsdale.
• Rereads. I read Sharon Penman’s Welsh trilogy years ago and have started a reread. So good. I devoured the first book in a few days, and now I’m waiting for our daughter H to pick up the second book from her library.
• Watching the Australian Open Tennis. The only Grand Slam on at a reasonable time for us. The women’s final was so good – big congratulations to Madison Keys.
• MAFS, our guilty pleasure is back on TV.
• Herbal and green tea. My parents have a cup of tea every night after dinner, and I joined them with a sleep-tight herbal tea. The girls gave me a gift box of three teas for my birthday. I’ve also been having a cup of either herbal or oolong tea during the day. We have many tins of oolong and green tea gifted from Chinese friends and suppliers, so I have a ready supply.

Good Reads:

• Ideas for reaching out and offering support that isn’t “let me know if you need anything”
• I know I need to balance the structured, scheduled, willpowered parts of my day with opportunities to do what I feel like doing otherwise I just throw everything off and do whatever. I’m not the only one, according to Oliver Burkemann at The Imperfectionist.
• Some interesting thoughts about the basic needs or life maintenance work we all have: “If you were rich would you fold laundry” And related: Life Cannot be Delegated – “to take flight from the mundane is to take flight from the world.” And also related, Diane wrote: “I wonder if the people who are the most content are the ones who are able to find as much joy and satisfaction in the every day routines and rhythms of life as they are to find it in new and novel experiences”
• 82 Sustainable Goals
• I wrote about how my home environment supports some of my good habits, but maybe I need to level up with a Kettlebell in my Kitchen. Environment>Discipline>Motivation.
• Consistent small habits add up, which is why I love Nicole’s Yoga Challenge.
• San wrote about the ethical dilemmas posed by Tech Bros. You might also like ways to limit Meta’s ability to collect and monetize your data.
• 100+ journalling ideas to try in 2025. There are lots of possible blog fodder in that list, too.
• In February, join Elisabeth in the F.I.G. Collective.
• Advice for a friend who wants to start a blog

How has your January been?