I have been struggling to write lately. I have written a little on my other blog about my various hikes, but not much else.

I’ve been reflecting back on 2020 lately. It was a crazy year for me. I made the major decision to stop working on my PhD. Not a week later we went into lockdown around Covid. When I stopped working on my PhD, I had plans that would allow me to spend the extra time working on a book or two. I have two that I want to self-publish, one related to my breast cancer journey and all the work I put into my PhD dissertation. The second is a book about our Going East bike trip. They are still on my to do list. I’ve made zero progress on both.

In addition to Covid changing everything in 2020, I started teaching more. In 2020, I taught three courses each semester, including the summer. This semester I find myself in the luxury position of teaching only two courses – which is the minimum I need to maintain my status at the university. I won’t be teaching anything this summer. I am so looking forward to taking the summer off of teaching.

Life has also been busy for me at Treehouse Village. When I stopped working on my PhD, I got more involved in helping make Treehouse a reality. I joined the marketing team and began leading the Community Life Circle, which is responsible for fostering a healthy intentional community. We are now over 60% sold and are planning to start construction this year. It is super exciting to think that in 2022 we will move into Treehouse Village and be in our cohousing community. Until then, we are loving living in Bridgewater.

Moving would be another big part of my 2020. On July 3rd we decided to move back to Canada. On August 3rd, we got in our van and left California. The logistics for our move was crazy. We packed our stuff into UBoxes and had them shipped to Maine. We had our car shipped to Maine. We drove our van across the US – fortunate that we could sleep in the van for most of our trip. We quarantined for a week in Maine (until we got our negative Covid results), and then once our stuff arrived we moved it all from the UBoxes into a Uhaul truck which towed our car on a flatbed (did you know that you cannot tow an electric car?). August 17 we cross the border into Canada and drove to a friends place for quarantine.

After quarantine, it took us a month to find a new place to live. We got lucky and found a place that needed work but was very livable in Bridgewater. It is a crazy huge house for the two of us, but it means we have space to renovate, moving from room to room.

Being in Bridgewater has been amazing. We have several future neighbours from Treehouse Village living in Bridgewater, and as time goes by, more and more of our future neighbours are moving here. There are also several of our friends who chose not to join Treehouse, but did choose to move to Bridgewater. It has been amazing to be someplace and already have friends here.

I’ve also discovered how close some of the various hiking trails are. And now that winter is here, I’m discovering various places to go skating on ponds, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing.

Oh ya, and my most important news .. in a couple of weeks I’ll be getting a puppy! She is adorable. I haven’t met her in person yet, but I’ve gotten weekly pictures from the breeder. She is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel crossed with Toy Poodle – so she will be small. I had originally thought I wanted two dogs, but in the end decided that one would be enough of a handful for now – and if all goes well, maybe I’ll get a second one later. I’m so excited to be a doggy mom. I’ve even started sewing doggy things – I’ve sewing a couple of carry bags so that she can come on walks and hikes with us – as she will need to be carried most of the way while she is still a puppy.

And so I wonder, why I’m not getting to book writing …. well, I seem to have filled my days with better things. I’m getting out whenever the weather is good, which is more than I expected – I guess my expectations for winter weather were so low that I’m constantly pleasantly surprised.

My teaching load is less, so I am finding myself with a little more time – so maybe, that will lead to me doing more writing. We’ll see. For now I’m eagerly anticipating the day I get to bring my puppy home and hoping that I’m ready when she gets here.