Welcome to Sophie’s Creative and the Seasonal Column of Spring 2023!

In this ‘The Seasonal Column’ I give you a summary of my life and the blog of the past seasons. In this edition the past half year is highlighted as well as the status of my New Year’s Resolutions and I give preview of this summer and upcoming autumn. Curious? Enjoy reading!

The Midyear Summary

January & February Reflection

The year started with great ideas, a content mindset and average energy. I created a few blog posts and worked hard in the background on the databases and future content. But there it was: the energy difficulty.

During the first months of this year I had enough energy to do my job and just enough energy to live a normal basic life. Sometimes a social event, sometimes a family event, sometimes just visiting a new place, sometimes just only doing what is really needed to do, sometimes huge study sessions. But all have one thing in common during those first two months of the year: sometimes. I had not the energy to do something extra beside my job and the basic of the basics.

The energy difficulty: a lack of energy due to having a mentally difficult time at work as a data engineer. In search for a challenge, in search for structure and in search for feedback. Eventually in search for the feeling that you’re on the right spot doing the right thing where your strength of skills blossom. The so-called flow.

Such things can happen to anyone at anytime in their life. And I know that if I get a fever while I am already for a while feeling cracks in a flow, than I know I need to change something from that moment onward. Well, this for sure is: It’s a matter of perspective. I felt unhappy and that’s my feeling and something I should control during my whole life, act on it whenever it occurs for a longer period of time and seriously start healing the cracks. That takes time.

It is what we do with our emotion that is important to keep living steadily and eventually really happily!

Sophie van den Akker – July 2023

And as you can imagine: blogging was hard because I often write when I am feeling happy and have an urge to tell something that hopefully makes others content, inspired or happy as well. I took a natural break from posting blogs, but continued in the background on a huge database setup and content preparation with lots of things in mind and on paper.

March & April reflection

At the brink of recovery and waking up more happily every single day: life happened!

Oh yes again, another life changing event!
Have you already an idea?
It is a happy one…
It is also a “you-got-one-chance” thing too…
It is an expensive one…
It is a “you better learn quick” one…
It is a “you also better do your homework in that” one…
It is a “nearly soaking up all free time” one…
It is a “forever greatful towards all the people helping” one…
It is also a bit a luck for the moment and time management.

So what is this suddenly all about? The big news is: we bought a house! A real house in this small country called The Netherlands. A real house that has big strong walls, a pointed roof, at least space for: a bedroom, a bathroom, a study and a living. And much more.

Preparing to buy a house spontaneously, to bid and eventually buying; all the preparation – reading books about buying a house in this country, checking the law, doing a financial deepdive in the administration an lots of meetings with formal advisors and our nearest dearests as informal advisors – devoured all our free time in the months of March and April.

Two months you think? Roughly yes for all things related and to be found and bound by paper.

Month of May Reflection

The month of may started with preparing for the physical stuff that comes along with buying a house: to move!

But meanwhile it was time for a (planned) break after all the ‘homework’ (literally) we had done the past couple of weeks to buy a house.

We went on holiday to Brittany! Completely offline camping, being physically active with lots of walks and hiking paths, cultural visits and photography of the wonderful nature! Later on I will share a couple of photos on the blog and write a few pieces of sites and events we have visited such as ‘La Pointe du Raz’ and the ‘La Golfe du Semaine’.

The month of may ended with the exchange of the keys for the new house – we were so excited that we came back early from holiday! And I did some volunteering work at the Roparun.

Month of June Reflection

The months of March, April and May were busy but structured. The month of June was a bit more chaotic. The first week was still structured and we were busy at the new house: buying paint and lots of stuff for the finishing touches of the ‘carrosserie’ of the house. We will not finish each project this summer, but a start is a start. And a nice result of the kind of ‘DIY’-week was that we officially moved already soon after!

The following weeks in the month of June I was busy with a change at work. I had the feeling that I had found the flow again! This meant though that my function was to change. This happened this week, halfway in July.

And I am happy to announce that I am as of last Monday a software engineer at a software applications team at the same employer. Most important thing: I’m feeling happy now again for every single day!

The search for for a challenge, structure and feedback had come to an end. I hope wholeheartedly that the strength of my skills will blossom again for this company due to happiness and being at the right spot at the right time in my life.

The month of June had as one of the highlights a performance with the band I’m in as a saxophonist (since March 2023) and another highlight was a lovely housewarming from a dear friend. And last but not least: I started another study (oh yes, keep on studying with me, Sophie). It’s an international study focussing on the digitalization of businesses and a combination of IT, IoT, economics, entrepreneurship and finance. More about that later on in a separate series of course and multimedia like my YouTube CHannel.

New Year Resolutions

So after this bumpy half year that led to a bit of a bumpy reflection at the beginning of this blog post, how is the status of my New Year Resolutions I so carefully pointed out at the beginning of 2023?

The comparison is with my New Years Resolutions blog post of 2023:

The New Year Resolutions for 2023

Personal – Daily life

The sum up of my daily life has not changed. Even in the energy-low period I sticked to these four.

The Blog’s New Year’s Resolutions

The ‘I would love to’ part is seriously delayed. The thrive is back and so the blogs! Expect more of this in August and onwards to 2024.

The ‘I would like to’ is seriously delayed as well but the backlog has been filled with more items, I finish reading books every few weeks and sometimes even within days.

Lots of video editing has still to be done. Expect the first videos also at the beginning of August on my YouTube channel! (And I will write a blog post about it).

Personal New Year’s Resolutions

This category of resolutions is doing much better. I became more healthy mentally by finding back a basic happiness. Sometimes I try new recipes and I am more consciously aware of the right nutrition. And soon I will be exploring and learning a new coding area related to automation.

The ‘I would like to’ resolutions are delayed to autumn. With this warm weather in Europe I am inconsistently sporty active instead of starting consistently training for an increased healthy condition.

That’s it for the midyear review on my New Year’s Resolutions!

Sneak Peek Summer and Autumn of 2023

So after all this busy life changing events have happened, what can you expect from me and my blog the upcoming months?

From the 1st of August I will blog again more regularly and I will post a first video of this year on Youtube. This blog will also undergo a few minor changes due to the longterm plans I have for it.

Will I be immediatly in the perfect hobbyrhythm – so to call my freetime spending at my blog time – during August? Probably not yet, but I’ll do my upper best to be back on track with my New Year’s Resolutions soon and provide lots of inspiring blog posts and crossmedia about books, films, series, games, gadgets and code!

Loves from Sophie