The last six weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. In early November, I took a couple days off work and ended up pinching a nerve/pulling a muscle in my lower lumbar. This probably happens every few years when I tweak something back there and I’m down-and-out for a day or two. Lucky me, this was a two weeklong ordeal. As the end of November approached, and I couldn’t really shake the pain and immobility, I decided to go to a massage therapist and see if they could work it out. And they did, just a few days before we were scheduled to fly to New York for Thanksgiving.

In general, being in New York was great, but after only a day or two, my back decided to rebel. I’m pretty sure it was a result of sleeping on a different bed than I wasn’t used to. My bed at home is of medium softness where the beds at my sister-in-law’s are pretty hard. Most of the visit I was in pain and hunched over like an old man. It was difficult to move around.

The day after we got home, I got another massage, a mere 10 days since the last one. Would this help like the last one? It did. I was still sore for a day or two afterward, but I could tell it was from the deep massage and not the initial “injury”.

I finally felt like I was in the clear, but nope. A few days after returning home I started to get sick. It was early December and I’m pretty sure I picked it up either from the family or maybe the airport. For two weeks I was congested, coughing and generally feeling rundown. And, of course, as Christmas approached, I got my wife sick too. She went through the same thing that I did. But we both recovered a few days before Christmas and largely had a great time over the holiday.

We’re creeping up to 2026 now, and I am spending the next week doing a lot of planning. There are projects around the house that I really want to tackle, but there’s so many that sometimes I lose track and get a little overwhelmed. That’s not to say I can’t get these things done, it’s about organizing. And yes, I’ve talked about this here before, but I’ve never really sat and made plans to get some of these things done. I’ve also never taken these projects and broken them down into steps and put them into a calendar. I know when I do that, I can accomplish things in a very timely fashion. And I think that, in the past, I simply tried to manage it all in my head.

That’s not all I’m working on this next week. I really want to start grinding on creative projects. Those need to be put together and scheduled as well, and I really need to create a good creative life/personal life balance to get everything done (or at least started). I have some fun, creative ideas, and I received a Christmas gift that may be a game changer in getting some of these projects done. No spoilers yet, as I still have some testing to do. I’ve also spent time over the last couple of months purchasing some things that should make these projects happen. Again, it’s all about organizing, planning, then executing.

So, I hope to stay motivated and continue to press forward. I think the likelihood is extremely high that momentum will be achieved soon, and I’ll have a bunch of interesting things to post up here.

Even though January 1st is just a date on a calendar, it does hint at the idea of a new beginning, or sorts. I hope that everyone out there finds time to start doing something interesting, fun, or creative. Good luck!