2009

A photo from each month

With the close of 2009 not only being the end of a year, but also a decade, best of, worst of, most popular, etc lists are in abundance, and cheesy as they can sometimes be I secretly love them. There can be something really lovely looking back over the year, seeing how things have changed and grown. 2009 has been a busy year for us, really, really busy in fact. But good. We started a business together, and I started practicing as a doula and established Hello Mama Doula Collective with a group of other doulas. Richard has been studying part time, while continuing to work his 'day' (really, crazy middle of the night) job and working on Bliss in a Teacup. We're really proud of how hard we've worked, and to realise tonight that while starting out with no savings and using entirely our own money, we're now able to buy supplies from the 'shop account' and are a decent amount in the black. I actually debated even writing about that, I'm always wary of sounding too much like I'm blowing my own trumpet and itch to include a caveat like 'but, we're still so very small' or 'we really should have saved more', 'we haven't even 100 sales yet', but I think it is good to be proud of your accomplishments and am learning to not be embarrassed by that. I'm also very aware that success is not created in vacuum and we have many amazing people to thank that have bought our products, promoted us on blogs, taken a chance of us in stores, given us tips on where to get supplies and generally encouraged us.

As I was browsing my folders of photos to choose the above images, I was definitely struck how fast this year seems to have gone. I wonder if it is something to do with how busy we've been, that feeling. Busy both practically and emotionally. It has been a crazy year in some ways. We've both seemed to have gotten sick a whole lot, we almost lost our dear old cat and money has been rather tight which is always stressful. We've met and made friends with some really awesome people, close friends have moved away and I've had a good friendship come abruptly and unexpectedly to an end. But mixed in with all the crazy, there has been a lot of growth, and so even when I so often lamented 2009 and wished for it to just be done with, I do look back fondly. I feel incredibly happy, content and blessed, and also excitedly look forward to a fresh, new year.

I hope you've all had lovely holidays, and I wish you all the best for 2010. Thank you all so much for reading and commenting, and I really hope to get to know you all that little bit better in the new year.

xo