After weeks of thinking (at least a few times a week) I'd write a quick post, then thinking I never write quick posts, to forgetting I wanted to write a post, finally...it's time.
The crazy busy times haven't passed yet, because I try to work as much as possible for several reasons. But first things first: an update.

Just an AI image of a busy street: it represents what goes on in my head...made with ideogram.ai

┍━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┑

Update on my Daily Things

These past few weeks, I've really only taken a few days off. I think I've had the luxury of 5 free days in six weeks time. It's not a lot.
In those 5 free days, I've spent two with my youngest sprout and some new-found friends at the beach, one with friends and my family in the Plaza for a movie, and two in town for carnaval.
So yeah, it might not be a lot, but when I do take a day off, I surely make the best of it.

I haven't even been working on my website as much as I would like. There are simply not enough days in the week to do it all. As a (part) solution, I've put my kids to work...
My youngest is now creating social media posts for me. He's doing the visual parts. So he finds suitable images and sticks them together in Canva. And to be honest, for a 10-year old, he's quite good at it. He takes good criticism and works with that. So far, I don't have any complaints: he does a great job! I pay him 5 pesos (around US$ 0.25) per post, and he does them so quickly, that I had to cap them at 10 a day or I'd be bankrupt in no time, LOL.

The plan is then that my oldest son adds the texts to the creations, and that my daughter posts them to my company's social media accounts. This hasn't happened yet because neither one of them is around long enough for me to explain how I want it exactly. But I'm hoping that this will happen soon. That way I can post 10 posts to social media each day, which will be needed to get some traction on the website. Fingers crossed...

Just a cute picture of my youngest son and our streetdog Kobe

┍━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┑

New Developments

I was approached by a good friend of mine, who told me he was doing a little bit of work for a company that shares real stories, real images and videos of things that happen all over the world.
This can be 'normal' stuff like regular daily life, but it can also be something that's more serious and is going on in the world. Real journalism, in my opinion. The pay isn't massive, but I was still interested to hear more, since this is something I've been wanting to do since I quit my job as an editor for the magazine/publisher I was working for 15 years ago. I gave up on journalism because it wasn't true journalism anymore, but with this, I might just be back in business...

When I studied journalism ages ago, I wanted to be behind the camera. In the end, I chose to become a writer instead, but the 'behind the camera' itch has never left me.
So here's my chance...
For now, I will only document my daily life, the places we go to, and some events that happen. Like for instance the march for International Women's day that happened here on the 8th, and all over Mexico. I've also documented some of the carnaval festivities here last week.
It's a slow start, but it's better than nothing.
Eventually, I am hoping to travel more, document our travels and finally do what I set out to do many moons ago: travel and get paid to do so. I'm not there yet, but this, in combination with my travel business...well, let's say I'm giving myself a good chance to accomplish just that.

┍━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┑

Short Term Plans

My kids still need to get their residencies here. My daughter first, since she's almost 17 and only has one more year to do so under the family union scheme.
I am hoping to get hers done in the next month or so.
The boys will follow.
I'd feel much better when they all have it, so there won't be any trouble. They are minors, so no one can really do anything, but here, you just never know. Cops might cause issues if they want to if they were ever stopped...
So I'm hoping to prevent anything like that. Those residency visa cost a lot, so one by one it is.

Of course, every time I think we're close to getting it done, something comes up. Like a fridge that needs replacement...

┍━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━┑

The Surprise Visit

My sister is visiting for 3 weeks on the 20th of this month.
My eldest daughter, who is living with my sister in the Netherlands, wasn't going to join us this year, because she had plans to go to Thailand.
Anyone who knows me, will know I was seriously jealous of her. And immensely proud.
For someone with severe (social) anxiety, she's come a long way. Traveling on her own to a strange country.
She was supposed to meet her boyfriend there, but since they didn't know each other for that long before he went on his backpacking trip to SE Asia, she decided to only go there to meet him for three weeks. She didn't want to give up her job, which was very wise. To be honest, wiser than I would have been...I would have packed my bags and ready to go without thinking. Luckily she's not like me in that regard...
Before she traveled there, she asked her love several times if he still wanted her to visit. She even told him two days before her travel date, that he could still back out, no harm done, because then she'd just change her travel plans and visit us here...
He kept telling her he wanted her there. Long story short: she traveled to Bangkok, met with him the next day, traveled to Krabi together, spent two days there, and then...things didn't work out.
I'll spare you the details (nor would I want to tell the full story), but she decided there and then that she wanted to leave. She'd just go back home because she didn't have enough money to buy a new ticket to come here. It's a lot...

Anyway...two days later, the kids and I were at the local taqueria when my daughter walked around the corner:

SURPRISE!

The best possible surprise at that! I didn't think I was going to see her till September at least, so this was amazing. She's been here for a few days now. I am still working, because, well, I have to, but we still try to spend quality time together, and I will take a few days off to do some fun stuff.
You should have seen the face on Sinatra's face (her younger sister) when she saw her. It was priceless...

So there. I think this is all of the updates for now. Hopefully more to come soon.
Work is eating me alive. I am loving it though. But a change of scenery and some other small changes are a good thing...

I know I've said it before; but I will seriously try to write more often. Afteral, it doesn't need to take 4 hours (my usual) to write a post. I can just do a quick 1200-word one, like now. LOL.

See you soon(er)!