This is my last post of the year and I am being reminded once again of my very humble beginnings when I started to blog in 2008. I didn’t even think I could have lasted this long, but I guess I surprised myself more than anything else.

More than 5 years have since passed and while I have been a little errant in trying to drive readership to my site since I revamped by old Slice of Life blog – mainly because my work commitment leaves me very little time to work on my site, I still feel very fulfilled for being able to generate content every now and then to upkeep this site. The fact is, despite the time constraint, I still enjoy writing.  Writing has become an outlet for me and while I am aware that my writing is not for the masses, I am forever grateful to those who take the time to come back to my site and read my stories.

2013 has been a year of major decisions that could potentially change the course of my life forever. From making the decision to leave my comfortable employment and taking a much more challenging job with lesser compensation, to  hiring a professional website designer to not only overhaul my blog, but to own my own domain as well as officially launching it to the public,  to trying to take up an online course while attempting to juggle my crazy work hours, to developing content not only for Grubbs n Critters but to other parenting network as well as trying to redeem myself to be a good mother who cooks for her family because she really wants to, have all been a tad overwhelming to say the least.

That being said, it has also been a year of learning and accumulating wisdom. It felt like the year sort of unfolded in such a way that it was my year to do things for no one but myself. It was, for me a year of personal growth – mentally and emotionally. The entire experience has somewhat been a little crazy, but  I feel like I have grown to be a lot more confident of myself; especially so when I minimized the listening to those little voices in my head.

It has been THE year when I allowed a little time-out for myself, accepting the flaws I have as a parent who tries very hard to keep learning from my mistakes and improve on it as I grudgingly surrendered that I could never return my two offspring back to the hospital because no matter how difficult they have been, they have also been the one single joy in my life.  The kids, effectively have been training me and I do realized that I learn a lot more about myself as a parent from them than any other parenting books I have read.

Our fortunate experience to be able to brave out travelling with two young kids to the Netherlands, to Singapore and most recently a weekend away in Pattaya without any reliance on external help further pushes the boundaries of our parenting style that had inevitably brought us closer together as a family unit. We love our travels and we hope to be able to do it with the kids with greater ease in time to come.

To all the readers of Grubbs n Critters, thank you for the hits and thank you for the shares you have done for me. Thank you for being a part of my journey and I hope you will not only continue to share what I write, but my wish is to hear from you more often if you would be so kind to drop me a note every now and then.

As I wrote that very sentence, I am being reminded by the departure of a dear friend and once a loyal follower of my blog, Vicvanvinkle who succumbed to aggressive breast cancer earlier this year. Every now and then, I would stumble upon the comments she left on my posts and I still find it hard to believe that she had been gone for a while. My greatest regret is not contacting her often enough and thinking about her still makes my heart weep. May God bless your soul, my dear friend Vic – believe it or not, I still think about you.

There really isn’t much festivities in our household this year and I have decided to do away with some of the heavy cooking this year because, I had wanted to take it easy this time round and enjoy the time with our kids. However, with Butterball Turkey going on sale, I succumbed to my own nagging feeling that I could NOT just do-away with our annual Turkey tradition for New Year’s and prepared it anyway.

Twenty-thirteen has been a crazy but amazing at the same time and I have come to believe that perhaps, just perhaps, for all those things that had happened so far, they did happen for a reason. And, as we close the chapter of 2013 and celebrate the coming of the new year, let us not forget the unfortunate. Practice kindness as much as we can, see the good in human instead. As we get busy trying to please other people,  let us also not forget to take care of our hearts, our minds and our soul.Most of all, in the pursuit of better things in life, let us not forget to spend time with our loved ones and make time to be present for our little ones who look up to us for guidance and inspiration. Let us not forget to look for the little victories and the little things in life that make us happier.

If there is one thing that sticks for me, life is really too short to be unhappy.

From Grubbs ‘n Critters, here is us wishing you a memorable, happy closure to 2013 and welcoming a wonderful 2014 with many, many happy returns.

Auld Lang Syne, my friends.