I have been struggling with the direction to take this blog. But one thing is for certain, writing helps with my anxiety. The past two years have not been fun. Massive work pressure, burn out, a heart condition and perimenopause have been smacking me around. I’m tired 24/7 and made the choice last year to not work fulltime anymore. I just can’t do it anymore, my body won’t let me. So we are quite a few weeks into 2026 and I have been feeling better. Mood improved and at times I am looking forward to doing stuff. Still on a long way to my old self, learning to cope with my chronic illness but in the end I will be okay.
Last week was very uneventful, the weather was shit and that was such a shame because the few blossoms that we get in my local area were blown off the trees. Climate change has been doing a number on nature and it sucks.
One of my hobbies is collecting Japanese craft and doll magazines and the new Dollybird was set to release at the end of March. It usually takes a week or so for it to arrive at my place and I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t hit with import fees this time round. I haven’t heard that Japan and the Netherlands have made a trade deal and most Japanese websites ship duty paid on delivery. Maybe the custom gods graced me this time as I have been a loyal servant for many years.
It’s the second time I was tempted by Dollybird to buy a collab they have set up. Mimi décor is one of my favourite doll clothes creators out there and I am blessed to have some of her work for my girls. So I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to buy this Ruruko styled by Mimi through Amiami. She will ship around December, so enough time on the waiting game haha.
My husband and I wanted to make Easter special this year. Not that we are religious, far from it, but because we want to create more special memories together and fun home dinner dates are the way to do this. Per Dutch tradition we are doing a gourmet on Easter Sunday and an BBQ on Easter Monday because the weather was going to be fabulous. This meant I placed an order at our local farm shop. They are known for sustainable livestock farming and everything is homemade and high quality. We have cut down on our meat consumption significantly and only want to support local businesses. Supermarkets have been taking the mickey out of the consumers for so long now. Picked up our order on Saturday, the shop was packed but everyone was in a good mood. I felt fantastic.
Another good thing I had been doing this week, is cutting down on my news consumption.
These days I’ve been feeling helpless. It feels that the whole world has gone to shit and I can’t do anything to stop it. Hate is triumphing around the worlds and bombs dropped on kids. I feel like I am screaming in the void and find myself crying, being frustrated that I cannot stop people fighting and hurting each other. I donate to humanitarian aid, to Save the Children, but it feels like it will never be enough. I am not deaf and blind to the hurt that is happening, I write to my representatives whom have chosen to turn the other cheek because of wrong allegiances. I was able to cut ties with toxic relatives, so why can’t my country cut ties with facist regimes?
So for self preservation I won’t follow the live blog on Iran, curated my Bluesky feed with less reposts about what Dumpf is saying. I speak out whenever someone asks my opinion, that war is wrong and it needs to stop. But I will not engage with people who are out there to be toxic, to hate and cheer about death. Love is love, trans people have the right to exist, I boycot products from companies that have sketchy leadership or made the choice to build factories and accomodations in occupied territories. This is my little battle I can hold and take.
And speaking of boycots, I have terminated my Spotify subscription because the company sucks so much and I don’t even miss it after a week. Little wins over corporate greed.
This blog was written by me, Maankatje, a real person with feelings and ideas. I do not support AI. It is a creativity stealing, environment destroying machine, used in propaganda by henious governments. I do not give permission for this post to be scraped by AI to train.