The van Putten Diaries

Sometime in the spring of last year, I started waking up every single day with a headache.  It kept me in a fog all day and made me irritable all the time.   After a couple of months, I went to the doctor, who checked my ears and said they were fine.  She recommended physical therapy for my jaw.  So I went to the physical therapist and after several weeks of adjustments and training, my headache was finally better.   Alongside the physical therapy, I started going to get regular massages.  The headache issue was clearly caused by a neck strain I'd gotten at the beginning of the year that affected my jaw in such a way that my whole head suffered. Long story short(ish), I started really trying to take better care of myself last year.  Some of it started in 2024 with some gender-affirming care, but last year was when I really started pushing away all of the other obligations and zoomed in on myself. And it's really gotten me thinking - I am spen...

The Veluwezoom, April 2025 To be perfectly honest, my mental health hasn't been in top form for the last couple of months and I feel really disconnected from the meaningful reflection that I typically like to dedicate some time to with a new calendar year.  The middle of winter is not an ideal time for such activities anyway, in my opinion, but there is value in documenting what I can, when I can, so that I can take it out and have a deeper look when the time is right.   So, let's give it a shot.  How was 2025?  How will I remember 2025 when I look back?  I have no idea.  Let's look at some themes and figure it out together. Guests and Friends We had a lot of visitors this year and also made a lot of new friends.  Nic's mom lived with us for a month in the spring and we had so many wonderful adventures with her - glamping, day trip to the beach, museums, bike rides.  While she was here, we also had 3 other sets of visitors coming and going....