It’s been a month since the start of the project. Cutting down, living green, tuning into slow and simple. It’s been more “successful” than I anticipated. The last three weeks we’ve been staying in Bosnia, up on the mountains, living in a big loghouse heated by wood, surrounded by deep forest.

We weren’t planning to come here, not to mention to stay this long. I will be returning to Ljubljana with our baby in less than a week – as for my husband, I’m not sure yet. But I gather we couldn’t have had a better beginning for the project.

We’ve definitely used less power than at home. The lodge is entirely heated by wood, there’s only a pump making the hot water go round the house. For some of the time we’ve been cut off power, due to heavy snowfall damaging the powerlines. We’ve recharged the phones and laptop when needed, but on top of that it’s only a few light bulbs and two fridges working on electricity.

We’ve been eating mainly local and domestic food stuffs. We’ve spent a huge amount of time together, doing nearly nothing. As the time’s been spent in the mountains, we’ve adopted the mountain looks and style, thus doing less laundry, going to shower less frequently, and me using nearly zero of make-up. We’ve been going to bed early (meaning less power usage late in the evenings) and doing the daily chores during daylight hours.

It’s been slow and simple. In every way.

There’s been times I haven’t enjoyed it one bit. I’ve missed home, I’ve missed living downtown. I’ve even missed TV, and some of my kitchen appliances. But I have to admit, mostly it’s been good.

Once we found a routine to all this, it began to be enjoyable. And it got me thinking what are all these things I – or for that matter you or us all – need or want to accomplish? Since I seem to end up in these kind of conditions time and time again, what if this is me? What if it’s my part to live this slow life, opening my house to stranges and friends alike?

I’m a mother. That’s my number one position in life. I have a creative and observative mind, and I’ve got some organisational skills. So I make an ok writer and a producer. I form a good team with my husband, I love him, he’s my home (not that the title wife makes it any different from a girlfriend, though). I’m happy with these definitions of who and where I am.

It’s not too many days now, when someone asked me what would I want to be remembered of. Cliche as it may be, the answer would be: love and time. That there was plenty of both, and that I didn’t withhold either.

It seems to me I’ve been hurrying a lot in my life. I’ve been too preoccupied with work, stress, to do -lists, and myself, to give an impression of plenty of time in my hands, to enjoy with family and friends. If love and time are what I aspire to give, it just might be I’ve been doing the wrong things.

Another possible cliche: If someone had told me a few years ago, that I’m married to a man born in Sarajevo, that we have a beautiful girl, that I’m running a service production agency, and that we’re living in Slovenia – I’d had a very hard time believing.

That’s why I’m wondering, if what’s being thrown at me now, what if that’s me? Perhaps I’m not going to achieve anything greater than this, my family, the mountain lodge in Bosnia, the small business in Ljubljana. Come what may. Life seems to throw the strangest things at us. And it sure seems like a year with many unexpected happenings.

One month down, 11 to go. I have a suspicion the project is already living a life of its own.