Happy new year!! What new year energy are you? Loving the planning and renewed vigor to go for your goals? Cuddled up and immersed in winter’s coziness? Somewhere in between?

I tend to feel filled with the fresh slate energy of a new year and the opportunity to reflect, ponder, and plan. I’ve been doing just that as I packed up Christmas decor and enjoyed my favorite weeks of the year- the ones between Christmas and going back to all the regularly scheduled commitments. We all even made vision boards on New Years Day during the Georgia game and shared them with each other at half time.

I leveled up my storage game this year with stackable bins, clearly labeled by room, but for tree ornaments you aren’t going to get better than this storage container.

2026 New Year Goals (& Reflection)

I feel ready to share some of my 2026 goals, but first, a quick reflection on the intentions I set for 2025 and how I feel about the progress made on them. I had so many I categorized them! Let’s take a look.

Family Intentions for 2025

• Find a home church. ✅ Now to advance that focus to getting more consistent and involved.
• Find a good balance of activities and free time. 🚫Fall was a little overbooked but I think we have a good set up for this upcoming spring.
• Continue with family game nights and movie nights. ✅ More movies than games the past few months, but yes, these remain staples in our family culture.
• Plug into our new community. ✅ Feeling good about this one!
• Plan a fun family trip. ✅ We went to Scotland!

Financial Intentions for 2025

• Tidy up our bank accounts. ✅ All the moving transitions and address updates are complete!
• Keep up to date with categorizing expenses so we can better track. 🚫 Now a 2026 goal- ha! We want to track more closely. David is on it now with his QuickBooks.
• Find a local organization to support. ✅🚫Rating this as both, as I did find the organization I want to support but failed on the follow through.

Health Intentions for 2025

• Learn about Homeopathic remedies. ✅ I still have a lot to learn but a few remedies are go to staples now.
• Grow some of our own food. ✅ I learned so much! Squash, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs- it was so fun to feed my fam from the garden.
• Go on more hikes. ✅🚫 Eh- daily hikes in the woods- YES. So many. State park hikes? One. Yes, only one.
• Share more blog posts about my health interests and experiments. 🚫 I only did a few.

Personal Intentions for 2025

• Grow in my faith. ✅🚫 I did learn more about the bible but feel like I didn’t plug in as much as I intended to. I think I need some structure and guidance.
• Less time on my phone. ✅ I’ve cut back substantially on scrolling.
• Expand my friendships. ✅ Feeling like I’ve made good progress in this direction.
• Learn a new skill. ✅ I learned to pickle, learned how to care for chickens, and learned so much in gardening!
• Make our house a home. ✅🚫 I made huge progress in choosing furniture and the basics, but now I want to really lean into the personalization.

This year…. I’m in the mood to consolidate. I think last year I was so eager to plug in and get established in our new town and community that I was full throttle in so many categories. To be fair, it worked. I now have a garden, a chicken coop with laying hens, local friends to text and hang with, activities and friends for the kids, and a strong family that enjoys being together. Are there still goals to shoot for? Always! But I’m feeling deeply grateful and content as well.

A very sleepy made-it-to-midnight crew!

Keeping our new year day picture tradition going strong with our luck, money, & love bowls.

My 2026 Goals

• Personalize the house. This one is big for me as someone that hesitates to hang things on the wall yet craves a welcoming, warm home that immediately tells our guest this is who we are. I think I’m going to focus on one room at a time, beginning with the living room. ChatGPT is helping me big time.
• Provide connection and value here on the blog. The chatty posts are my favorite to write, but I want to balance that with helpful content from what I’ve learned over the years making dinners for my family, raising kids, running a household, planning travel, and other topics I enjoy discussing.
• Learn to pressure can. I have a fancy new appliance that a friend promises is easy to use. I want to can chicken, salsa, and more.
• Plug into church more. Join a bible study? Volunteer? Attend more regularly? These are all areas I’m considering. I’m happy to report we are 1/1 for new year Sundays attended!
• Get involved with our chosen charitable organization. I’m so glad I’ve found one that pulls at my heart strings, but now I want to get involved both fiscally and physically.
• Take a big family trip. We have Switzerland on the books and are very much looking forward to the adventure! It’s looking like a travel-heavy spring and I’m excited.
• Level up my look. I lean hard on athleisure, which is fine for days around the house, but I’d like to start feeling a little more pulled together when I’m out and about or have an event. Specifically I’d like to learn to dress for my body type, layer jewelry, apply lashes for events, and invest in quality staple pieces in good fabrics with less fast fashion.
• Eat more fiber. Top fiber foods: beans and legumes, whole grains, berries, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. The plan is to keep my protein intake strong and work on upping the fiber content.

My biggest goal (unlisted) is really to keep up the consistency with what I have established. At 42 years old I feel in a good place with the things I value most. Continuing to pour into these areas is most important to me as I also learn to stretch with these new goals. I’m so grateful for this life I get to live, the people in it, and the opportunity to continue to learn, grow, and do better with each new year.

Have you established any goals for 2026? I’d love to hear them!