2025 In Review and Goals for 2026

It's that wonderful time of the year where I reflect on the last 365 days! I'm coming to realize that I love collecting, organizing, and analyzing data. I love "At a Glance" summaries and reports. It's too bad I'm so bad at math, or I would've made a really great accountant. (Is that what accountants do? I don't even know.) Anyway, here's what happened in 2025.

1. In an effort to get a better handle on our finances, I paid for a budget service for the first time in 2025. I diligently tracked every cent with YNAB throughout the year, and spent two hours yesterday poring over the results. It's equal parts fascinating and maddening. We spent more on groceries than our mortgage! More on our monthly water bill than the gas to heat our house. I spent $300 on books. I'd guess at least 75% of them were thrifted and donated to the church library. Next year I'm going to do a better job of tracking my book spending. I appreciated YNAB, but ultimately realized that I don't want a budgeting program. I just want a spending tracker. Stop yelling at me for going over budget and let me live my life. 😜 As I keep an eye on the spending, I'll adjust accordingly. I have a loose budget in my head, but I'm sick of explaining all the exceptions to the robotic budget police. In 2026, I'm switching to Rocket Money. I do think it costs something (currently in the free trial), but it's not as much as YNAB. And I'm not even bothering with a budget. Just straight up tracking expenses. This is 40, y'all. Living the dream.

2. 2025 was a big year for Lena. She played team sports for the first time - basketball with Upward, and soccer at school - and realized that she loves it. She also did a couple of sessions of gymnastics and continues to be amazing and tenacious. None of this would've been possible without the Prozac prescription that has changed her life. We did have to up it again in October. It's going to be a constant adjusting game as she grows and goes through hormonal changes. Meds obviously aren't for everyone, but I can't say enough about the difference they've made in Lena's life. 

3. Justin turned 40 and we had the most expensive meal of our lives at Bowdie's Chophouse (thanks to a gift card!)

4. Lucy broke 3 metatarsals on the top of her foot - unexpectedly taking home the award for being the first one of my children to break a bone! 

5. I was officially promoted to Development Director - a job I've mostly enjoyed and only cried about a handful of times. 😁 I also started storytime in the church library, continued my school library work, and served on the soccer camp committee. It very often felt like juggling 4 part time jobs, which was unsustainable, so unfortunately storytime got cut from the roster. I'm hoping it can make a comeback eventually, but for now I'm going to focus on doing everything else well. 

6. Lena got baptized on Easter

7. Lucy took driver's training and got her permit. She's been slowly racking up hours over the past couple of months. 

8. We went to the Dude Perfect World Tour show 

9. Lena spent a lot of the year crocheting and listening to Odyssey (I finally bit the bullet and paid for the subscription. She makes good use of it!) She and her friend Harper made bank by selling some of their creations at the kids' market in town.

10. I read 40 nonfiction books between my 39th and 40th birthday. It was a fun challenge, and I definitely learned a lot and broadened my horizons, but I'll be happy to stick to mainly fiction in 2026. 😄

11. Levi was super involved with Justin's soccer team this year. He went to a lot of the practices and games, and earned himself the title of team mascot. He even got to skip school and go to the big tournament in Ohio. 

12. And finally, Justin and I celebrated our 20th anniversary with a dream vacation in Cancun.

I read 67 books (don't tell Levi), exceeding my goal of 50 by 17 books! I'm keeping my goal at 50 again for 2026, though. A lot of this year's books were a last ditch effort to meet my nonfiction goal. I doubt I'll read that many next year. 

See the full list here

I had four 5-star reads this year. Interestingly, they were all nonfiction. . . 

1. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

2. Fallout by Steve Sheinkin

3. Home With God by Kyle Worley

4. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Some of my favorite fiction reads this year were Gabrielle Meyer's Timeless series, Mimi Matthews' Crinoline Academy series, and Connilyn Cossette's The Kings Men series. 

Lucy read 66 books for the year, Lena read a lot of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and just started Christy Miller. And Levi absolutely blasted through audiobooks. We were relatively strict with screen time all year, but he must be entertained every second of every day, so he pretty much always has an audiobook going. He listened to a whopping 64 audiobooks in 2025. 36 of them were Boxcar Children and 19 were from the Warrior Cats series. He also listened to some Dead Sea Squirrels, Ralph Mouse, and a few other random ones. I read the first Harry Potter book aloud to the kids this year, and Justin read another 14+ to Levi at bedtime (lots of Humphrey). Levi also has to read every day at school, so between the books he's read there and the few he's picked up at home, he read at least 31 books to himself! (Mostly graphic novels like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Cat Kid Comic Club, or Puppy Place books.) His grand total (that I have record of at least) is 109 books!! 

Justin read a lot of WWII nonfiction, but I don't keep track for him so you'll have to ask him for his total. 😁

Goals for 2026

My word for this year is "together." I'm panicking about my kids growing up so fast and consumed with guilt that we don't spend enough time together. So I've instituted a plan for some forced family fun. Dinner together every night followed by The Bible Recap and 30 minutes of togetherness with no devices. I bribed the kids by telling them we can do a family fun activity for every 100 days we complete. We'll see how it goes once sports and spring fundraisers start. But I really want to at least make the family Bible reading a priority. Even if I'm terrified of reading through it with Levi. I skimmed Genesis a couple days ago, and there are already so many things I don't want to explain about rape and prostitution and the whole Onan story . . . But I know that the best place for Levi to learn about hard realities is in the safety of family, regardless of how uncomfortable it is for the rest of us.

So there you have it. I feel like there's a trend lately to act like every single year is a dumpster fire:

I'm choosing to move into 2026 with this mindset, instead:

 

May this year be filled with moments of growth, gratitude, and glory to God!