Happy New Year! Always crazy to me that a full year has gone by again. As always, I love spending this last day of the year reflecting on the past year and dreaming ahead to the year to come. You can read last year’s end of reflection here.

2025 Recap

2025 was a good year. It was the year that I chose to focus on nourishment. Back in December, when I chose this word I was really thinking it meant focusing on feeding myself better, but it turns out it meant nourishing a little baby too! The biggest gift of 2025 was definitely meeting our little girl at the end of November. A majority of my year was being pregnant. This fact alone made nourishing my body that much more important. I still have some work to do in this area and have to admit I still ate many scraps from the kids, but as a whole I was more mindful of my eating. Early on in the year my friend gave me this amazing bentgo lunch box for my birthday. We have the kid version and use it all the time. This was the perfect gift and truly helped me remember to not just pack snacks/lunch for the kids, but also for myself. Hoping to continue to get better in this!

Some other of my favorite things the year held:

• Friendships. This year was full of time spent with good friends. There are a few families that we have grown closer to in this past year and I feel very thankful for these. It’s been special to watch our oldest son grow in friendships too and he even has a best friend!
• Big changes and growth for all kids. H lost his first teeth (his two front and bottom teeth). This felt like such a milestone of officially having a real big kid in the 2nd grade. T wrapped up his first year of preschool and started his second year. D officially became a toddler: weaned him in the spring, turned 2, and became a big bro.
• Sports: Lots of time spent at the baseball and soccer fields. Our first time having 2 kids in sports, which felt like a lot at times but also fun to see T join team sports. Also our first time entering all-star sports culture, and we aren’t so sure how we feel about it. The boys were both on the Yankees in the spring! And in the fall, we were cheering for the lil Messis (T’s dominating team of 4-year olds) and the Black Widows (H’s team).
• Big changes for me: from finding out I was pregnant in early spring and dealing with morning sickness/fatigue to having my 4th c-section right before Thanksgiving. This year was less about doing and more about slowing down and preparing for what was ahead. I had my fair amount of questions this year: can I do this? Can I handle 4 kids well? And while I still am wondering this; I am walking into this new year, believing I can handle it, not on my own strength, but God’s.
• Found out we were having a GIRL and did a gender reveal with all the boys hitting baseballs on the beach.
• Lived out a lovely summer
• We had a sweet baby shower for baby girl in October. Thankful to my mom and mother-in-law for putting together such a special afternoon lunch. We had it at same restaurant we had Hudson’s baby shower, so it felt full circle.
• Travel was minimal this year, but Lance and I did enjoy a wonderful getaway to Ojai to celebrate 10 years of marriage and we squeezed in one last family trip in October to Palm Springs before baby’s arrival. We had a great time hanging at the pool, feeding giraffes at the zoo, riding a boat to dinner, riding bikes around hotel, playing pickleball and miniature golf. The boys’ highlight was probably the game room. JW Marriot Palm Dessert is a great spot to stay with kids. Very family friendly.
• Officially became a mini-van family. We got the KIA Carnival and I’m in love. It’s such a game changer with all these kids.
• Halloween was fun and filled with all sorts of carnivals and trunk or treats and class parties. As I neared the end of my pregnancy, my energy was especially minimal, but we managed to pull together a Star Wars family costume night of Halloween- thanks to my friend for letting us borrow. Lance was Darth Vader, I was Rey, T was a stormtrooper, H was Han Solo, and D was the cutest baby Chewbacca.
• Our last two months were filled with slower days enjoying our sweet little girl. Having a newborn right in the middle of the holiday season was a gift. We slowed down, did less, and really enjoyed the Christmas season. What a gift this year has been. Even with one or two plot twists, as a whole it was a sweet year of growth and stretching.

2026: The Year of Letting Go

Now on to 2026! I always choose a word. This year, I am choosing two: let go. This means a bunch of things. Mostly it’s a heart posture I want to carry with me throughout this year. As cliche as it is, I want to let go, and let God. I’ve spent most of my life gripping for control. I want to know the dinner plan, the week plan, and the life plan. I want to know what is ahead and when certain prayers will finally get answered. This has not been serving me well and I’m really sensing that the Lord is gently whispering for me to let go. Let go of my desires, dreams and plans. Not that He is not going to fulfill those, but that He might have something even better, if I were to just let go and let Him guide things more, I could see it.

There’s also SO much out of my control that I’m faced with on a daily basis: sick kids, frustrating interactions, unexpected endings/beginnings, health insurance phone calls, an unsettled baby. I will lose my mind if I fret about all these things. I need to let it go. I need to pivot and breathe and trust that God has got this, because He does, He always does.

So here is to letting go in 2026. Here is to taking things one small day at a time and trusting beautiful things are right around the corner.