Making a List, Checking It Twice
As 2025 winds to a close, I find myself reflecting on the year I’ve had and the year I hope to have in 2026. A few years ago, I learned that my brother and now sister-in-law shared their new year’s resolutions with each other to help keep one another accountable. Isn’t that genius? I immediately adopted the tradition with my husband, and it has served us so well since.
I have found that sharing our goals with one another not only helps to keep us accountable in achieving what we hope to do, but also helps to keep us supportive of one another. For example, if one of my goals is to get a real work out in three times a week, my husband knows that he needs to find time in his schedule to take care of the kids so that I can do that. One year, one of his goals was to improve his golf game and play more golf. Had he just started playing more golf without explaining why it was important to him, I probably would have scoffed and rejected the idea of time away from home. Instead, we had a great discussion about what recharges him so that he can be the present husband and father he wants to be when he is home. This was also during years when we no longer had a baby in the house, and I was more than happy to spend some weekend mornings going on adventures with my girls. Life is full of trade-offs, and none of us can have it all.
I am currently living in the midst of the baby years again. It’s funny to me how quickly we forget what the first year with a baby is like. Especially as a stay at home mother, my time is no longer my own. There are so many days when I walk around the house rocking my son to sleep thinking about all the things I’d like to be working on and getting done that I just can’t find the time to do. Paint the dining room, declutter the kitchen cabinets, expand this blog…the list goes on. Sometimes the most productive thing I can do is to write those things down. Making lists is not just for new year’s resolutions. It helps me to remember and fit in tasks that are big and small. Small tasks like changing light bulbs, going through my closet and giving away clothes I no longer need might be accomplished during nap time or after the kids go to bed. Bigger tasks get put on the back burner, but that doesn’t mean I’m not working on them.
I have several shared google docs with my husband about big things we want to accomplish next year. I have several of my own, especially related to this blog. There is so much I want to share and build on in 2026. I want to maximize the time I have with my kids and be fully present to them as much as possible when we are together. I want to share great books, create fun learning activities, and build a brand and a business. These are big goals. I may not accomplish all of them this year, but it won’t be for lack of trying. In terms of priorities, being a fully present and loving mother comes first for me. Part of being present and loving is closing my lap top and putting my phone away when my kids want my attention. (Which, by the way, is every waking moment that I am with them.) Part of it is continuing to work on what energizes and excites me in the pockets of time I have when they are at school, resting, or sleeping at night.
So, I am spending this last week leading up to Christmas preparing my heart for Jesus, savoring contact nap snuggles and story times with my girls, and making and reviewing lists that will give me a head start on accomplishing my goals in the new year. Maybe for you this is a week to ponder what your best 2026 looks like. It’s a great place to start. As one of my daughter’s karaoke toys likes to remind us, “If you can dream it, you can do it. So, believe in yourself.” Cheers to dreaming and believing in 2026!
