Month: December 2025

MY 2025 YEAR END REVIEW

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Hey friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to review my 2025 year with you. The end of the year is a great time to reflect and celebrate your successes, evaluate what you could do differently, and think about some habits you want to continue on into the new year. I always love using paper planners and this year my planner had a spot for keeping track of routines, values, and goals. So it was easy to evaluate how this year went for me. I loved this planner so much that I ended up purchasing the exact same planner for 2026.

One of the first pages in this planner is a spot to write out your values. There was also a list of common values you could circle to guide you for the year. In this section there was a “more” column and a “less” column. Under more I wrote: quietness, walking, reading, whole foods, and creativity. I was actually shocked at how effective it is to write down your values heading into a new year. I have been wanting to add the habit of reading into my routines for years and it wasn’t until this year that I was truly successful! At the end of the summer I added the routine of reading almost every evening, and that routine has continued! I also wanted to walk more this year and I started the habit of walking in the mornings this year. I have also generally been taking more walks throughout this year! I do feel like I could do a better job at quietness. As I mentioned last week, I am taking some time away from Instagram over the next couple of weeks to give myself more margin for quietness. I have been getting on every few days to answer DMs and I’m also working with a brand to create a Reel, but otherwise not scrolling or staying on for hours. 

The last two things were whole foods – which I decided to create a mostly ingredient pantry at the beginning of the year to achieve this. I would say I did okay in this regard. I definitely still purchase crackers and other packaged foods, but I do think creating the ingredient pantry has helped and moving into the new year I would like to continue to focus on this goal. Lastly was creativity, and I truly believe that doing the no buy year helped with making space for creativity. I did several home projects with DIYs and I also had to get creative at times to make what I had on hand work instead of purchasing something new.

In my “less” column I had sugar, social media, and shopping. I definitely was successful with less shopping! Doing the no buy year really curbed my shopping throughout the year. I feel like I could still work on the less sugar goal. I don’t eat a lot of refined sugar, but I do make desserts regularly for my family. I make them homemade and sweeten them with maple syrup or dates, but I want to cut back on eating desserts generally. And with social media I am off of Facebook and TikTok completely and even after just a few days off of Instagram I would like to implement strict rules for myself with regards to how long I can be on the app daily.

Another spot in the planner that was insightful to me is to look at was my top 5 goals for the year. Mine were: 1. Fix issues with the house, 2. Regular walking, 3. Continue daily Bible reading, 4. Continue workout routine, and 5. Read more! I would say I did an amazing job hitting these goals this year! I will say, we still have some issues we need to deal with regarding our home. I did get a new front door, which was on the list, but I still have a long list to get through which will have to roll over into next year. I would like to come up with a plan to get these things accomplished because it’s definitely something that I keep putting off! I really dislike research, which fixing home issues requires. Everything else on this list I feel very proud to say I achieved these goals! I look forward to filling out my plans for 2026 over the next week!

I would love to hear from you in the comments! Did you write down your goals for this year? Do you make resolutions? A vision board? A word for the year? How did you do on accomplishing your goals for this year? What goals or ideas do you have for the upcoming new year?

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

MEDITATIVE PRACTICE

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Hey friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to talk about something I was thinking about the other day while putting up our outdoor Christmas lights. I have been lining the path leading up to our house with lights for the last several years. It is a tedious process and I’m always trying to remember exactly how I installed them previously. I have these little light pick type holders, they are little stakes you put into the ground and then put each individual light bulb into individual stakes so that the lights are neatly lining the sidewalk. On the day I was doing this project I was not feeling great. I was dealing with some seasonal allergies, which made me a little irritable. I didn’t realize I had two different lengths of light strands and I thought I had installed the wrong ones because they didn’t reach all the way down the path, which irritated me even more! I later realized that the lights usually didn’t extend the full length of the pathway. But I had this thought while installing the lights – a lot of homemaking tasks and projects can be tedious, but they can also be quite meditative if we view it that way.

When we have a task that requires little thought and is a repetitive task, we can view this as an opportunity to have a meditative moment. As I was installing each little individual light, this repetitive motion afforded me the space to think through things that were on my mind. It gave me time to process some things I had been thinking about. I know when we perform these repetitive tasks it may be easy to want to entertain ourselves during that task. We may want to listen to music or a podcast, or watch a YouTube video. And there is nothing wrong with that! I certainly do that too. I just had this moment of clarity where I realized how meditative some tasks can be. I have been trying to mono-task more often lately. Doing one thing at a time – whether it’s cooking, cleaning, or putting up Christmas lights. This can help you to live more in the moment, and also leave more space for quietness and reflection.

Something that I have actually been thinking about all year is how inundated we are now with entertainment. Having a mini computer right in our pockets and going everywhere with us has made it really easy to access content and constant entertainment. I have noticed recently how easy it is to mindlessly open apps on my phone or mindlessly scroll Instagram. I go on to respond to comments or DMs and before I know it I’m just scrolling. I feel like it has become something that is an autopilot response. Any dead space we have – whether it’s sitting at a traffic light or waiting in line, our auto response can be to pick up our phones. I have been wanting to do a social media detox for a while now, but it’s just so complicated given that I post on social media for business purposes. I’m thinking about trying a 12 day detox leading up to Christmas day. And honestly, Instagram is the only social media app I struggle with. I do watch YouTube videos, but I feel like I am more intentional with YouTube. I got rid of Tik Tok and FaceBook a couple years ago. Social media is such a double edge sword because on the one hand it is a great way to connect, but it can also be a time suck. I have also wondered if I would spend more time with people in real life if I didn’t have this app to connect with people.

But back to the main topic I have been thinking about – meditative practices. I think once I filter out this extra input in my life, it will be easier to truly enjoy the meditative quality of some of my homemaking tasks. I will be less apt to find some way to entertain myself while cooking, cleaning, decorating, organizing, or decluttering and instead enjoy the process more and focus my mind on prayer, self reflection, or processing my most recent emotions. I do feel like this is such a challenge because of how prevalent media is in our lives. I don’t want to be a zombie and mindlessly open apps, and mindlessly scroll. I want to be intentional with what I do with my time and my brain space!

NO BUY YEAR NOVEMBER RECAP

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I will be sharing my recap for the month of November for how my no buy year has been going. I usually share the last Thursday of the month, but since last week was Thanksgiving I did not share at all, so I decided I would share today. I will be sharing a wrap up on my overall thoughts on how the no buy year affected me, and what I plan to do moving into 2026 the first Thursday in January. But for today I will share how I did in November.

Y’all, these last few months have been a true struggle! Okay, let’s be real – half the year has been a struggle! One of my brothers got married in the month of November and they had a dress code – everyone was instructed to wear black. I thought it was a bit odd, but let me tell you it looked so classy! Even though I have in my rules that I can purchase items for events, I thought to myself – I have several black dresses to choose from, there is no reason I need to purchase another black dress. So, I found the outfit I wanted to wear to the wedding, but then I thought to myself – what jacket will I wear? They were getting married in Indiana in November, so I definitely needed a jacket. Living in Texas, I don’t have very many jackets and I didn’t have any jackets warm enough and nice enough to wear to a wedding. WELL, there is a jacket that I have honestly been wanting all year. It is a khaki colored trench coat. At the beginning of the year I was keeping track of the items I wanted to purchase but did not, and this trench coat was on the list. You can probably guess by now that I decided to purchase the coat since I did not purchase a dress. It is amazing how easy it becomes to justify spending! With all that said, I really do love this coat and it is versatile. I also wore it with jeans and I got a lot of compliments on it!

Me with my four sisters at our brother’s wedding!

BUT, this was not my only slip up in the month of November. UGH! Ya’ll, it truly pains me to confess this… but you know what, I am keeping it real here. My birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and of course many stores already had black Friday sales going on. There is a pair of boots that I have actually been wanting for years, but the exact ones I wanted are the Frye brand and way too expensive for what I would usually spend on a pair of shoes – even the used ones I found on Poshmark were too expensive, BUT one of my favorite stores had a similar boot ON SALE! Not only was it cheaper to begin with, but also on sale! AND it got me! There is still a chance I will return them as I need to try them on with a few outfits to see if I really love them. They just came in the mail yesterday.

I feel so frustrated with myself that I have really failed almost every month since June! I know a year is a really long time to do a no buy, and I know I wasn’t going out and buying tons, just a piece here and there, but my perfectionist personality is irritated with my failure! I keep thinking about why this is such a pull for me? I want to be content with what I already have, and I have plenty! It makes me wonder about a deeper root issue in my heart. Spoiler for what I will share in my final recap: I will not go back to buying whatever in 2026. I might not do a full on buy nothing year again, but I do still need to deal with my heart and why I have a desire to purchase or have new things.

As I evaluate my heart, I realize a lot of why I like new clothing in particular is because it is a creative outlet for me. I love fashion, and putting together outfits and I really have my whole life. When I was younger, I grew up with four sisters and my parents were both teachers, so we didn’t have a lot of disposable income for me to get what I wanted. Not that I spend frivolously as an adult, but we are comfortable financially, making it easier to spend. If I look at it from a more sinister perspective, I think in my heart I may not be content with what I have, which in my opinion needs to be dealt with. I will talk more about all of this in my next recap which will happen the first week in January! But for now, that is all I have to share for the month of November!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post!