2025 will be the year of stability and balance. 2024 was full of change, all good change, but it was overwhelming and fast-paced. 2025 is going to be a bit slower as I settle into my new career and find a work/life balance. 

I’m pretty excited for 2025. 

The most exciting thing happening in 2025 is watching my oldest become an adult, graduate high school, and enter college! I can’t believe we’ve made it this far in life to watch them do all of these amazing things and become the beautiful person they are! I’m beyond proud, and my heart is bursting with excitement to see all that they accomplish. It’s a big milestone for both of us to see them reach the age of 18, and forge their path. My happiness comes from being the mama in this situation and watching my baby bird fly. I love knowing that I’ve been able to create the stable life I knew I needed for my children so that they always know they can come home or fall back on me if they need to. That has been so immensely important to me, and I’m relieved that I was able to create my stability before watching my baby birds leave the nest. We always want for our children, what we weren’t able to have, and this is a big one. I never had that “home” to go back to, or those parents to fall back on. To do this for my children is huge. I hope I don’t have to be a safe haven, but if it is ever needed, I’m so glad I can support them in that way. 

Contingencies matter, and planning for them is a skill I hope to pass along to all of my children. I have many contingencies because my life has been full of “Just-in-case” moments. 

As I find balance this year, I have a couple of big goals I’m working toward and trying to carve out time for. 

I’ve been wishy-washy with my books since the pandemic started, and pretty much gave up for a good while. Last year, however, I realized more and more how important it is to me to write and produce books. Ideas have been flooding my mind, and I get so easily distracted by the thought of writing them all down. Most of my free moments go to writing. I have many journals scattered all over my home, and of course, my handy little computer. 

As school wrapped up, and I got more time on my hands (and less time needed at home for studying or doing homework) I started thinking about all the things I’ve ever done in my life, and which ones matter most to me. Balancing time when working full-time and spending time with my family is not always easy. There simply isn’t enough time for all the things, however much I wish there was. So, with what time I do have, I have to prioritize, so that makes the New Year even more challenging. This year might be the first year I’ve started planning farther in the future than just this one single year and making plans that will last for years. 

Rather than thinking “What is my New Year’s Resolution” my mind is more on the fact that I’ll be turning 40 in 2026, and that’s a big enough milestone that I want to figure out a few big things by the time that happens. 

Here are my goals for 2025:

Write the first draft of my third memoir. 

Post video of me reading my first memoir on YouTube each month.  

Make plans for my new podcast that goes hand in hand with my new book. 

Essentially what I’m doing in 2025 is laying the groundwork for everything that I plan to do with my books and writing career moving forward. 

I do have big lofty goals, and before I get stuck in the hugeness of my dreams, I want to keep myself grounded in what I can accomplish this year, but that will allow me to grow this book business bigger and bigger as each year comes and goes. 

Those are three simple goals for this year, but they will each take a significant amount of time outside my day job and I have to be smart about how I structure my time. 

I have other goals for how I envision myself and my life by the time I turn 40, but it’s not something I’m going to include in my resolutions here. Mainly, I want to figure out what the hell is wrong with my body, and that will involve doctors, exercise, and adjusting my daily routines to become healthier and have less pain overall. Trauma impacts your physical self, and I learned after reading a book called “What My Bones Know” just how true that is. That book hit home for me, and I’ll likely talk about this more later, but if you’re curious about what I’m talking about and want to know more about C-PTSD and the pain we hold onto with trauma, that’s a really good start! 

The point here is, I don’t want to enter my 40s with the same amount of pain I’m experiencing right now, but it’s not something I want to add to a resolution list just to get swept under the rug if I neglect myself. I have no plans to neglect myself, I’ve already done that for far too long. 

Anyway, I love New Year’s Eve, and setting goals/resolutions. Usually, my goals are small, and if I don’t make it, eh, whatever. I’m pretty determined this year, and have a lot more faith and confidence to achieve new goals since graduating college, I’m learning more about how to structure my time and prioritize my dreams so I can accomplish these things. 

I have WAY too much I want to do with this life. 

Time is always the one thing I constantly wish I had more of. 

As I end this post I want to share an idea that my oldest had which is: New Year’s Bingo!

The idea is, there are 25 spaces, including 1 free space in the middle. So, you get 24 spaces to write down 24 things you might like to do for the year, and try to get bingo, or multiple bingos, or if you’re determined, blackout! 

Since I couldn’t find a template I liked online, I made a simple one for us to use tonight and tomorrow to fill full of things we want to do for the year. If we get to do them, great, if not, there’s no pressure, it’s just fun! 

Some other things I’ll be adding to my board are: 

Visit a national park

Visit a state park 

Try a new coffee shop

Visit my family in Utah

Go bike riding

… 

It’s going to take me a minute to come up with some other fun ideas for the rest of my board. 

Again, it’s just a fun thing to do, and I’m going to include the template here so, if you want, you can download it and use it for your own New Year’s Bingo. 

Happy New Year, everyone!