Looking Back & Going Forward ~ Goals for 2026

Ignoring the fact that I haven't even written about Advent and Christmas... I'm here to wish you a Happy New Year! It's 2026! As we begin this year, I thought it would be fun to look back on 2025, add some pictures of the adventures we've had, and go back and see how well I did with my New Year's resolutions! Then of course, write out my new goals for 2026.

remember it is still Christmas!

The past year was packed full of trying new things, learning and growing in marriage and homemaking skills!

(In case you forgot what my resolutions were, here is a basic overview: Chickens, Sourdough, Sewing, and "Intentional Planning")

The chickens received their new coop in the Spring! Don't worry, half of this mansion is actually a storage room for their extra stuff. It isn't that luxurious!

This photo is not the completely finished look as we added a garden bed along the side of the coop but I wanted to share the main idea. We also changed our plans slightly in the chicken area. I wasn't able to raise any chicks myself. An opportunity came along for lots of free chickens so we decided that would be our route this year. We don't know how old they are so its very possible that we will have to let them roam away and get chicks this year or next. Besides that, I do feel like I learned more about chickens and so I'm declaring this resolution a success! 

Moving on to sourdough- I had so much fun figuring this out! At first it was a little frustrating, learning the terms and schedules and temperatures, but then it got easy and so much fun! I got introduced to Farmhouse on Boone and now Lisa is my main sourdough recipe source. I bake with my starter a lot less now. But it's great to have it in the fridge if I ever need it. And if you have been thinking about starting sourdough, this is your sign to start!!

This Spring and Summer were amazing for me! Gardening was certainly not on my resolution list because it was really intimidating to me. I didn't want to fail and have to report back that I didn't grow anything. However, God surprised me by placing a young lady in my path who encouraged me to begin my dream of one day having a huge cut flower garden, full of beautiful blooms to give away to friends and family! She gifted me some of her own seeds for my birthday and so I began a journey I never thought I would love so much! 

the Cosmos did the best this year

 After the growing season I was able to figure out how to save a bunch of the seeds for next year and Jonathan and I just bought more seeds (both vegetable and flower) a couple days ago! He had been learning about composting and gardening which also motivated me to start my flowers. Now it's something we enjoy together! 

[Sidenote: if you want to support a Catholic business that sells seeds, we just bought ours from St. Clare Seeds Go check out their website! It seems like a great company! One that I am happy saying I buy from!]

Going back to the resolutions, I think I did pretty well with sewing. I only made a couple of pillows, but I figured out how to use my sewing machine and that is accomplishment enough for me! Forgive me if I've already written about it, but I got a nice metal sewing machine from my aunt. It's great quality and everything, the only problem is that it isn't available in stores anymore, so I couldn't just look up a YouTube video to learn how to use it. My cousin graciously sent some tutorial videos because she has a similar one. Next year the goal is to make wearable clothes!

One of my more exciting and proud moments of this year would be my goddaughter turning one! My sister did a super cute Beatrix Potter party, using lots of decorations from her own nursery that my mom saved. It was so fun and everything looked so adorable!

This party also brought the biggest art project of my life! My aunt wanted to gift the birthday girl a toy box. I'm usually her personal shopper so I looked everywhere but the options were A. a cheap plastic toy box, very small in size or B. a nice wooden hand painted toy chest for $400-$500. I decided to see what FB marketplace had to offer and I found a cedar chest (you know, those giant, heavy chests that your grandmother probably has...) for an excellent price! Someone had already painted it white and added hinges to keep it open. They had used it for a toy box for their daughter. So I thought- Hey! My husband is an artist. He could probably draw and paint some Beatrix Potter critters to match the nursery. 

A few months later, Jonathan and I both completed the chest together! He drew and I painted. We're happy with how it turned out. 

We had a couple wedding to go to this year, one of which was a sibling wedding! It's always fun getting everyone together and wedding ceremonies are so beautiful! 

Speaking of weddings, we celebrated two years of marriage in October! See the only picture we got from our dinner date. I can't believe how fast the time goes by-- Now that we're in January, we're almost halfway done with year 3! Crazy!

Going back to my resolutions, the last one is "intentional planning." I think my goal was to make more of a schedule for cleaning and household chores to make everything go smoothly. Also to be more intentional about making Sunday restful and feast days celebrated. I don't think I did too well in this area so I will try again this year!

The holidays came fast this year and the whole season from Thanksgiving to Christmas were so fun, despite the challenges that came with the Winter.

 I'm going to blog specifically about all of that later. Here I just want to say that I began my accomplishment of making some homemade decorations; dried oranges and cut branches from a cedar tree out back. This was an experiment year so next year I hope to make a real garland or wreath for my front door. Maybe decorate with cinnamon sticks and candy canes too! 

We finished the year with family, pretty much every day after Christmas! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family that gets along so well. Blessed to have a husband who enjoys being with that family too! Now we're in 2026...so what are my goals?

I think my biggest one, which covers multiple things, is being intentional with purchases. When I say that I mean that I want to buy more from family owned, small and local, or USA-made businesses. I will blog more about my journey in this area soon, but for now that will be my choice over mega-corporations and China-made stuff. Unless it isn't possible of course. And as much as my budget allows. 

With that, I hope to buy less stuff unless I really need it. Choose used over new, and quality over quantity. I think this naturally will help me to be more frugal when I can and see beauty in little things, like real homemade Christmas decorations over plastic ones. It will help me build a wardrobe that I love and that is comfortable and doesn't make me smell by the end of the day (goodbye polyester!)

I think that is a pretty good place to start for resolutions. This year will be more about changing my mindset instead of accomplishing things. I will also try to grow in the areas I mentioned above like gardening, sewing, and experimenting more with sourdough. Another resolution...blogging more! 

With that, I wish you a very Happy New Year! And a Merry Christmas! And I will be back soon!

Gina💕