On December 31 I completed the fourth year in my line-a-day journal. The next day I flipped to the front of the book to start the year again, and this year will complete my second five-year line-a-day journal. In keeping these little journals, a couple short sentences can take me back in time, and I can see past seasons with perspective.

I remember starting last January feeling a bit worn out. Looking back over my line-a-day journal from last year it's no wonder. We were incredibly social over the holiday break, plus one kid had a sports practice (just no to sports practice over the holidays!), and there was even a kid birthday party to attend. And there were those parenting challenges I mentioned in my last post. Oh, and I was prepping to teach Your Year to Shine for the very first time. Whew!

This year we had very few plans over the holidays and that felt just right. I'm hoping it's a tradition we can keep up going forward. Chris and I have been doing our annual decluttering, which we dubbed "the minima" long ago, and have started talking about our goals for the year. The biggest hindrance to doing more of that has been...the children (haha). I love that we are their audience, and also I don't know the last time Chris and I talked uninterrupted for an hour. Luckily, that is a problem having a babysitter can solve! We have both a Friday night date and a Sunday day date planned. Happy New Year to us!

How trying to have a conversation is going this break...

In January I'll be meeting with everyone in Your Year to Shine (and you can still register and join us if you'd like!) and finalizing my own goals for 2025. I love the process of considering how I want to grow and what I want to do, then thinking of ways to get there, and then strategies to make those things happen.

I often need to percolate goals and their infrastructure (how to make them happen) for a while. Some things sound good on the surface – like researching a new volunteer opportunity that I feel passionate about. But as I let it simmer I ask myself, "Is that really where I want to put extra energy this year, considering everything else I have going on and the new things I've already committed to?" I'm getting better at recalling what my energy felt like during the previous year and telling myself, "Not this year Kelsey. But let's put a pin in that."

A phrase that's come to mind as the year gets rolling is, "start how you mean to continue." I first heard this in reference to parenting...as in, if you bribe your kid to put their shoes on with a snack one day then you might be doing that forever more*, but it works for adults too. So I'm thinking of that phrase as we look ahead to starting our school year routines again (dinners, chores, screens, etc.).

And finally, I want to lean into January through February being one of my favorite times of year. The weather is as cool as it ever gets and I appreciate every morning I have to wear a jacket. Our weeks are pretty normal and there aren't lots of extra commitments beyond our usual stuff. It's just wonderful, everyday routine which is my jam. Leaning into this favorite season looks like: midday walks with Chris, impromptu park play dates with neighbor friends, household routines running smoothly (fingers crossed), and leaning into the routines that I love.

And with that, let's see what January looks like.

Big things in January

+ Teach Your Year to Shine including two online meetings. I get so jazzed to talk to other people about their goals and to help them workshop how they'll work towards them. I'm also really enjoying the workshop chat conversations that are going on. Our workshop cohort will be together for the full year, unlike last year, and I'm really looking forward to the community and accountability.

+ The kids go back to school / we return to routine. Break has been great (if demanding in the usual kind of way) but there's an exhale when school is back.

+ I start teaching an online class through ASU. I'm excited and a little nervous. Thankfully, I have an in-house expert professor for all of my questions as I get up to speed. We also hope to have grading dates!

January goals

+ Finalize and share my 2025 goals.

+ Complete our 2024 photo book! Then wait for Blurb to have a 30-40% off sale to order.

+ Complete all possible planning for: Valentine's Day, extended family birthdays, our anniversary (15 years!), Maeve's birthday, and Dash's birthday. All of these take place between now and early April. After Christmas I realized: right now is the most bandwidth we will have before the onslaught of spring busyness. So let's just batch-plan as much as possible to make life easier for ourselves later. I've already gotten a lot of this done and it's giving me a lot of peace of mind. This kind of post-Christmas planning might become one of my new traditions.

+ Plan for a visit from my cousin! She'll be staying with us in early February.

+ Have a planning day in late January. I have been mildly obsessed with the idea of a monthly planning day for a while. This year I think one of my goals will be to make it happen monthly. I'll block one work day out for this, but really I think I just need 2–3 hours. My planning day would include: looking ahead to February/whatever month and noting anything we need to plan for (plan to plan!), write any birthday cards to friends and family, book any babysitting we need or just plan a day date, and find a couple of new recipes I'd like to make that month. Extra credit items would be taking the car for a car wash, batch meal prepping something, ordering anything we need in terms of clothing or household items, and dropping off any items we are donating.

Happy January, friends!

And I'd love to know, how are you feeling to start this year? If you had a monthly planning day (or if you do!) what would you do?

January 2024 | January 2023 | January 2022 | January 2021 | January 2020 | January 2019 | January 2018 | January 2017 | January 2016 | January 2015 | January 2014 | January 2013 | January 2012 | January 2011

*But also sometimes the snack is totally worth it and your future self can just deal with the consequences lol.