what worked & didn't work in 2024

2024 was a YEAR. I’ve talked enough about all the things that happened, so instead of a full recap, I’m going to steal this prompt from Ashlee Gadd. I resorted to a lot of coping mechanisms this year in order to survive and not thrive, some good and most bad, so I think 2025 will be a year of realignment.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

What worked:

+ Walking and hiking. I have set days of the week I walk and hike with my neighbor, but I try to do it as much as I possibly can, often alone. There’s a wooded ravine at the bottom of a steep hill in my neighborhood, and I love walking down there and sitting in the woods awhile when I just need some alone time, and the hike back up the hill is a killer and has given me some strong legs this year. I refused to let weather stop me. I’ve gone in the rain, the snow, and the extreme heat. If I go more than a day or two without my walk, I feel it.

+ Investing in bougie walking shoes. I’m at the age where I am full of aches and pains, and cushioned walking shoes have made all the difference. I was literally limping from being in so much pain until I switched shoes. I’m almost tempted to try running again, but my knees will shut that down quickly.

+ Protein. I've fallen off the wagon lately, but eating 100+ grams of protein a day is life changing. I feel (felt—I need to start tracking again) SO GOOD.

+ The piano. It’s free therapy. I think I’m more in love with playing now than I was in high school and college. Never enough time, music, or opportunities to play. It might have even surpassed my love of reading. My kids audibly groan now when I walk toward the piano.

+ Limiting play dates. Being a homeschool mom means I live my life perpetually overstimulated, and while it helps to be around my friends and there are times I really do need that, having too much on my calendar makes me feel like I’m going to shrivel up and die. I need as much simplicity (and quiet) as possible.

+ Our church. I just can’t put into words the deep love I have for my church and our friends there. From my mom’s group, the worship team, our small group, the pastors, everything. Couldn’t ask for a better church for my kids to grow up in. As soon as I walk inside I feel at home.

+ Planting flowers. I’d love to be the lady who grows a huge garden and preserves it all for the apocalypse, but I get so much more joy out of flowers. Every Sunday afternoon this summer, I’d cut a bouquet or two for my house. It brought me so much joy.

+ Getting a puppy. LOTS of naysayers in our lives when we told people we were thinking about it, but we haven’t had a single regret. I can say that because I’m doing almost none of the work other than vacuuming up all the fur and mopping muddy paw prints. Which in reality is actually most of the work.

+ Adult ballet and strength training. My neighbor taught some adult ballet classes and I LOVED them. Watching myself in the mirror of her home studio is probably where half my body image issues came from, but I used to love dancing and it was so fun to tap into that again. We also did some strength training, something I really need to keep working on. I might have to suck it up and get a gym membership, but then if I do that I need someone to remind me how to do literally anything with weights. And then I’d need some workout gear that wouldn’t make me look homeless. If you give a mouse a cookie…

+ Waking up early to read and pray. I need to stop hitting the snooze so I can get up even earlier, but that early morning time alone sets me up for success all day. It’s to the point where I might even need to do it on weekends, but as a chronic insomniac I need every minute of sleep I can get.

What didn’t work:

+ Body image. This has been one of the biggest struggles for me. I vacillate between doing the best I can with diet & exercise and attempting to rest in the fact that my value isn’t in my jeans size to beating myself up incessantly because my body doesn’t respond to food and exercise the way it used to and assuming everyone else is judging me for it. I am so tired of worrying about it and picking apart everything I see in the mirror, and this is a big area I need to work on in 2025.

+ Anxiety. Nearly every memory this year is covered in a thick layer of fear and anxiety. I thought I had conquered the postpartum anxiety that wreaked havoc on me in 2020 and beyond, but it came screaming back this spring. There was so much out of my control, so much that was unexpected, a lot of grief. There was a time this summer where literally every single day had a new crisis and I felt like I could not handle one more bad thing or I would cease to function. My hair started falling out, I had 3am panic attacks, and I learned that the muscles around my ribs start screaming in pain when I’m holding in stress. I’m slowly working through all of it and hopeful I’ll eventually come out on the other side.

+ Staying up too late watching TV. I’m not proud of this, but I think I watched every single episode of Below Deck this year. It was the only thing on in our hotel room in Florida, and we somehow became completely hooked. As someone who gets motion sick from my kids jumping on the bed, the thought of living and working on a boat is my worst nightmare which means I want to watch other people do it. When I’m deep in the trenches of dishes and laundry, I like to pretend I’m a 3rd Stew on a fancy yacht in the Med. But anyway—I should probably be reading instead.

+ Speaking of reading—trying to force myself to read books I’m bored with or that I don’t have the brain power for. I’m not in the season for deep and meaty books right now, and that’s ok.

+ Scrolling. I wrote about that last winter and apparently I need to reread my own writing. I’m looking forward to a long social media break in a few days. I took a week off again in October and realized my anxiety had all but disappeared. I don’t want to dwell on that too deeply because while I hate a lot about social media, I have friends and family all over and this is the best way to keep up with them. This is an area where moderation escapes me.

+ Doing laundry according to vibes and not actual need. I ran out of clean underwear one too many times this year. It’s time to be a responsible adult and get back on a schedule and not just do it when I’m in the mood to feel productive. I used to take great pride in my laundry routine and now I would rather do anything else than fold something. Part of this is that my laundry room has become a catch-all area, and finding random tools and boxes and toys in there is making me want to burn it all down and collect the insurance money so I can start fresh. Maybe I should just purge and deep clean, and then the thought of doing a load of laundry won’t feel so Meh.

I’m ready for 2025. I ordered an espresso machine with my Christmas money and plan on making that my entire personality for the next few months. I’m going to take another extended social media break (I’ve seen every meme anyway, it’s time), read books that I enjoy reading, spend time with my favorite people, figure out what my body needs in terms of food and exercise (if you have an idea, I’m currently accepting them), and push back on my anxiety. As my favorite shirt says, “for God’s glory and my good,” and that is what I will be clinging to in the upcoming year. I do not have to fear bad news or disappointments if it is for God’s glory and my good.