We are two days into the new year and, I’ll be honest, it’s been a rough start. Within the first hours of the year, I learned I would not be moving forward with a business project as planned, there was a terror attack in New Orleans steps away from many family and friends who are there for the Sugar Bowl, and I’m solo parenting for two extra days after my beau extended his trip to attend the aforementioned postponed Sugar Bowl. But the good thing about all this happening right after the ball drop is that there’s plenty of time to turn things around. If I can get the worst of 2025 out of the way in the first week, I’ll be thrilled. And to jumpstart that turnaround, here are my goals for the year. 2025 will be a banner year – I intend to make it so.
HOT TIP: Check out last year’s resos here. I accomplished exactly 50% of them, which isn’t a terrible success rate…but let’s see if I can do better this year.
- Do a [not quantity-based] reading challenge. This is the kind of challenge with prompts like “read a book about witches” or “one book by an indiginous author,” etc. I’ve attempted this before and did pretty well, but I’d like to recommit, especially when I’m not interrupted by a bambino making his grand entrance. I actually set this goal back on Jan 2, 2024. Yes, a full year in advance. Was that early? Very. However, I committed my 2024 to simply getting my numbers back up. I missed my reading goal in 2021-2023 so 2024 was all about just hitting a total of 40 books. And I did. (Finished 52, to be exact.) That said, I’ve already built out my categories and tracker for 2025 so I’m ready to take it on!
- Buy custom matchbooks for my own home. This is a very tiny thing that can make a home feel special in a big way. Guests could take them home. It would have my own fun branding. I think this would be cute for the coffee table or guest bathroom, and it gives me an excuse to find a new cute trinket bowl to hold them.
- Stop snoozing. I’ve had trouble getting myself up and out of bed. I hit the snooze button more times than I can count. I need to just start going to bed earlier so I can also wake up earlier, which means I can work out, enjoy some coffee, etc.
- Make dessert plates. I want to use homeware tattoos to customize thrifted plates and make something totally unique and eye-catching. I’m not totally sure I’ll get to this one, but this is the one art project I’m noodling around this year.
- Query a book. In a burst of inspiration, I wrote a children’s book…and I actually think it might be good?! I want to shoot my shot at getting it published (and not just self-published) so I want to query it out to publishers. I recognize it’s a long shot, but why not try?
- Cook from cookbooks. I like to have fun in the kitchen, but lately while I may be trying new things, they haven’t been actual recipes; it’s mostly me riffing. But I have some great cookbooks in my kitchen so I want to put them to good use. Maybe one recipe per month?
- Make traveling a three-peat. For the last two years I’ve gone on an international long weekend trip in August/September with a girlfriend. Both times I came back saying the same thing: wow I feel so refreshed and that was so necessary. I would love to go away with my beau, but it’s tougher to leave Finn and it’s a significantly different/more stressful trip with him. Going away solo or on a girls trip is what makes the most sense for this stage so I want to make sure I do it for the third time in a row this year. I’m not even opposed to going by myself if nobody’s matching my vibe. Now the question is: where to?!
- Plan a birthday celebration. I turn 40 this year, and I just know I’m going to avoid thinking about it until it’s too late to plan anything. This year, I want to be intentional and make an actual plan for the milestone.
Peaches to Apples 