Happy New Year! Last year was a WHIRLWIND. Between being pregnant and sick for half of the year to running a business and household with minimal sleep for the other half, I’m definitely looking forward to 2025! 2024 was great for our family in terms of bonding, growth, and boundaries, but this year, I’m focusing on more quality sleep (hello, sleep training our six-month-old!) and reclaiming our space now that Owen is out of our room. It’s bittersweet to see how quickly time flies, but not going to lie, I love having our space back. Haha! The bonding and growth we experienced as a family inspired my “word of the year”: Intentional.
After some time reflecting, I broke down my values through this word and came up with practical ways to be more intentional in different areas of my life.
How I Plan to Be Intentional
Faith
- Finish the “Bible in a Year” plan (I’m halfway through after starting last New Year).
- Serve my church more through photography.
- Continue building genuine relationships within our church community.
- Have daily devotional readings with our family at the dinner table.
- Live out my faith in my daily life — kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and service to others.
- Embrace silence or mornings of worship.
My Husband & Family
- Date nights with Alex every month.
- A vacation just with Alex. 🙂
- Quality time — Family vacations, including a camping road trip.
- Connection time with Alex at least 4-5 days a week. (We started this late last year, and it was amazing to check in with each other almost every night over a cup of tea.)
- Family engagement in meaningful conversation at the dinner table with fun, random questions.
- Support each other’s dreams!
Health (Mental & Physical)
- Exercise 5-6 days a week. (I basically live at my gym — we love it!)
- Read every night, even if it’s just two pages.
- Go to bed before 10PM and wake up around 5:30AM (if the kids allow me to have quiet time and a restful night).
- Hold boundaries — It’s okay to say “no!“
- Less sugar, more water.
- Schedule dentist and doctor checkups.
- And Alex will love this one: Put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” during the day for fewer distractions!
- Update my wardrobe // Put a little more time into my outfit choices 🙂
- Get outside!
- Meal plan.
- Declutter/Organize house.
Business
- Focus on automation and utilize more AI to streamline my business. Plus, outsource blogging/social media to free up time for client relations.
- Strengthen connections with vendors in my local network.
- Increase connection points with my clients to nurture and build lasting relationships.
- Get in touch with my creative side for new inspired work!
- Stay authentic and transparent.
I recently gathered with some friends from church to create inspiration boards for the New Year. During that time, I didn’t really settle on a word of the year until I reflected on what being “intentional” really meant to me going out of 2024. As I thought about how Alex and I had already been working on this in our personal lives, it felt so fitting to dig deeper into how being intentional can shape my year in powerful ways.
I hope this post encourages you to think about how you can lean into a “word of the year” (like intentional) to inspire your own values and thrive! Alex and I truly feel like this year is going to be our best yet, and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us, especially as we transition out of the Air Force this summer! 🙂
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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