HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

As I sit here typing this, a chai tea latte in hand, I can’t help but really appreciate what an amazing year 2025 has been. My favorite thing about celebrating the New Year is that it really gives you the opportunity to look back and realize just how much happened in the course of a year. I think we’re so busy all the time that we really just move from one thing to the next without properly giving ourselves a pat on the back!

So while we look forward to the new year and come up with our own intentions for the year, I also want anyone reading this to take a second and think about all the things you accomplished, all the opportunities you had, and/or challenges you overcame in 2025! Reflect on the good and the maybe not so good of the year, there can’t be highs without some lows!

In 2025 we celebrated our son’s first birthday which brings me to my biggest and favorite accomplishment of the year- BREASTFEEDING FOR 13.5 MONTHS. When my husband and I were talking about our years and our intentions for the next year, this was the first thing I could think of. Like holy shit, I did that and that was this year? It was such hard work and I was so relieved for it to be over, thinking it was still within this year was mind boggling to me. So that’s a big win for my 2025.

A major L for my 2025? NOT GETTING TICKETS TO SEE HILARY DUFF! 2026, I’m not giving up!

This year we also took our first MAJOR family vacation that required getting both kids on a flight (I know I owe you more DisneyWorld posts, more coming later!) This vacation was my favorite vacation to date, it was so amazing and has given us the confidence to take more and bigger trips this next year!

My daughter started TK and for the first time in our lives, I am not getting text updates from a teacher throughout her day which was a big hurdle for me when she started the school year at her new school, but she is thriving and I couldn’t be happier.

We’ve balanced more extra curricular activities between the kids than every before this year- swim lessons, soccer, gymnastics, acting classes, and as Jaxson gets older, we’ll have a few more on our plate next year- all good things that we are very excited about but it can be a lot when you see it all on a calendar. At the end of each month, I write in my dayplanner all the things the kids have and the things I have for the next month and seeing it is always daunting to me, but once I get to the end of the month or the day where there might be a heavier load, I feel at ease and so happy and ultimately grateful to have all the fun things on our plates.

I juggled a very busy work schedule while moming for the better half of each week completely solo, I feel very proud of that (if you don’t know, my husband works nights and is gone 4 days out of the week). This year was the biggest year for me professionally and having the ability to succeed in that way while also spending more time volunteering at my daughter’s school and spending more time at home with both my kids is something I am so grateful for. It’s hard work, I’m not going to lie, but it is worth it and I feel so full being able to do both- even on the days where I feel like I might rip my hair out LOL.

Growing my blog and social media channels- over the course of the year, while I’ve been a little absent over the holidays (sorry!) I am happy to say that this was a big year for OnAnotherCoast! My reach has expanded and thanks to getting out of my comfort zone (as far as linking and creating more content), I’ve seen some big changes this year, so for that I want to say THANK YOU to anyone here reading my blog, to my subscribers, and to anyone who finds anything I link to be of value! I’m trying to be better about linking day to day things, as I know I get questions on a lot of stuff, but to be honest sometimes I get in my head and don’t feel like I’m inventing the wheel on a lot of things (clothes, crafts, decorating, snack packing, etc) which makes me feel like linking things is a waste of time. But in my annual review of the blog and links that worked (ie- you bought!!), a lot of the things you guys liked and found value in were everyday things that I linked, and then of course any and all party decor is always a hit (to be honest, those are my favorite links to see being clicked because it means you’re throwing a party!!! and if my party influences you to throw your own, that’s really one of the biggest joys for me!) I always say to people, party planning is my love language.

Something I’m not so pumped about? I started drinking coffee again and literally started just this last month because between holiday festivities, work, and planning my daughter’s birthday party- YOUR GIRL NEEDED SOME CAFFEINE! And after just starting this month, I can already tell the difference between having it and not having it, so my first resolution? Stop the coffee and get back to chai and matcha teas only!

Doing the mom friend thing- so I’m a proud anti-mom group type person lol, I just don’t like the premise of women getting together just because we happen to be moms? I don’t feel the need to subscribe to that sort of thing and trust me, my idea of a good time is not sitting around getting to know people and only talking about kid or baby things. That being said- this year, I’ve spent more time making plans and hanging out with other moms due to my daughters extra-curricular activities, and it’s come together completely organically and that’s been really nice. For example, I’m room mom for my daughter’s TK class and one of her closest friends in her class happens to be my co-room mom’s son, so we’ve had fun doing a few play dates with the kids and then just being able to text and talk about school activities has been nice. My daughter’s best friend in the whole world (other than me and her dad of course), her mom has become one of my really good friends over the past couple years and this year we actually did a lot of outings and activities together and I’m just so grateful to have grown a community in this way. Being team mom for my daughter’s soccer team was also so fun and communicating with the other moms for bringing snacks, planning pizza parties, etc was fun for me this year too!

This year I got to take my kids to see KEITH URBAN IN CONCERT (thanks to my hubby who completely surprised me and made it happen a little last minute!!) This has been a bucket list item for me ever since I first found out I was pregnant with my daughter (so 5 years coming!!)

Something not so great? I barely read ANYTHING this year. I only finished 2 books this year! My goal every year is to at least read 1 book every 2 months, so this year I’m going to get back on the horse! But yeah, reading took a major back seat for me this year.

Anyway, because this being my blog, I thought it helpful to share some of my highs and lows of 2025! Now let’s look forward and I’ll share some of my intentions for 2026.

(Notice I’m using the word intentions, after reading a book last year, I’ve changed the way I frame a lot of things in my mind, one of them being resolutions vs intentions.)

2026 Intentions

+ be more intentional with my time- ie reading vs scrolling (at night in particular), sometimes this is hard because most days- especially week days, by the time I’m in bed at night, it’s usually 930/10 pm and all I want to do is brain rot for a bit, but my plan is to at least read for 15 minutes before I cave!

+ be off my phone entirely by 10 pm (for the most part I’ve done this all year unless I have something to post by a deadline)

+ drink more water and take vitamins regularly : I don’t drink nearly enough water and I’m very aware of it. I have like 4 different huge Stanleys and never get halfway through it, it’s just hard when you’re out and about and when I’m busy at work- but I’m really going to try to be better this year! With the vitamins, I actually hate swallowing pills, so I bought a brand that I can actually pour the vitamin in my water and drink it- I’ll let you know how that goes!

+ keep up my exercise routine! This year in particular, since we finished our garage gym, I’ve really enjoyed the freedom and the me time I get while exercising. Most of the time, I go down into the gym after getting the kids down at night, throw on a podcast, and just have an hour to myself to unwind from the day. I’m not a morning person in the least, so Cara if you’re reading this, I’m not joining you for your 5 am pilates class anytime soon!

+ pick and stick to a scrapbooking date day/night : Carissa!!! We are setting the date this week!!!! I started a scrapbook for Avery, her first year in particular and got to about 9 months and then stopped completely. I want to finish it for her and then do one for Jaxson’s first year and then I want to continue it for every family vacation, starting with our Walt Disney World trip! I’m sucking Carissa into my intention on this one and we decided we’re going to do one day a month where we get together and our hubby’s can take the kids while we enjoy some time to ourselves!

+ update my gallery wall : Now that we did family photos this year, I want to get them printed and finally add pictures of Jaxson into my gallery wall in the living room and then the photos we have hanging up the staircase. This is something that is actually number one on my to-do list!

Anyway, that’s all I have for now! What are your intentions for 2026?

I’d love to hear them in the comments!