2026 goals

“To George Bailey, the richest man in the world!” This quote is how I intended to begin my 2025 Year in Review post, a staple of Em for Marvelous for over a decade. I’ve actually never missed recapping a year since I began, in 2012, the year John and I were married. But alas, here we are, and between Christmas magic, traveling to California to be with family, hosting family at our home, and weathering the flu, it simply did not happen.

No matter. The year itself happened, and I am grateful for it. I am rich in every measurement that matters — my faith, my family, my community, my health — and several more besides: my home, my work, my passions. I am so grateful for the opportunity to dream about a new year, to make a few plans for it, and to live them forward day by day. And even more, to hold fast to the Christian faith that promises that the fullest life is found when we lay down our own vision for our life and agree with God’s vision, which may look similar and may look wildly different. In that spirit, here are a few of my goals for 2026.

1. Speak words of affirmation over John and my children. The power of life and death is in the tongue; I have seen how everyone around me can bloom with loving words and wilt in their absence. This is a hard one to measure or track and I don’t really intend to; instead, I want to spend a few minutes brainstorming what messages feel most important to communicate to each of my children and write a little list somewhere I’ll see it every day. I know keeping it in sight will help it flow from desire to action.

2. Pray more often for the ones I love. Specifically, my first step will be to bring a simple notebook to small group each week and to write down prayer requests that are shared. In between, I’ll keep it on my bedside table to prompt me to spend a few minutes with it each evening before diving into my current book. I trust God will tell me where to head from there!

3. Deepen my knowledge of and love for God’s Word. No surprise — I’m a woman who loves a plan. Therefore, I plan to do the Bible Recap again alongside John, as well as listen to the weekly sermons, lectures, and messages Tim Mackie is rereleasing on his Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. I’ve listened to the first two so far and they have been as illuminating and encouraging as everything else he creates.

4. Celebrate June’s tenth birthday in a meaningful way. Our precious girl turns ten this month. This feels like a big milestone, and we want to mark it in a meaningful way. The current plan is for the three of us to spend 36-ish hours in Charlotte (the littles can stay with my sister, who lives nearby) having fun and lavishing her with love and encouragement. I am actively trying to quell my desires to go overboard and make this more complicated than it needs to be and praying we can strike the right balance of meaningful, celebratory, and doable.

5. Create our next five-year photo book. I’ve chosen to make five-year albums for our family photo memories, and we’re now ready for the next installment (2020-2024). Annie, especially, loves looking at these; she will be so excited to finally be in one! :)

6. Improve my bloodwork results. I’m sure you all are tired of hearing about last year’s less-than-ideal bloodwork results, but I’m trying to keep them top of mind :) This is an umbrella goal that will lump in several objectives, all pointed as seeing better results in June:

— Make brisk, 30-minute daily walks a habit year-round. I’ll tackle this in two ways: committing to when I’ll walk each day the night before, and posting up a yearlong tracker to see my adherence at a glance. I’d also like to take a 10-minute walk after each meal, whenever feasible. 

— Add jumping rope to my thrice-weekly strength training sessions — starting with just 30 seconds to one minute!

— Add a protein drink to my afternoon snack.

And likely more to come!

7. Invite others into our home. Our new home, with its bigger backyard, flat cul-de-sac, generous island, and third-floor playroom, is much better suited to welcoming in families. Plus, in just the few months we’ve been here, some of the happiest moments have been when we’ve had other people in it. Sunday nights seem to work well for us and others (it’s easier to match-up schedules since there don’t tend to be as many commitments), but I don’t feel the need to commit to a certain metric here. The five of us brainstormed a list of invitees, and we’ll just work our way through the list over the year. The kids also really want to host a backyard movie night at some point :)

8. Make our home our own — with a long-term mindset. I’m thankful to have shaken off my initial compulsion to make a million changes right away in our new home, but there are still plenty of things I’d like to do! While the list is long, I want to move through it slowly and thoughtfully, with the mindset of someone who plans to be here for many years: making choices that will serve our family well now and hopefully into the future. 

We have already paid the deposit to refresh our master bathroom and add built-ins around our fireplace. We have also purchased a few light fixtures that need to be installed, and we have art that needs to be hung. I’m not sure what else will be on the docket this year — possibly some kitchen tweaks (backsplash??), hopefully stools that are the right height for our kitchen island — but I feel relaxed and excited to stay attuned to what we need as we go.

9. Tend to clutter spots. Though we are now pretty well unpacked and settled in, there are a few spots where we just dumped items after the move and never returned to consider where they should go or what function the space should serve. I’ll make a list and address them one at a time, month by month. 

10. Celebrate milestones. Annie starts kindergarten and June begins her last year of elementary school in the fall. I want to honor both in thoughtful ways. 

Also adding here for posterity: buying new Warby Parker glasses and beginning the tradition of Jólabókaflóðið in December, once Annie can hopefully read :)

Finally, earlier this week, I shared five tech-related goals on The Connected Family:

1. FaceTime parents each Sunday.

2. Post on Instagram each Sunday.

3. Install a protective router.

4. Continue my in-school book club with June’s classmates and start one with Shep’s.

5. Abide by a new civil etiquette.

You can read more about each of those on The Connected Family (no paywall!).

Thank you, friends. Sharing my goals here, year after year and month after month, is quite possibly the most potent factor in any progress I’ve made, so thank you, as always, for being kind, listening ears! :)

On that note, I’ll be back with my January goals post and my 2026 book list over the next few weeks. Please feel free to join in on anything I’ve written here, or let me know if there’s one of my goals that you’d love to hear more about as the year goes on! OR, tell me what YOU have planned for 2026! Have you set goals yet? I’d love to cheer you on.