New Year’s Resolutions

I decided to take a new approach to New Year’s resolutions this year. As I’m learning more about myself—specifically my ADHD—I’m realizing that the traditional list of things I want to do or change doesn’t work for me. In fact, it often adds to the feeling of defeat when I realize that I haven’t made any progress or checked anything off my list six months into the year. I saw the bingo card trend and thought the idea was cool, but then realized it would pose the same issues, just in a different format. So, I sat down one day and created a Google Doc titled “2025 Brain Dump.” I typed out anything and everything I wanted to do, purchase, build, change, etc. The list included items as small as purging the kids’ clothes to family and financial goals. After spewing out every last thing I could think of, I called it a night. I highly recommend this for anyone who lays down at night and finds their brain running like a hamster on a wheel. Brain dumping is a great way to declutter your mind and ease some of the mental burden you’re carrying.

The next day, my husband and I sat down and looked over the list together. He added a few items, and we adjusted some others. Then we started highlighting based on the following categories:

• Family: Find a church we love and can get the kids involved in.
• Financial: Review and adjust our investments, if needed.
• Things that don’t require planning that we could complete in one evening or as we find some free time: Organizing the master closet and adding new categories to our budget.
• Things that require planning, whether financial or scheduling: Our 5th wedding anniversary trip and starting a garden.
• Habits we want to start: Publishing my blog and writing regularly—I’m off to a good start!
• Items we want to purchase: A vacuum sealer and grain mill.

Next, we separated the categories into their own lists and sorted them based on what we wanted to prioritize. I want to point out that the goal here is progress. We had many “big” projects listed, but the reality is we only have so much time and money in a given year. So, we sorted our lists knowing we might not get to everything (and that’s okay!). The cool thing about this method is it isn’t set in stone and can be adjusted as needed throughout the year. It was an incredibly helpful process to get all the tasks I wanted to accomplish out of my head, more organized, and easier to find a starting place.

Now to the fun stuff: the first project we’re starting is a big one—refencing the yard. This was at the top of our list for a few reasons. First, we have almost two acres in our current fenced-in “yard.” I love the instant gratification of lawn mowing as much as the next person, but that’s a lot of ground to cover. Second, my daughter got a pony for her second birthday, and we’re going to bring in one side of our fence to give her more space that isn’t near our entrance gate (she tried to make a break for it one day, but thankfully, she’s very food motivated and was easily coaxed back). Another reason is for our dogs: to keep ours in and random dogs that wander up out. Our typical five-strand barbed wire just isn’t cutting it anymore. Stay tuned for project updates as we get started!

The second project is the start of our little homestead—I want a garden. The kicker is I don’t want to go all out just yet. We need to complete the fence project so I have a better idea of where I want to place the garden in relation to the chicken coop I also want to build. The other problem is my thumb is anything but green. So, here’s where I need your help: please share all your beginner gardening tips! When I say all the tips, I mean it. Are there any products or supplies you recommend for starting seeds indoors while it’s cold? How about an idea for a temporary garden? Since we don’t know where our garden will be placed permanently, I don’t want to go through the process of building raised beds and then having to move them. I was thinking about trying tomatoes because I’ve heard they’re fairly easy, and we eat a lot of tomato products—my daughter’s favorite food is ketchup. My husband loves jalapeños, so those might be another option as well, but I’m open to anything. What should a beginning gardener start growing first? Are there any books, blogs, or websites you think I should follow that would be helpful? I’m super excited to hear your thoughts!