What a year it has been.

It’s hard to believe that the year 2026 is right around the corner, it feels like time has FLOWN by at lightning speed. I am hopeful for what 2026 has in store & I’m grateful for what 2025 has been.

My beautiful son, Jesse-Ray, will be turning TWO in January, and I could not be more proud of the little human that he has developed into. I could spend days writing about him, but that’s something I plan on doing in private and more-so dedicated TO him for him to read when he’s older. He has changed my entire life for the better. I feel like I have shed my skin and come out as an evolved being… NOTHING in my lifetime has ever felt more wholesome, rewarding or REAL to me than becoming and being a mother.

Becoming a mother has also, I believe, made me an even better partner/wife. I feel incredibly blessed and loved by my husband and having a child together and being parents, living life and making a household work together has been incredibly rewarding. I never thought I’d have a life like I have right now. Our home is cozy, our relationship is full of love, communication and support for each other. It just works. It feels like a “safe space”, this life feels full of purpose… and I think about those times when I couldn’t feel a sense of purpose and__ I’m so grateful.

My husband recently lost one of his best childhood friends to suicide. He left behind a 7 month pregnant wife, a brother and parents. It hit my husband pretty hard and it really hit home for me to see how upset he was for the wife his friend left behind and his unborn child. I didn’t even get the chance to meet his friend, but I thought about him for the rest of that day/night. If only he had held out just a little longer, if only he had met his child and seen his beautiful wife turn into a mother… if only. I remember being so low that I, too, could not muster the strength to move any further forward in life. I came extremely close to ending up like my husband’s friend. My heart breaks for him that he was there in that moment and could not make it one more. I’m not sure the exact feeling or emotion I feel when I catch myself in moments that I am in awe and simultaneously grateful for having made it one more moment. One thing it for certain, having been that low and experiencing the life I live now makes me cherish every single moment as if I were not meant to see them. Even through the thick of it. The days where I struggle to contain my negative emotions or feel overwhelmed or stressed out… I am grateful to feel at all.

So MANY amazing things have happened this year. Moments that have completed parts of a mental check-list that I have had forever. Meeting my sister-in-law for the first time, my son turning one, healing from the grief of losing my career, seeing my twin brother in person again after years, seeing him clean and sober AND him meeting my son for the first time… gah… THAT alone just fulfills an entire lifetime of wishes. My mother came all the way across the country to visit me in MY home for the first time EVER. She flew by herself and the time we spent together was so special and needed for the both of us. That was another major bucket list item. My husband has been out of the country for about 10 out of the 12 months this year… but I was able to spend time with his family and travel across the country with a friend of mine from bootcamp. I have had such a fulfilling year.

I want 2026 to be the year of simple living for us. Less is more. It feels so calm and slow to live that way and I truly enjoy it. It’s hard to predict certain things about what life will look like because of the military, but the only thing I can control is my attitude and how I spend my time each day. I no longer feel the need the prove myself well into the future or for people who have absolutely no real place in my life – and THAT is so freeing.

God bless 2025!